Which position do you identify as? How many of you have used the hanky code?

[ScaredAndShy]

I was curious to know if the bottoms out number the tops.  In the process of researching this, I found something called the hanky code, which I've never seen before.  You bet your ass I'm going to start using it.  I wonder how many of you use it.

[ScaredAndShy]

I appreciate everyone who voted, thank you.

[FelchingPisser]

I only use the hanky code at leather weekends such as CLAW, IML or MAL.  I have found many a urinal in the host hotels, flagging yellow on my left.  I think it works at the events because a large percentage of the guys still know it--I can't imagine it helping much walking around any major city anymore.

 

 

[JamesL100]

Being naked there aren't pockets! Probably more useful these days to use the activity colours for your socks, rubber tshirt, jockstrap, armband or trim on harness?

[SpectreAgent]

I voted rarely, only because I find so few guys seem to know about it. I wish more guys would use it as it makes life so much easier. It pays to advertise, as they used to say. Mind you, when I was coming out in the 80s (who am I kidding, I was never in!) there were also loads of other codes in the UK. Such as which hand you wore your wristwatch on, or only travelling in the last carriage of a Tube train on the Northern Line in London. Still, we now have the “gay Sainsbury’s” in Salford, so I guess some things never change...

[Loveitraw]

12 minutes ago, RawPlug said:

I voted rarely, only because I find so few guys seem to know about it. I wish more guys would use it as it makes life so much easier. It pays to advertise, as they used to say. Mind you, when I was coming out in the 80s (who am I kidding, I was never in!) there were also loads of other codes in the UK. Such as which hand you wore your wristwatch on, or only travelling in the last carriage of a Tube train on the Northern Line in London. Still, we now have the “gay Sainsbury’s” in Salford, so I guess some things never change...

I was still in school in the 80's, although there were definitely signs as to which way I was headed🤷‍♂️. I voted never(WTF) because, although I know about it, I have literally never seen it used.

I do remember the watch thing which made me chuckle because I always wear my watch on my right wrist. (I'm left handed BTW just to confuse things.)

[ErosWired]

Coded signalling for homosexuality originally came about in response to the harsh societal risk of being publicly identified as gay in prior decades. In modern times, the fact that you can be openly out in most places, and in some even wear apparel that advertises your position and preference makes coding less necessary, and therefore less likely to be universally understood. As a code becomes less universally understood, it becomes less and less useful, until it serves very little purpose outside of limited enclaves. I think this describes the Hanky Code. The Hanky Code also suffered from attempts to apply it to an long list of very specific position/preferences, to the point that the code began to assign values not just to colors but to hues of colors, or to different materials of the same color, to the point that confusion was likely. For instance, black (S&M Top)/black velvet(will video); bright yellow(watersports)/pale yellow(spitting). Imagine the surprise of the guy who considers pale yellow to be bright. The code also has come to include materials that handkerchiefs and bandanas aren’t made of (tweed, fur, mosquito netting) or aren’t hankies at all (celery, USB cord) - at which point anything could mean something, and it just gets ridiculous.

This list has 65 variants, and still isn’t a complete listing:

One of the ones not listed is Navy with White Polka Dots-Bareback Sex. I have only used the hanky code once, in that I went out and found some material in navy with white polka dots, and made some handkerchiefs to either sell or give away to Tops who fuck me spectacularly. Since I am almost always naked when I present myself to Tops, there’s no pocket, left or right, from which I could sport a hanky, but I have, on a couple of occasions, worn one of these as a bandana around my neck. No idea whether it made any difference.

[ErosWired]

30 minutes ago, RawPlug said:

Such as which hand you wore your wristwatch on,

Around here, there was at least at one time the notion that wearing an earring in only your right ear meant you were gay. I learned this shortly after getting a double piercing in my left ear. Well, fuck.

Maybe that’s why Tops don’t proposition me randomly on the street. Perhaps I should get my right ear pierced, and have an earring with a little sign that says PLEASE DISREGARD THE EARRINGS ON THE LEFT FOR PURPOSES OF FUCK TARGETING

(I pierced my left ear to signify something completely unrelated - a ring for each of my children. I never take them off except to swap out the hardware now and then.)

[BlackDude]

Man that list is a beast. I’m still going to try to remember my top 3. Haha

[SpectreAgent]

25 minutes ago, Loveitraw said:

I was still in school in the 80's, although there were definitely signs as to which way I was headed🤷‍♂️. I voted never(WTF) because, although I know about it, I have literally never seen it used.

I do remember the watch thing which made me chuckle because I always wear my watch on my right wrist. (I'm left handed BTW just to confuse things.)

The watch thing was weird because, as you point out, it really was influenced by whether you were right or left handed. Signet rings on the left of right little finger were signals, too. 
Mind you, to this day I only ever travel in the last carriage of a Northern Line tube train. It’s never got me a shag, though. I suspect its reputation came about because it’s the Tube route to Hampstead Heath...

[FelchingPisser]

17 minutes ago, ErosWired said:

Coded signalling for homosexuality originally came about in response to the harsh societal risk of being publicly identified as gay in prior decades. In modern times, the fact that you can be openly out in most places, and in some even wear apparel that advertises your position and preference makes coding less necessary, and therefore less likely to be universally understood. As a code becomes less universally understood, it becomes less and less useful, until it serves very little purpose outside of limited enclaves. I think this describes the Hanky Code. The Hanky Code also suffered from attempts to apply it to an long list of very specific position/preferences, to the point that the code began to assign values not just to colors but to hues of colors, or to different materials of the same color, to the point that confusion was likely. For instance, black (S&M Top)/black velvet(will video); bright yellow(watersports)/pale yellow(spitting). Imagine the surprise of the guy who considers pale yellow to be bright. The code also has come to include materials that handkerchiefs and bandanas aren’t made of (tweed, fur, mosquito netting) or aren’t hankies at all (celery, USB cord) - at which point anything could mean something, and it just gets ridiculous.

This list has 65 variants....

I would swear on a stack of In Touch magazines that the expanded code of more than 65 variants was merely the product of a group of drunk gay men sitting around one night, trying to out do each other...

[ErosWired]

2 hours ago, JamesL100 said:

jockstrap, armband or trim on harness?

^This is where the hanky code is most often employed in active use today, albeit in a limited form, most notably in jockstraps and harnesses. Yellow=Watersports is still very commonly understood.

[SpectreAgent]

Incidentally, I’ve always worn my locker key tab on my right wrist or ankle in saunas. That does seem more effective...

[FelchingPisser]

5 minutes ago, ErosWired said:

^This is where the hanky code is most often employed in active use today, albeit in a limited form, most notably in jockstraps and harnesses. Yellow=Watersports is still very commonly understood.

Absolutely. 

Though my gay brother working in a gay retail store had great stories of customers coming in and buying everything leather trimmed in red (fisting) who had no idea....but liked the color because it was "pretty."

Edited March 15, 2021 by FelchingPisser
typo

[ErosWired]

3 hours ago, FelchingPisser said:

Absolutely. 

Though my gay brother working in a gay retail store had great stories of customers coming in and buying everything leather trimmed in red (fisting) who had no idea....but liked the color because it was "pretty."

And the trouble with that, of course, is that it dilutes the effectiveness of the code. If you have five guys in a room with red-trimmed harnesses and four of them just bought them for style because they like red or thought it would get them noticed (yeah, line up with the other four) Mr. Fisting Dom can no longer rely on the color to help him find a seasoned hole. Trendy people always spoil things for everyone, don’t they?

The other problem is when you have a group that comes along and insists that since they learned a different meaning for the color the local use is wrong. Unfortunately, there’s no central authority one can turn to to settle such disputes. There’s naked wrestling, though. There’s always that...