The humble carabiner, a little forgotten queer history:
Start quote:
As WWII broke out, many women found themselves in the workplace and taking over jobs as the men were rounded up to fight on the frontline. Butches, masc women and gender non-conforming lesbians were pushed into blue-collar jobs (like janitors and delivery workers), taking over from men
…
1/n
Source https://www.thepinknews.com/2026/01/12/why-do-lesbians-wear-carabiners/
#queer #queerhistory #sapphic #lesbian #wlw #ww2
… as the roles reserved for women (like waitress, stewardess and seamstress) didn’t accommodate their masculine-leaning expression and gender non-conformity.
In this period when the movements of female liberation were building momentum, the working class lesbians used carabiners as a multifunctional workplace tool but they soon became a form of lesbian signalling.
Detaching from its working-class roots, the carabiner has become an enduring part of the queer aesthetic.
End of quote
2/n
To me it's very clear but perhaps that is just my interpretation that the carabiner in this context is a masculine thing deliberately adopted as a symbol of empowerment
with work you got money and thus influence
one reason named is "masculine-leaning expression" but that gramatically points to the blue collar job and not the carabiner itself
3/4
To quote the same article from a different section:
»The carabiner is linked to lesbian identity for its ties to masculine, utilitarian workwear. Some lesbians, like butch lesbians, often want to move away from typically feminine accessories and lean towards masculine aesthetics«
Making this pretty clear to me the expression of the carabiner to be of explicitly mascline aesthetics and expression of empowerment.
saxnot