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What's with lesbians and their obsession with carabiners?
Lesbian Pride flag-colored carabiners on a ring.
The Sapphic connection to the belt-loop accessory explained.
Trying to figure out if the cute woman at the farmer’s market is a lesbian? Checking her belt loop is one way to find out!
Much like Doc Martins and thumb rings, carabiners — the metal D-shaped ring that was popularized by mountain climbers and frequently used as a key ring — aren’t just a useful tool but a way to communicate your sexuality to other queer women. Some lesbian stereotypes are actually true! We're looking at you, Subaru.
Carabiners are nearly ubiquitous in the lesbian community, but how did the tool become Sapphic coded?
The handy clip became a sartorial symbol of lesbian culture when women were thrust into the workforce during WWII. While many women ended up in secretarial jobs, butch women were attracted to blue-collar jobs and adopted the masculine aesthetics the work demanded. “Without strict dress codes, women who worked as custodians, postal workers, and mechanics could stretch the boundaries of accepted gender presentations. They also needed easily accessible keys,” Slate reported.
The connection between lesbians and the belt-loop accessory continued through the 1960s and ‘70s and was cemented into the collective lesbian imagination in 2006 when Alison Bechdel — author of Dykes to Watch Out For and creator of the Bechdel test — published a memoir that detailed her experience as a young kid of seeing a masculine delivery woman with a short haircut, butch energy, and a key ring on her belt loop who sparked an awakening.
The graphic novel memoir Fun Home was even turned into a musical featuring the popular song “Ring of Keys” about Bechdel identifying with the butch woman wearing a carabiner on her belt loop. “Your swagger and your bearing/ And the just right clothes you're wearing/ Your short hair and your dungarees/ And your lace up boots/ And your keys, oh/ Your ring of keys,” the actress playing a young Bechdel sings in the musical adaptation.
At the intersection of fashion and function is the trusty carabiner, which has been doing double duty as a lesbian flagging device ever since. Gay men have the hanky code, and lesbians have carabiners. And much like the hanky code, which hip you wear your carabiner on can indicate your sexual preference. Right hip if you’re a bottom, left hip if you’re a top, according to the documentary The History of the Carabiner.
Pride asked lesbian Redditors on the r/actuallesbians subreddit to explain "why lesbians are obsessed with carabiners," and the responses were both informative and hilarious!
"Dates back to the butchfemme culture years ago. Butches were often always working class, and carabiners are just a useful tool to use for holding keys and similar things. The practice just carried on to the modern day, and were and still are used by some for flagging. Even before I was out I used them LOL. I saw my dad who is working class use them, and I thought it was super useful so I've always had my house and car keys hooked to my belt loop on a carabiner." — straw_bees
"They were a way to subtly signal you were a lesbian back in the day, especially by butches. plus they're cool and easily customizable, on top of being useful, so they stuck around." — tunatunabox
"90% of the time I don't use a purse. A carabiner makes it 1000% easier to wear keys during work and being out and about. I don't even care about the 'lesbian' stereotype over them. I just love how useful it is for me. Did I absolutely go out of my way to find one that was teal to match my car? Yes. Do I get happy thoughts knowing that others might immediately clock me with the short hair, more masc style and wearing it? Absolutely." — nonbinari-star
"it's like hanky code for sapphic people, stemming from butches often working manual labour jobs, in which it's obviously practical to have a carabiner." — sapphoschicken
"GenX butch dyke here... how else am I supposed to attach my yeti bottle to my back pack!? Or carry my ridiculously large amount of keys?" — KissMyAlien
"Carabineers reduce the friction compared to rope on rope so it's much easier to lift when suspending your girlfriend." — JROppenheimer_
From a blue-collar work accessory to inspiring a Broadway song to a popular way to tell the WLW world that you're a lesbian, the carabiner is here to stay!
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
