Were carabiners historically a thing? Hi there! I am doing…
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Were carabiners historically a thing?
Hi there! I am doing my dissertation on lesbian fashion and one point I am rather stuck on with my research is carabiners! All articles and online forums suggest it started from working-class women in labour jobs just using it as a functional tool, that then became more of a flagging symbol and an aspect of lesbian fashion. However, when researching I can find practically no evidence of this, and can't even find many texts referring to keys or keyrings as much as I suspected. Through looking at plenty of archive photography I've genuinely only found two photos of people wearing them both in late 1970s and one maybe from 1990s, "Priscilla and Regina" - Joan E Biren 1979, and a photo from Washing D.C. in 1978 also taken by Biren and found in her book Eye To Eye: Portraits of Lesbians, and one photo with a maybe carabiner from Jackie Kay in the book Stolen Glances: lesbians take photographs which I've attached. I certainly wasn't expecting to find many photographs, but my lack of being able to find more than 4 references to rings on belt loops does make me question where the articles got their information. Can anyone point me to any sources? Where did the concept of the left side = top or right side = bottom come from? Or does anyone who was part of the lesbian scene pre 2000 have any personal connection/ stories of people wearing them? Honestly anyone with any photographs or information I would be so grateful: I am now extremely obsessed with finding out as much as I can. I wonder how much of an impact Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and the subsequent song "Ring of Keys" from the musical adaptation had on the storm that carabiners took on lesbian TikTok in recent years. While I believe the history is definitely real and likely just quite undocumented, I wonder if it's much less of a thing than people make it out to be. Thanks for the help!
https://preview.redd.it/cmy5y99u4dbg1.jpg?width=1105&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0591e8680687b9c45b0ee85c3ef291a18aced0f2
https://preview.redd.it/4kspk2ov4dbg1.jpg?width=618&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=620109a9209b4101d612ee1faa105ed64b862893
https://preview.redd.it/8lwaqqdw4dbg1.jpg?width=618&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c91c78a778df8bfc35774deeffc93331dee8f8b9
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Hi there! I am doing my dissertation on lesbian fashion and one point I am rather stuck on with my research is carabiners! All articles and online forums suggest it started from working-class women in labour jobs just using it as a functional tool, that then became more of a flagging symbol and an aspect of lesbian fashion. However, when researching I can find practically no evidence of this, and can't even find many texts referring to keys or keyrings as much as I suspected. Through looking at plenty of archive photography I've genuinely only found two photos of people wearing them both in late 1970s and one maybe from 1990s, "Priscilla and Regina" - Joan E Biren 1979, and a photo from Washing D.C. in 1978 also taken by Biren and found in her book Eye To Eye: Portraits of Lesbians, and one photo with a maybe carabiner from Jackie Kay in the book Stolen Glances: lesbians take photographs which I've attached. I certainly wasn't expecting to find many photographs, but my lack of being able to find more than 4 references to rings on belt loops does make me question where the articles got their information. Can anyone point me to any sources? Where did the concept of the left side = top or right side = bottom come from? Or does anyone who was part of the lesbian scene pre 2000 have any personal connection/ stories of people wearing them? Honestly anyone with any photographs or information I would be so grateful: I am now extremely obsessed with finding out as much as I can. I wonder how much of an impact Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and the subsequent song "Ring of Keys" from the musical adaptation had on the storm that carabiners took on lesbian TikTok in recent years. While I believe the history is definitely real and likely just quite undocumented, I wonder if it's much less of a thing than people make it out to be. Thanks for the help!
https://preview.redd.it/cmy5y99u4dbg1.jpg?width=1105&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0591e8680687b9c45b0ee85c3ef291a18aced0f2
https://preview.redd.it/4kspk2ov4dbg1.jpg?width=618&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=620109a9209b4101d612ee1faa105ed64b862893
https://preview.redd.it/8lwaqqdw4dbg1.jpg?width=618&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c91c78a778df8bfc35774deeffc93331dee8f8b9
#adult
source
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