CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/19/2015

Hal Fischer: Gay Semiotics at NYABF

Featured image is reproduced from Cherry and Martin's new edition of Hal Fischer's classic Gay Semiotics: A Photographic Study of Visual Coding Among Homosexual Men, the subject of a talk in David Senior's Classroom series today at the NY Art Book Fair and available in the ARTBOOK @ MoMA PS1 stores throughout the fair. "Traditionally western societies have utilized signifiers for non-accessibility. The wedding ring, engagement ring, lavaliere or pin are signifiers for non-availability which are always attached to women. Signs for availability do not exist," Fischer wrote in 1977. "In gay culture, the reverse is true. Signifiers exist for accessibility. Obviously, one reason behind this is that gays are less constrained by a type of code which defines people as property of others or feels the need to promote monogamy. The gay semiotic is far more sophisticated than straight sign language, because in gay culture, roles are not as clearly defined. On the street or in a bar it's impossible most of the time to determine a gay man's sexual preference either in terms of activity or passive/aggressive nature. Gays have many more sexual possibilities than straight people and therefore need a more intricate communication system."