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Over the last few days I've made a sort of interesting observation. I'm always hearing people talk about Gaydar (IE: The ability to spot other gay people at a distance) and I've always thought that it was really more of an assumption based on visual cues the person was putting out. Recently I've gathered a little more evidence to support this and now I find the interesting question I am asking is who many cues does it take for one to be convinced someone else is in their subculture.
I'm going to extrapolate from 'gaydar' to 'subculture sense'. Because Stacey wrecked the car, I've been bicycling to work. I wear predominately earthtnes and black and dress somewhat conservatively anyhow. Because it's cold and I'm bicycling, I've taken to wearing a headscarf under my bicycle helmet. It keeps my hair from getting tangled and keeps the wind out of my ears (I get bad earaches otherwise) So.. Unlike when I did this riding the motorcycle, I'm removing my helmet in a public space now and staying outside in the cold so I have not been taking off the scarf.
What makes this interesting is that I live in a neighborhood with a strong muslim presence. Combined with the other attributes of my dress, the scarf seems to make me ping on their radar. I've noticed lots more curious glances from middle-eastern men than ever in the past. there's a weird sort of non-verbal communication thing that happens with this. I feel them looking, I give a glance back to say 'I'm not' and it gets understood and they stop looking at me. This has happened about 8 times in 3 days so it's more than coincidence and really kind of fascinating. White people have not changed the amount they look at me. Much like gay subculture, the cues aren't relevant to another subculture so it doesn't garner any additional interest.
Of course, these are just my observations and I could be totally off-base but it is an interesting thing to speculate on. Next time I catch myself glancing at someone and wondering about them, I'll take a more in-depth look at what drew my attention to them.
-Sammi
I'm going to extrapolate from 'gaydar' to 'subculture sense'. Because Stacey wrecked the car, I've been bicycling to work. I wear predominately earthtnes and black and dress somewhat conservatively anyhow. Because it's cold and I'm bicycling, I've taken to wearing a headscarf under my bicycle helmet. It keeps my hair from getting tangled and keeps the wind out of my ears (I get bad earaches otherwise) So.. Unlike when I did this riding the motorcycle, I'm removing my helmet in a public space now and staying outside in the cold so I have not been taking off the scarf.
What makes this interesting is that I live in a neighborhood with a strong muslim presence. Combined with the other attributes of my dress, the scarf seems to make me ping on their radar. I've noticed lots more curious glances from middle-eastern men than ever in the past. there's a weird sort of non-verbal communication thing that happens with this. I feel them looking, I give a glance back to say 'I'm not' and it gets understood and they stop looking at me. This has happened about 8 times in 3 days so it's more than coincidence and really kind of fascinating. White people have not changed the amount they look at me. Much like gay subculture, the cues aren't relevant to another subculture so it doesn't garner any additional interest.
Of course, these are just my observations and I could be totally off-base but it is an interesting thing to speculate on. Next time I catch myself glancing at someone and wondering about them, I'll take a more in-depth look at what drew my attention to them.
-Sammi
