How is Bowie's sexuality debated? He said he was bi? I feel like this is the Bowie meme with the interviewer says "you've been asked if you're bisexual" and Bowie says "yes too many times" and the interviewer says "and you've never really answered it" and Bowie replies "oh I have. I'm said I'm bisexual. That's enough"
Yep, that's definitely *the Bowie meme*, as you correctly put it, particularly through the 70s when interviewers tried to pin him down with one label or another. There are numerous recorded incidences of Bowie claiming to be gay or bi. He also said, "I was always a closet heterosexual." Bowie was very clear that he had no intention of being labelled, confined, pinned down, or restricted in any way. He enjoyed confounding expectations and took particular delight in unsettling the narrow-minded. Below is the transcript of an interview, which iirc, was just after the release of the 'Boys Keep Swinging' video - worth watching (plus context). Interviewer: "You sing a lot about transvestites and sadomasochism, how would you describe yourself in light of these songs?" David Bowie: "What does that have to do with me?" I: "Could I put it bluntly, and pardon the question, but are you a transvestite or a homosexual?" DB: "Sometimes." I: "Which one?" DB: "I dunno? What's the difference?" Also DB: " “I usually don’t agree with what I say very much. I’m an awful liar”, [Bowie] claimed in 2002, while summarising his many changes in style." ¹ Imo the only label that one can confidently pin on Bowie is 'genius'. 1. David Bowie: Verbatim. BBC, 2016 PS [edit] It's also well worth listening to 'Queen Bitch' 1971, released on Hunky Dory, which tells an interesting tale scattered with gay slang. 'Girl Loves Me' (Blackstar 2016) as well as being partly in Polari is slso part 'Nadsat' - the fictional slang used by Alex & his gang in Anthony Burgess's Clockwork Orange (1962).
He was Bowie. Who wouldn't. Plus the 60s and 70s were the best of times and the worst of times war assinations of mom Vietnam Kennedy's the troubles it was a time of experimental with drugs music religious and musical styles. Throw that together you get a groovy kind of love.
Bowie constantly experimented with musical styles and reinventented himself constantly he is the most inbbotuvate artist. I'm gonna go watch Velvet gold mine
@@pringlebatch5586 As in the handheld ones you might use to cool yourself down - different gestures had completely different meanings, and it could be fairly nuanced iirc. That and flower language are some of my favourites :)
Betty Bracelets, Hilda Handcuffs, Lily Law, and Jennifer Justice sound like a gay, crime fighting team from 1950s. I would pay money to read that comic/novel.
Not forgetting the Polari-speaking DC comics character Danny the Street, a literal sentient gay neighbourhood that rescues outsiders, named after British drag icon Danny la Rue. Baffling but brilliant.
as a queer sociology major that's also planning on minoring in linguistics, thank you for introducing me to a language i've never heard of. and as an ADHDer, thank you for giving me my next hyperfixation.
My sister was gay and this video reminded me of the shorthand way that she, her girlfriend and their friends would speak among themselves (I don't remember words, I just remember it was a different kind of speaking). And how they spoke to each other (another kind of coded language for protection) when non-gays were around. It was when I was a kid in the 70's (I stayed with her a lot). Wow, I hadn't thought about that in years.
Here in the Philippines 🇵🇭 gay language is called “Bekimon” or “Beki language”. It’s so extensively used that some words have penetrated everyday language like “char” or “charot” which means that the speaker is joking.
My people speak a faerie cant, so I have sat with a friend in a sauna with straight men and talked about cruising, dating, boys and life and no one could actually understand a word of our incredibly graphic conversation. It was hilarious.
Me, a Brazilian gay: *surprised pikachu face* To be fair I don't hang out with other brazilians much lmao but this is totally news to me, I'll def have to look into it
I attended an all girls school in the mid to late nineties. The concept there of being anything other than heterosexual was unthinkable. I think it would have been nice for us that weren't to have known a secret language to keep ourselves and each other safe!
Judging only by my 90s all girl school all you had to do was hold you friends hand. Honestly about 30% of us identify as lesbian/bi/pan or trans/non-binary. The hilarity of my dad demanding no boyfriends and me (bi) going to that school!
"You've been asked the question whether you're bisexual or not." "Yes, too many times." "Yes, and you've never quite answered it." "Oh, I have. I said I am bisexual. That's enough." "Hm, does that mean though that you really are? Or does that mean that you're keeping something-" "I've answered the question." Bi erasure has been around forever, folks!
Ppl still don't understand bisexuality and it sucks. I once saw this interview with Lady Gaga where the interviewer was like, and this is paraphrase but, "So Poker Face is about your bisexuality. How do you deal with that, like how do you deal with that?" like what kind of fucking question is that?? ""how do you deal with that""? I think she answered like, "I deal with it just fine." but what kind of question....?? Mind, this was only maybe 10 years ago. People are either erasing bisexuals or asking them about sex.
This is so cool! I am a black latina from the Caribbean. My native language also started like that. It is now one of the last slave language still in exestance. Its called Papiamentu, what literally means "talking" lol. Slaves could talk with one another without the master and overseers understanding Them. And because slaves came from all over, the language is made of different parts of other languages, like dutch, english, Portugese, spanish, african, french etc
@@acookie7548 that is cool indeed but that does not apply to our language. I did asked my parents. My mom said its a language on its own. and my stepdad is hattian and said that his language is the creole one. Btw surinam is a creole too said my dad, called taki taki :D
Omg so happy to see a video about Polari! You should make a video on Hijra Farsi, it's a LGBTQ language as well spoken in India :) And Lubunca was spoken by the LGBTQ community in Turkey
@@Cat_tiee I heard about it thanks to the channel Linguisticae, which is a French channel about linguistics :) The video is in French but has English subtitles ^_^ It was a secret language spoken mainly by intersex and transgender people, as well as homosexual men. Unfortunately it is not well documented because the language is meant to be secret (and was erased a lot because of colonialism...), but Linguisticae's video about it is very interesting
Drag queens Courtney Act and Vanity Fair share a polari word of the week every week on their podcast Brenda Call Me. Courtney also said 'Bona ta vada your dolly old ecafs' when broadcasting live from Sydney Mardi Gras.
modern polari. "she said she's blaring girl in red but I think she cuffs her jeans" "I ain't straight but my gay ain't super, so I'll take his customizable options any day" "coming out of the closet is easy, coming out of the deck takes 3hrs and a powerpoint presentation." etc.
a cis het would understand none of this conversation: "do you listen to girl in red" "I would but I've got he/him on my DL insta bio" "so it's ed sheeran for you?" "sweater weather but I've got an ace up my sleeve."
@@kimberlybega8271 a translation if you want in on the new secret: "are you a lesbian?" "I'm attracted to women, but I'm actually a closeted trans man" "so you're straight?" "biromantic asexual". the ones in the main comment are "she says she's a lesbian but I think she's bi" "I'm gay but not transphobic so I'd be down to f%@# that trans man any day" "coming out as gay these days is easy, but coming out as asexual takes too much explaining"
As a Turkish, we had a slang language called "lubunca" which is spoken by LGBTQ+ people. It's not a proper language but they changed so many words related with LGBTQ+ things to protect themselves from homophobics. If I'm not wrong, transvestite people used it first but now it spreaded between all LGBTQ+ people. ✨
Truly had never heard of Polari before - which is odd, since I'm an LGBT opera human and therefore have a particular interest in how humans communicate as part of my job. This is FASCINATING - thank you for making this!
I just watched Velvet Goldmine which is about the glam rock scene of the early 70s and loosely based around David Bowie, and there’s a short scene of two characters speaking Polari! I got kinda excited and searched it up on youtube and lo and behold one of my favourite youtubers made a video on it! This was incredibly fascinating and I really appreciate all the effort and research you put into it!
Aw, I got a State Farm insurance ad about LGBTQ+ allyship since their slogan is “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there” and being a good neighbor is being an ally!
It’s fascinating that we’re seeing a resurgence of this in meme culture, with thinks like “I like your shoelaces” “do you listen to girl in read” “I like your style” etc. Hearing about this was really fascinating, since I feel like so many queer people today use terminology to signal their queerness to others in the community!
Dyslexic here: Once I got "stuck" at a bank because I kept reading the sign to push that was actually written outside but my brain kept reading without a problem and couldn't understand why it wouldn't open until someone came and pulled it 🤦🏻♀️
I’m currently reading “The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister” and in the Acknowledgments & Intro they go into her use of code or “crypthand” as Anne called it. She used it to document her most intimate moments with her many interests & conquests. It all makes me want to study linguistics *queue My Fair Lady overture*💕 much love dearies
we have our own island country EDIT: i just found out that we don't anymore. the "gay and lesbian kingdom of the coral sea islands" was sadly dissolved in 2017.
Other dyslexic here. I'm okay with reading backwards, but what I'm really super good at is reading upside down. No problem trying to read that way at all, or at least not more problems than reading right side up xD
Interesting video! Elton John mentions Polari in his autobiography, I had to look up what it meant, so it's nice to hear a little more background on it.
I remember during the AIDS epidemic and the Clause 28 nonsense of the late 80s there being a bit of a revival of Polari in the LGBTQ+ community due to the increasing level of hatred. I learned enough of it not to look too gauche and I think I will be picking up at least one of those books :D
Hey Jessica. So Drag actually came from Shakespeare. Because at that time Women were not allowed on stage to preform if there was a female character, for the actors playing the role, there would be D.R.A.G in front of the character to mean Dressed Required As Girl. Just thought you would like to know!
Ah-ha! I've always wondered why the word 'drag' came to be associated with men dressed as women and suspected that it had something to do with Shakespeare. Thanks!
Do you have any references for the Shakespeare connection pls? Genuinely curious as to where this originated - I did some research into drag some years ago but didn't find any links to a Shakespearean acronym. AFAIK 'Drag' more likely originated from 19th century theatre slang, possibly from long skirts trailing, dragging, along the stage. Possibly derived from Yiddish 'trogn' &/or German 'tragen', both meaning 'to wear'. The first print record seems to have been 1870, in UK-based Reynold's Weekly Newspaper according to Farmer & Henley 1891¹. Given the context of 'drag' in the quote (below) it could well have been associated with Polari-speakers " Drag ... 5. (general). -Feminine attire worn by men. To GO ON, or FLASH THE DRAG = to wear women's attire for immoral purposes 1870, Reynold's, 29 May, 'Police Proceedings,' He afterwards said, that instead of having a musical party he thought he would make a little fancy dress affair and said, We shall come in drag which means men wearing women's costumes " Farmer, J S & Henley, W E 1891 "Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present" Vol 2 p321
@@stellalunabatI've always been taught that, and also taught that the term drag came from the original drag queens wearing long gowns that "dragged" across the floor.
Also not dyslexic just a lefty and apparently it's also quite common for kids who are leftys to start out writing backwards. I never did that but for whatever reason can easily write backwards anyway.
As a fluent dixlixic, Yes reading things backwards is easy. Which is why I've always argued Da' Vinci was fluent in it as well. Have you seen his journals? And Wednesday is why we invented spell check lol.
Such a good video of an important topic and find you can't discuss Polari in the UK without discussing Julian and Sandy on Round the Horne. At the end of Round the Horne series 4 they have a "Bona Featurette" on Julian and Sandy which may be of interest to people who enjoyed the topic of this video.
Absolutely delightful! I'm an old Hard of Hearing man (Deafish). I'm bisexual. Four decades ago I was freshly dealing with my declining hearing and learning ASL. With friends I went to many social events and settings where sign language was used. In the early 1980s in Seattle there was a bar called Tex's Tavern. For a while on Friday nights it was one of those settings. My first time there as I sat at the counter, a Deaf man, George, came up and sat beside me. He signed, "You (G kind of pinching the chin)?" I was clueless. Still being new to ASL, I figured it was my newness. Plus I was anxious, being a newbie. But he explained it to me. Gay was the code he was signing. It has since entered the ASL mainstream but back then it was code.
Dear Jessica, I’m also a bit dyslexic but my special rather useless skills include reading mirror writing (handy!) and I can also read quickly and accurately writing that is upside down. When they fill in forms about my disabilities for me, I stop them and correct them. With love to you and your beautiful family, from Jessica in Australia.
Polari was mentioned in my English language class last academic year and even suggested as a subject we could do for our individual research project!! I’d never heard of it before then and I find it so fascinating
I am Italian, I've attented General Linguistics classes in University, I love the subject and I didn't know anything about "Polari"! Thank you, Jessica, for bringing up such fascinating, educational content! 💜💜💜
Big fan of Round the Horne and Beyond our Ken. BBC did an audio documentary about "Polari in Round the Horne" a few years ago (where few = up to 20 years? I don't remember). Its a fascinating topic.
And earings too. If a guy had a pierced left ear = gay, right ear= straight, both=bi. Then I went to England and it was backwards so.....yep that was the 80's.
In my late teens, I listened to a lot of BBC Radio 4 Extra (at the time called BBC 7). It had loads of repeats of stuff from the seventies. That introduced me to Julian and Sandy, and I loved them. They were always out-of-work actors with a different job each week. I remember the time that they were lawyers. "We have a criminal practice that takes up most of our time."
Round the Horne was how I first came to know about Polari. It's insane what they would get away with at a Sunday lunchtime. Honestly it's still pretty hilarious.
What an interesting video! Being Italian myself I found it very informative, as I had no idea about the existance of this. One small correction though: to speak in Italian is actually "paRlare" 😉
@@Alice-ru6lb Oh yeah she totally did! Besides, being married to an American I am quite used to hear Italian spoken with peculiar sounds, which, by the way, I think is extremely cute!
Thank you so much for this video! Gender and sexuality have been special interests of mine since I was old enough to understand the concepts, but because I was born in '83, Polari was already mostly dead before I started researching sexual identities. I might never have known about it if not for you!
The BBC was so straight laced I wonder if they knew that gay people used Polari as code for sexual fun? Or if they Just knew actors, sailors and travellers used it...
I'm dyslexic and I can't read things backwards but I can read upside down just as easily as normal. Means I end up unintentionally reading other people texts
As for pirates, check out Black Sails. Don't want to say much but it's honestly an excellent show. Rowan Ellis did a video about it, check it out but for the fullest experience watch it without any spoilers. Mind, the first season is a bit rough in pieces. Just remember it was produced when Game of Thrones was huge. So there was some attempt to emulate a little bit however they dropped any attempt at that after the first season. Massive improvement.
before even starting this video: as a linguistics major, in my world englishes class this semester we each had to adopt a variety and one of my classmates chose polari! it was super interesting to listen to and learn about, anti-languages are so fascinating!!
Lol, I'm one of the dyslexics that was able to read that. Ironically, in my high school German class, I was only successful with it when written backward. I have no idea how I passed that class.
ooh, this reminds me of conversations about black gay slang being appropriated by white gay men in the US, and how that really took off after Ru Paul's Drag Race got really popular. Because before the show (and well into the 1990's), white gay culture and Black/POC gay culture were verrrrry separated in the US.
Not a code language but a way of subtly flagging: us ace and aro folks have certain rings we wear so we can spot each other out in the wild! Aromantic folks wear a white ring on the left middle finger and asexual folks wear a black ring on the right middle finger. :)
AHHHHH my question made it into a video! I am more exited than I should be probably 😂 Glad I could introduce you to a cool new thing! Also, great video as always, I had never heard of Polari until now 🖤
I dont know about Duolingo but memrise (which is a similar language app) has a course on Polari. I think its community made not actually made by memrise but its still got quite a lot in it - app.memrise.com/course/98766/polari/ . Also this ( th-cam.com/video/Y8yEH8TZUsk/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=BrianandKarl ) is a video made of a scene of two men talking in polari if anyone is interested in seeing what it sounds like. Its quite fun to listen to and see how much you can understand. I've also seen it referenced as what english sounds like to people who have a different first language
Seriously this was like a long version of a TED talk. I was hanging on each word reading your, lovely, lips whilst admiring your articulation. I even sighed in relief knowing I could use the word whilst here. Thank you for providing such a wonderful respite and refreshing breath of life into my tired sails. ♡
I am reminded of leet, though hacking and computer espionage make more sense as illegal things. But it's another intentional way of bypassing recognition, that has since been mainstreamed to some extent.
Thank you for making videos like this, I learn so much from you, and am now going to relisten to David Bowie's music and get translations as last time I listened it didn't make a whole lot of sense and now I know why.
Girl loves me is a mix of Polari and Nadsat (the language spoken in a clockwork orange), and has tons of references to literature that we probably haven’t all found yet. Have fun decyphering the song! Forever grateful for David for giving us some things to work out after he left ❤️ ‘I can’t give everything away’... ⚡️
The Greek equivalent was Kaliarda (the stress is on the last syllable). It too has declined in recent years, but many Kaliarda terms have made their way into everyday speech (and I would bet most people are unaware that those terms originated from Kaliarda in the first place).
Hi Jessica I’ve always been interested in palari and that interest brought me to your fantabulous channel! I’m so glad, the video is fab, as are you. I will be most certainly be back💚
The garden is really coming together! I just remember not long after you moved, the video where Claudia had a grumpy day and decided she wanted to dig a hole, it was so bare back then. Lovely!
That's what my first thought was... The Piccadilly Palare Was just silly slang Between me and the boys in my gang "So bona to vada, oh you Your lovely eek and Your lovely riah"
Im autistic and have a special interest in linguistics... Im simultaneously mad that this is so similar to english in some respects (grammatically, it would seem from the video) and eager to learn as much as possible.... Time to hyperfixate!!
I've never considered myself dyslexic, but I was able to read "are you enjoying this video" backwards with ease. Maybe I have a touch of dyslexia. Thank you for this important LGBTQ history lesson!
there's a short film in polari called "putting on the dish"! it's on youtube, i found it and this video really interesting! ever since i learned about polari i've thought how much i'd love to be able to speak it lol
@@arthiarun8923 in a world before white boards projectors would lead to upside down, backwards words, and notes like that would’ve been for the benefit of the teacher, and may give up the solution so perhaps that’s why? Just speculation on that last bit.
I'm glad I went to the comments. In Perú we have Lóxoro, which is taking every syllabe of a word and adding the x consonant to the syllabe's vowel and doing the same with the r consonant: so Perú would be Pexererúxuru. Which makes me sad is that I had not heard about Lubunca, Bekimon or Pajubá, I am making sure to later research them. Thank you to the commenters who mentioned them. For me this is also proof that there is knowledge which is spread more than others, and i mean it's kinda obvious why, even among marginalised communities we experience the effects of hegemonic inequalities due to colonialism
5:42 - 😂 lol "needing to spell Wednesday, no Jessica we'll bin that..." I struggle with which way E and L go in words like label and table (thanks spell check) but reading backwards and reading words with letters missing and filling in the gaps, makes so much sense! 💜📚
The garden is so lovely! Thank you for making the polari something that has in every language...via comments and understanding that in my cultures is a reality that I didn’t even notice hahaha
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Jessica: someone write an essay paper.
Me an almost linguist in search for a thesis topic: DON'T MIND ME IF I DO
Ooh!! That would be awesome! Publish it sometime, I'd love to read it
Yes please do
Awesome 👍😎
I would love to read that 😍
Ok if you do, please, PLEASE publish it
How is Bowie's sexuality debated? He said he was bi? I feel like this is the Bowie meme with the interviewer says "you've been asked if you're bisexual" and Bowie says "yes too many times" and the interviewer says "and you've never really answered it" and Bowie replies "oh I have. I'm said I'm bisexual. That's enough"
FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT!!! Bowie is one of the biggest bicons in history and no one can take this from us
Yes absolutely, there’s no debate here he was very clear about it !
Yep, that's definitely *the Bowie meme*, as you correctly put it, particularly through the 70s when interviewers tried to pin him down with one label or another.
There are numerous recorded incidences of Bowie claiming to be gay or bi. He also said, "I was always a closet heterosexual."
Bowie was very clear that he had no intention of being labelled, confined, pinned down, or restricted in any way. He enjoyed confounding expectations and took particular delight in unsettling the narrow-minded.
Below is the transcript of an interview, which iirc, was just after the release of the 'Boys Keep Swinging' video - worth watching (plus context).
Interviewer: "You sing a lot about transvestites and sadomasochism, how would you describe yourself in light of these songs?"
David Bowie: "What does that have to do with me?"
I: "Could I put it bluntly, and pardon the question, but are you a transvestite or a homosexual?"
DB: "Sometimes."
I: "Which one?"
DB: "I dunno? What's the difference?"
Also DB:
" “I usually don’t agree with what I say very much. I’m an awful liar”, [Bowie] claimed in 2002, while summarising his many changes in style." ¹
Imo the only label that one can confidently pin on Bowie is 'genius'.
1. David Bowie: Verbatim. BBC, 2016
PS [edit]
It's also well worth listening to 'Queen Bitch' 1971, released on Hunky Dory, which tells an interesting tale scattered with gay slang.
'Girl Loves Me' (Blackstar 2016) as well as being partly in Polari is slso part 'Nadsat' - the fictional slang used by Alex & his gang in Anthony Burgess's Clockwork Orange (1962).
He was Bowie. Who wouldn't. Plus the 60s and 70s were the best of times and the worst of times war assinations of mom Vietnam Kennedy's the troubles it was a time of experimental with drugs music religious and musical styles. Throw that together you get a groovy kind of love.
Bowie constantly experimented with musical styles and reinventented himself constantly he is the most inbbotuvate artist. I'm gonna go watch Velvet gold mine
Polari walked so “do you listen to girl in red” “sweater weather” and “I like your style” could run
Wouldn't it technically be a modern version of it?
@@maggiethedruid9010 probably not because Polari has a lot more to it and it's more complex
Yup
I don’t have a tiktok and someone asked me this, a gay, and I was like no what is that and Months later I saw the meme and was like OH
What does “I like your style” mean?:))) I literally say it to anyoneeee
This is reminding me of how Victorian women developed a sign language with their fans because they couldn’t speak freely in public.
What is fans in this context?
@@pringlebatch5586 As in the handheld ones you might use to cool yourself down - different gestures had completely different meanings, and it could be fairly nuanced iirc.
That and flower language are some of my favourites :)
Betty Bracelets, Hilda Handcuffs, Lily Law, and Jennifer Justice sound like a gay, crime fighting team from 1950s. I would pay money to read that comic/novel.
Or a burlesque group!! Lol!
I love this idea
I’d pay a monthly subscription to read it!
Here in the Philippines the community of gay men has a form of their own language! It's fascinating 🇵🇭🏳️🌈
Yeah! Its called 'swardspeak' apparently. But im sure most people just call it gay lingo.
How does it go?
Haha YES MGA BESHIEEEE
@@oopish its like slanging every Filipino word really cool haha
@@oopish It mixes English, Filipino, and Spanish. It includes many other elements th-cam.com/video/MCOP5dOLN9g/w-d-xo.html
Not forgetting the Polari-speaking DC comics character Danny the Street, a literal sentient gay neighbourhood that rescues outsiders, named after British drag icon Danny la Rue. Baffling but brilliant.
Thank you for introducing this to me! That is Wild
I had no idea Danny spoke Polari!
That’s how I learned about it!
This is wild. I guess now I need to read/watch Doom Patrol??
I LOVE DANNY THE STREET!!💖
as a queer sociology major that's also planning on minoring in linguistics, thank you for introducing me to a language i've never heard of. and as an ADHDer, thank you for giving me my next hyperfixation.
My sister was gay and this video reminded me of the shorthand way that she, her girlfriend and their friends would speak among themselves (I don't remember words, I just remember it was a different kind of speaking). And how they spoke to each other (another kind of coded language for protection) when non-gays were around. It was when I was a kid in the 70's (I stayed with her a lot). Wow, I hadn't thought about that in years.
that is so cool! sad how they had to speak in code, of course, but cool how they got around it
Here in the Philippines 🇵🇭 gay language is called “Bekimon” or “Beki language”. It’s so extensively used that some words have penetrated everyday language like “char” or “charot” which means that the speaker is joking.
penetrated
HA
My people speak a faerie cant, so I have sat with a friend in a sauna with straight men and talked about cruising, dating, boys and life and no one could actually understand a word of our incredibly graphic conversation. It was hilarious.
What does "speak a faerie cant" mean
Here in Brazil we also have a gay language!! It's called ✨ pajubá ✨🇧🇷
Me, a Brazilian gay: *surprised pikachu face*
To be fair I don't hang out with other brazilians much lmao but this is totally news to me, I'll def have to look into it
Woaaah i wanna learn that!!
@@phoenix_hall en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pajub%C3%A1 here's the wikipedia page for it
Well, that's kinda cool
ia comentar isso, que bom que alguém comentou ❤️🌈
“My brother and I only speak dyslexic” I’m dead. If that ain’t my life XD
I attended an all girls school in the mid to late nineties. The concept there of being anything other than heterosexual was unthinkable. I think it would have been nice for us that weren't to have known a secret language to keep ourselves and each other safe!
private/single sex schools actually have a history of secret languages in the UK, pig latin being one of the more famous.
Judging only by my 90s all girl school all you had to do was hold you friends hand. Honestly about 30% of us identify as lesbian/bi/pan or trans/non-binary. The hilarity of my dad demanding no boyfriends and me (bi) going to that school!
I wonder what the Polari translation is for "pretty lesbians surrounding their baby with plants"?
dolly palone con her beju feele plants
Delighted. Thank you!
Dolly palone omi con her bijou lullaby cheat with plantettes.
David Bowie was bi, said so many times, nothing to debate here ❤️⚡️much love to my fellow bowielings in the comment section x
There's a clip of Bowie in an interview being asked what he meant by saying he's bisexual.
"You've been asked the question whether you're bisexual or not."
"Yes, too many times."
"Yes, and you've never quite answered it."
"Oh, I have. I said I am bisexual. That's enough."
"Hm, does that mean though that you really are? Or does that mean that you're keeping something-"
"I've answered the question."
Bi erasure has been around forever, folks!
@@jasper3706 It means one likes both men and women. Now, that wasn't so hard, was it? lol
@@jasper3706 cheers. I couldn't remember the exact phrasing
Ppl still don't understand bisexuality and it sucks. I once saw this interview with Lady Gaga where the interviewer was like, and this is paraphrase but, "So Poker Face is about your bisexuality. How do you deal with that, like how do you deal with that?" like what kind of fucking question is that?? ""how do you deal with that""? I think she answered like, "I deal with it just fine." but what kind of question....?? Mind, this was only maybe 10 years ago. People are either erasing bisexuals or asking them about sex.
@@johndododoe1411 What part was political? I don’t see that anywhere
Jessica: Remember what I said 'dish' means?
Me: -awkwardly realizes I have already forgot despite learning it minutes before-
This is so cool! I am a black latina from the Caribbean. My native language also started like that. It is now one of the last slave language still in exestance. Its called Papiamentu, what literally means "talking" lol. Slaves could talk with one another without the master and overseers understanding Them. And because slaves came from all over, the language is made of different parts of other languages, like dutch, english, Portugese, spanish, african, french etc
holy heck that sounds really cool
@@eggboy6926 :D
i think that’s called a creole! that’s so cool!
@@acookie7548 that is cool indeed but that does not apply to our language. I did asked my parents. My mom said its a language on its own. and my stepdad is hattian and said that his language is the creole one. Btw surinam is a creole too said my dad, called taki taki :D
@@lilumartini that’s cool to hear! thanks for asking :D
Omg so happy to see a video about Polari!
You should make a video on Hijra Farsi, it's a LGBTQ language as well spoken in India :) And Lubunca was spoken by the LGBTQ community in Turkey
My goodness I had no idea 😳 enlighten me please!
Ps- I'm Indian :|
@@Cat_tiee I heard about it thanks to the channel Linguisticae, which is a French channel about linguistics :)
The video is in French but has English subtitles ^_^
It was a secret language spoken mainly by intersex and transgender people, as well as homosexual men. Unfortunately it is not well documented because the language is meant to be secret (and was erased a lot because of colonialism...), but Linguisticae's video about it is very interesting
@@aikya5684 omg I'll definitely search about it!
Drag queens Courtney Act and Vanity Fair share a polari word of the week every week on their podcast Brenda Call Me. Courtney also said 'Bona ta vada your dolly old ecafs' when broadcasting live from Sydney Mardi Gras.
modern polari. "she said she's blaring girl in red but I think she cuffs her jeans" "I ain't straight but my gay ain't super, so I'll take his customizable options any day" "coming out of the closet is easy, coming out of the deck takes 3hrs and a powerpoint presentation." etc.
a cis het would understand none of this conversation: "do you listen to girl in red" "I would but I've got he/him on my DL insta bio" "so it's ed sheeran for you?" "sweater weather but I've got an ace up my sleeve."
Yess! I love seeing it written out like this
@@dannydunn79 Cishet here and can confirm I am totally lost even though I am a native speaker of English. 🙂
I'm a lesbian and still don't know what's going on 🤣
@@kimberlybega8271 a translation if you want in on the new secret: "are you a lesbian?" "I'm attracted to women, but I'm actually a closeted trans man" "so you're straight?" "biromantic asexual". the ones in the main comment are "she says she's a lesbian but I think she's bi" "I'm gay but not transphobic so I'd be down to f%@# that trans man any day" "coming out as gay these days is easy, but coming out as asexual takes too much explaining"
As a Turkish, we had a slang language called "lubunca" which is spoken by LGBTQ+ people. It's not a proper language but they changed so many words related with LGBTQ+ things to protect themselves from homophobics. If I'm not wrong, transvestite people used it first but now it spreaded between all LGBTQ+ people. ✨
As a non turkish who likes to travel there, I need to learn that:)))
Do you still need to use the language?
@@theotter7021 no, not really. it's kind of a culture now.
Wait I didn't know that this is amazing
Truly had never heard of Polari before - which is odd, since I'm an LGBT opera human and therefore have a particular interest in how humans communicate as part of my job. This is FASCINATING - thank you for making this!
Robin Hahn in the chat! 😊🙌🏽🙌🏽
@@kagitsune Fancy seeing you here! XD
me too haha
I just watched Velvet Goldmine which is about the glam rock scene of the early 70s and loosely based around David Bowie, and there’s a short scene of two characters speaking Polari! I got kinda excited and searched it up on youtube and lo and behold one of my favourite youtubers made a video on it! This was incredibly fascinating and I really appreciate all the effort and research you put into it!
Aw, I got a State Farm insurance ad about LGBTQ+ allyship since their slogan is “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there” and being a good neighbor is being an ally!
i've been getting a lot of those recently! they warm my heart
I do like those
Also: that slogan and melody was written by Barry Manilow, who's quite out and proud.
It’s fascinating that we’re seeing a resurgence of this in meme culture, with thinks like “I like your shoelaces” “do you listen to girl in read” “I like your style” etc. Hearing about this was really fascinating, since I feel like so many queer people today use terminology to signal their queerness to others in the community!
Absolutely!
Dyslexic here: Once I got "stuck" at a bank because I kept reading the sign to push that was actually written outside but my brain kept reading without a problem and couldn't understand why it wouldn't open until someone came and pulled it 🤦🏻♀️
Every time Jessica gives us an educational video I feel as if I just got a college lecture.
As a linguistics loving lesbian, I absolutely love this. Thank you!
I’m currently reading “The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister” and in the Acknowledgments & Intro they go into her use of code or “crypthand” as Anne called it. She used it to document her most intimate moments with her many interests & conquests. It all makes me want to study linguistics *queue My Fair Lady overture*💕 much love dearies
So we have a flag, a language and a culture. So when do we get our own island country 😭
we have our own island country
EDIT: i just found out that we don't anymore. the "gay and lesbian kingdom of the coral sea islands" was sadly dissolved in 2017.
@@timecrayon thats so sad
Other dyslexic here. I'm okay with reading backwards, but what I'm really super good at is reading upside down. No problem trying to read that way at all, or at least not more problems than reading right side up xD
˙suoᴉʇɔunɟ ʎʇᴉlᴉqɐsᴉp ɹnoʎ ʍoɥ ǝɯ ǝʞᴉl suosɹǝd ɔᴉxǝlsʎp-uou ƃuᴉsɐɔʍoɥs ɟo ʎɐʍ pooƃ ɐ sʇI ˙puᴉɯ ʎɯ sǝlƃƃoq ʇᴉ puɐ ƃuᴉʇsǝɹǝʇuᴉ ʎllɐǝɹ sʇɐɥʇ 'ʍoM
I can read upside down and backwards at the same time, and I'm not even dyslexic
Upside down I can’t do, but I can read & write backwards
@@mothdreams I can write backwards too, but I don't because no one I know could read it
Interesting video! Elton John mentions Polari in his autobiography, I had to look up what it meant, so it's nice to hear a little more background on it.
“Never fear! Jessica Justice is here!” Fighting social status quo’s and inequality, while educating the people ❤️❤️❤️
I remember during the AIDS epidemic and the Clause 28 nonsense of the late 80s there being a bit of a revival of Polari in the LGBTQ+ community due to the increasing level of hatred. I learned enough of it not to look too gauche and I think I will be picking up at least one of those books :D
Hey Jessica. So Drag actually came from Shakespeare. Because at that time Women were not allowed on stage to preform if there was a female character, for the actors playing the role, there would be D.R.A.G in front of the character to mean Dressed Required As Girl. Just thought you would like to know!
Ah-ha! I've always wondered why the word 'drag' came to be associated with men dressed as women and suspected that it had something to do with Shakespeare. Thanks!
Do you have any references for the Shakespeare connection pls?
Genuinely curious as to where this originated - I did some research into drag some years ago but didn't find any links to a Shakespearean acronym.
AFAIK 'Drag' more likely originated from 19th century theatre slang, possibly from long skirts trailing, dragging, along the stage.
Possibly derived from Yiddish 'trogn' &/or German 'tragen', both meaning 'to wear'.
The first print record seems to have been 1870, in UK-based Reynold's Weekly Newspaper according to Farmer & Henley 1891¹. Given the context of 'drag' in the quote (below) it could well have been associated with Polari-speakers
" Drag ...
5. (general). -Feminine attire worn by men. To GO ON, or FLASH THE DRAG = to wear women's attire for immoral purposes
1870, Reynold's, 29 May, 'Police Proceedings,' He afterwards said, that instead of having a musical party he thought he would make a little fancy dress affair and said, We shall come in drag which means men wearing women's costumes "
Farmer, J S & Henley, W E 1891 "Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present" Vol 2 p321
Linguistically, any etymology said to be from an acronym is false.
@@stellalunabatgo on.
@@stellalunabatI've always been taught that, and also taught that the term drag came from the original drag queens wearing long gowns that "dragged" across the floor.
"Are you enjoying this video?"> I'm not dyslexic but somehow I figured it out quickly
Also not dyslexic just a lefty and apparently it's also quite common for kids who are leftys to start out writing backwards. I never did that but for whatever reason can easily write backwards anyway.
@@DieAlteistwiederda I'm not a lefty either, lol. Weird.
I write backwards when I am tired. Not a lefty or dyslexic either, but my mother was pretty afraid I am dyslexic when I was young because of that.
I’m left handed, but right dominant. Yes weird.
I had to stop the video and read it to understand it but that could be because English isn't my first language
As a German this is kind of funny to me since Omi here means Grandma or even Granny, es in, a doubly endearing term for a grandmother
As a fluent dixlixic, Yes reading things backwards is easy. Which is why I've always argued Da' Vinci was fluent in it as well. Have you seen his journals? And Wednesday is why we invented spell check lol.
Such a good video of an important topic and find you can't discuss Polari in the UK without discussing Julian and Sandy on Round the Horne. At the end of Round the Horne series 4 they have a "Bona Featurette" on Julian and Sandy which may be of interest to people who enjoyed the topic of this video.
Absolutely delightful! I'm an old Hard of Hearing man (Deafish). I'm bisexual. Four decades ago I was freshly dealing with my declining hearing and learning ASL. With friends I went to many social events and settings where sign language was used. In the early 1980s in Seattle there was a bar called Tex's Tavern. For a while on Friday nights it was one of those settings.
My first time there as I sat at the counter, a Deaf man, George, came up and sat beside me. He signed, "You (G kind of pinching the chin)?" I was clueless. Still being new to ASL, I figured it was my newness. Plus I was anxious, being a newbie. But he explained it to me. Gay was the code he was signing. It has since entered the ASL mainstream but back then it was code.
Dear Jessica,
I’m also a bit dyslexic but my special rather useless skills include reading mirror writing (handy!) and I can also read quickly and accurately writing that is upside down. When they fill in forms about my disabilities for me, I stop them and correct them.
With love to you and your beautiful family, from Jessica in Australia.
Polari was mentioned in my English language class last academic year and even suggested as a subject we could do for our individual research project!! I’d never heard of it before then and I find it so fascinating
I am Italian, I've attented General Linguistics classes in University, I love the subject and I didn't know anything about "Polari"! Thank you, Jessica, for bringing up such fascinating, educational content! 💜💜💜
Big fan of Round the Horne and Beyond our Ken. BBC did an audio documentary about "Polari in Round the Horne" a few years ago (where few = up to 20 years? I don't remember). Its a fascinating topic.
Ahahahahaha “me and my brother only speak dyslexic”
There was also a gay language with Hankerchiefs!!
And earings too. If a guy had a pierced left ear = gay, right ear= straight, both=bi. Then I went to England and it was backwards so.....yep that was the 80's.
In my late teens, I listened to a lot of BBC Radio 4 Extra (at the time called BBC 7). It had loads of repeats of stuff from the seventies. That introduced me to Julian and Sandy, and I loved them.
They were always out-of-work actors with a different job each week. I remember the time that they were lawyers. "We have a criminal practice that takes up most of our time."
There needs to be a Rosetta Stone program for ✧・ﾟPolari✨
I am one of those dyslexics who hears backwards slang and my brain crashes like a 1994 Mac off a card table. You get after it Ma'am.
I saw the post that this was coming out about two minutes before it was going to, such a great way to start my day!
Round the Horne was how I first came to know about Polari. It's insane what they would get away with at a Sunday lunchtime. Honestly it's still pretty hilarious.
What an interesting video! Being Italian myself I found it very informative, as I had no idea about the existance of this. One small correction though: to speak in Italian is actually "paRlare" 😉
Hi fellow Italian! I knew I would spot someone else in the comments amused at Jessica's pronounciation.
I'd say she still did an ok job!
@@Alice-ru6lb Oh yeah she totally did! Besides, being married to an American I am quite used to hear Italian spoken with peculiar sounds, which, by the way, I think is extremely cute!
I'm quite young and I was wondering if in Italy, back in the days, we also had some kind of language or words like Polari...
Well, if you two every decide to do some sort of show together I guess you might call it The Dizzy Polones.
Thank you so much for this video! Gender and sexuality have been special interests of mine since I was old enough to understand the concepts, but because I was born in '83, Polari was already mostly dead before I started researching sexual identities. I might never have known about it if not for you!
I want "Hello, are you gay?!?" on loop for at least 10 hours. (3:02)
Also, a side note, The merchant navy, and Gypsy travelers also talked Polari, that the BBC encouraged polari on its the radio program around the Horn
The BBC was so straight laced I wonder if they knew that gay people used Polari as code for sexual fun? Or if they Just knew actors, sailors and travellers used it...
As an Italian I truly feel blessed by this video
I'm dyslexic and I can't read things backwards but I can read upside down just as easily as normal. Means I end up unintentionally reading other people texts
As for pirates, check out Black Sails. Don't want to say much but it's honestly an excellent show. Rowan Ellis did a video about it, check it out but for the fullest experience watch it without any spoilers. Mind, the first season is a bit rough in pieces. Just remember it was produced when Game of Thrones was huge. So there was some attempt to emulate a little bit however they dropped any attempt at that after the first season. Massive improvement.
That's good to know - I really wanted to like it but couldn't quite get through the first season. I'll try again!
@@Thelmageddon I personally love the first season, but it really only keeps getting better each season! Best show ever written
before even starting this video: as a linguistics major, in my world englishes class this semester we each had to adopt a variety and one of my classmates chose polari! it was super interesting to listen to and learn about, anti-languages are so fascinating!!
Lol, I'm one of the dyslexics that was able to read that. Ironically, in my high school German class, I was only successful with it when written backward. I have no idea how I passed that class.
ooh, this reminds me of conversations about black gay slang being appropriated by white gay men in the US, and how that really took off after Ru Paul's Drag Race got really popular. Because before the show (and well into the 1990's), white gay culture and Black/POC gay culture were verrrrry separated in the US.
I'm not dyslexic but am weird, so my brain did read that backward English with ease. And, yes, I ma gniyojne siht oediv!
Not a code language but a way of subtly flagging: us ace and aro folks have certain rings we wear so we can spot each other out in the wild! Aromantic folks wear a white ring on the left middle finger and asexual folks wear a black ring on the right middle finger. :)
AHHHHH my question made it into a video! I am more exited than I should be probably 😂 Glad I could introduce you to a cool new thing! Also, great video as always, I had never heard of Polari until now 🖤
I dont know about Duolingo but memrise (which is a similar language app) has a course on Polari. I think its community made not actually made by memrise but its still got quite a lot in it - app.memrise.com/course/98766/polari/ . Also this ( th-cam.com/video/Y8yEH8TZUsk/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=BrianandKarl ) is a video made of a scene of two men talking in polari if anyone is interested in seeing what it sounds like. Its quite fun to listen to and see how much you can understand. I've also seen it referenced as what english sounds like to people who have a different first language
i seem to remember an old episode of QI where stephen fry and sandy toksvig just start chatting in Polari
I read things backwards so easily, it takes me a minute to realize its backwards.
I can read & write upside down, but people don't like it when I do that
you guys have super powers
Fascinating. I love lessons from Miss Jessie my favorite gay teacher!
Seriously this was like a long version of a TED talk. I was hanging on each word reading your, lovely, lips whilst admiring your articulation. I even sighed in relief knowing I could use the word whilst here. Thank you for providing such a wonderful respite and refreshing breath of life into my tired sails. ♡
Can we talk about how you just ran past that gay rodeo reference? We need more!
here in Brazil we have pajubá, a "language" used by the lgbt+ community bit specially "feminime" gay men and trans people, specially transfem 💖
I am reminded of leet, though hacking and computer espionage make more sense as illegal things. But it's another intentional way of bypassing recognition, that has since been mainstreamed to some extent.
Thank you for making videos like this, I learn so much from you, and am now going to relisten to David Bowie's music and get translations as last time I listened it didn't make a whole lot of sense and now I know why.
Girl loves me is a mix of Polari and Nadsat (the language spoken in a clockwork orange), and has tons of references to literature that we probably haven’t all found yet. Have fun decyphering the song! Forever grateful for David for giving us some things to work out after he left ❤️ ‘I can’t give everything away’... ⚡️
The Greek equivalent was Kaliarda (the stress is on the last syllable). It too has declined in recent years, but many Kaliarda terms have made their way into everyday speech (and I would bet most people are unaware that those terms originated from Kaliarda in the first place).
Hi Jessica I’ve always been interested in palari and that interest brought me to your fantabulous channel! I’m so glad, the video is fab, as are you. I will be most certainly be back💚
Omg I guess I am one to easily have read that backwards sentence!
Amazing, I new I was dyslexic but I didn't know that would come so easily to me!
The garden is really coming together! I just remember not long after you moved, the video where Claudia had a grumpy day and decided she wanted to dig a hole, it was so bare back then. Lovely!
Yay linguistic content!!
Been looking forward to this my whole (long) day at work
Oh wow, so the Morrissey song "Piccadilly Palare" that I used to play incessantly in the early '90s makes so much more sense now! 😁
That's what my first thought was... The Piccadilly Palare
Was just silly slang
Between me and the boys in my gang
"So bona to vada, oh you
Your lovely eek and
Your lovely riah"
My darling Jessica, the proper pronunciation of his last name is "🎀 E"
~ love, another redhead called Jessica
Im autistic and have a special interest in linguistics... Im simultaneously mad that this is so similar to english in some respects (grammatically, it would seem from the video) and eager to learn as much as possible....
Time to hyperfixate!!
I've never considered myself dyslexic, but I was able to read "are you enjoying this video" backwards with ease. Maybe I have a touch of dyslexia. Thank you for this important LGBTQ history lesson!
there's a short film in polari called "putting on the dish"! it's on youtube, i found it and this video really interesting! ever since i learned about polari i've thought how much i'd love to be able to speak it lol
That was awesome, thanks for the recommendation.
In school, my teachers hated that I could read the comments they were writing upside down, backwards, and in cursive. As they were writing them.
1.Why would they hate that.. and 2. Who wrote like that?
Anyway nvm.. that's a nice talent tho..
@@arthiarun8923 in a world before white boards projectors would lead to upside down, backwards words, and notes like that would’ve been for the benefit of the teacher, and may give up the solution so perhaps that’s why? Just speculation on that last bit.
I'm glad I went to the comments. In Perú we have Lóxoro, which is taking every syllabe of a word and adding the x consonant to the syllabe's vowel and doing the same with the r consonant: so Perú would be Pexererúxuru. Which makes me sad is that I had not heard about Lubunca, Bekimon or Pajubá, I am making sure to later research them. Thank you to the commenters who mentioned them. For me this is also proof that there is knowledge which is spread more than others, and i mean it's kinda obvious why, even among marginalised communities we experience the effects of hegemonic inequalities due to colonialism
Thanks! that funny and heartwarming story, really made my day : ) please keep the good work
5:42 - 😂 lol "needing to spell Wednesday, no Jessica we'll bin that..."
I struggle with which way E and L go in words like label and table (thanks spell check) but reading backwards and reading words with letters missing and filling in the gaps, makes so much sense! 💜📚
Polari is also used in a scene in the movie "Velvet Goldmine," which is where I first encountered it.
"Hello lovely people" and I'm feeling good again
there is an amazing amount of infotainment in this video. many thanks from one who grew up listening to Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams. x
I used to read backward as easily as forward! My brain would choose. Hahah!
Fantabulous = fantastic+fabulous
Words made from the mashing together of existing words are called Portmanteau words
"My brother and I only speak dyslexic" OMG Jessica XD
Bona vid duckie. Love the riah!
Jessica’s voice is so beautiful. So neat (as if in neat and tidy) sounding...
The garden is so lovely!
Thank you for making the polari something that has in every language...via comments and understanding that in my cultures is a reality that I didn’t even notice hahaha
"Our existence wasn't legal, so we didn't deserve to have words." Once again you have outdone yourself with quotable material.