From a recent conversation with my mother:
Me: So [mutual acquaintance] is not gay?
Her: No, definitely not. [recites litany of straight credentials] ... He has some Texan mannerisms; I think that's what confuses some people.
Now, my gaydar's only medium-good, but I have spent some time around Texans, and I will say both that I have never confused Texan for gay before, and also, I don't know any other Texans who come across like this guy does. Except the gay one, kind of.
Hm.
Maybe she is thinking of the cowboy from the Village People.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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4 comments:
This is really funny, and as a former Texan living on the fringes of the South (Virginia), I feel qualified to speak to this.
In my broad but finite experience, I think that men in this middle geographical area between North and South, who also seem to be in the middle of the sexuality continuum, seem more likely to hold on to or cultivate their Southern accents. This opinion is based on a sample set of n=2 or 3. One of those was a possibly gay former boyfriend of mine from Virginia, whose accent was way stronger than his native environment would have taught him.
This phenomenon should not be confused with that of macho Texan men who glorify their Texan accents as a way of asserting their connection to the very masculine Texan way of life.
I love sociolinguistics.
So, I have two (close-ish) friends who are Texans. One is a friend from grad school who is originally from Houston and she's most definitely straight.
The other is my former roommate in Chicago who is an art director for retail cos. and is originally from Lubbock. My gaydar was always going off. Incessantly, in fact, though he said he was straight (and dated a good friend of mine). It still goes off, even when I simply think about him.
Maybe there is something to what your mom says.
I should say that this man is not in any way macho, nor does he have a discernibly Texan accent, but he has been living here in Yankeeland a long time. I had no idea he was Texan.
Maybe "Texan" is just a synonym for "different." In the parlance of Texans themselves, that is certainly what "Yankee" means (with a healthy dose of scorn).
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