It’s a signal with a lot of false positives. If I see a woman wearing a carabiner I don’t assume she’s gay, but I might start looking for other signals.
A lot of the more subtle signals exist to be deniable or because they’re practical things that might be seen as not particularly traditionally feminine or unattractive to more traditional men.
And because of social changes over the years this has made a lot of them go from things lesbians are a lot more likely to do than straight women, to things that a lot of lesbians do associating it with our community and culture while plenty of straight women do them because they’re practical (such as wearing carabiners) or became fashionable in general (such as having a bunch of tattoos and piercings) or subculturally (such as wearing flannel shirts) or for any number of other reasons
It’s a signal with a lot of false positives. If I see a woman wearing a carabiner I don’t assume she’s gay, but I might start looking for other signals.
A lot of the more subtle signals exist to be deniable or because they’re practical things that might be seen as not particularly traditionally feminine or unattractive to more traditional men.
And because of social changes over the years this has made a lot of them go from things lesbians are a lot more likely to do than straight women, to things that a lot of lesbians do associating it with our community and culture while plenty of straight women do them because they’re practical (such as wearing carabiners) or became fashionable in general (such as having a bunch of tattoos and piercings) or subculturally (such as wearing flannel shirts) or for any number of other reasons