🚶‍♂️ queer walking mode 🚶‍♂️

QUEER WORD
QUEER WALKING MODE

What It Means:

A popular internet meme based on the frankly odd stereotype that LGBTQ+ people walk unusually fast, powering along at a pace that leaves their cisgender and heterosexual companions struggling to keep up.

Let’s Use It In A Sentence:

Yes, the meeting was due to start in 20 minutes. And, yes, the venue was 27km away. Still, Kwame saw no reason why Queer Walking Mode wouldn't get him there on time.

Another Stereotype About Queer People? 

Well, yes, but this one is mostly harmless (as far as I can tell. Let me know if I’ve missed something!)

But, unlike many of the stereotypes attached to the queer community, this one seems less hurtful or denigrating and more just… bizarre.

Because apparently, we walk really fast.

Quite when the stereotype emerged is difficult to pinpoint. But, by early 2019, the idea that queer people possess some kind of supernatural pedestrian speed was already very much a thing online.

Jokes were layered upon jokes until, in November 2019, someone gave the phenomenon a name.

Well, sort of.

On 19 November, a Twitter user posted a Photoshopped image of Google Maps comparing its ordinary estimated walking time with a considerably quicker alternative labelled queer walking mode, complete with a little rainbow flag.

The post racked up more than 40,000 likes and 8,000 reposts, and Queer Walking Mode was born.

But… Do Queer People Actually Walk Faster?

Alas, the scientific community has let us down here. I haven’t been able to find a single study that has put this theory to the test.

So, until a multi-million-pound research grant is awarded to a team of intrepid scientists to follow queer people around with stop watches, the concept remains unproven.

Still, as tedious and reductive as stereotypes can be, they don't generally spring from nowhere. Enough queer people saw the original jokes and thought, “Oh god, yes, I do that” for the idea to take off in the first place.

Which leads me to ask why it seems to have resonated with so many of us?

There’s no definitive answer, but I did come across a few theories that I thought deserved a little more exploration…

1. We're Used To Being On High Alert

There is plenty of evidence that LGBTQ+ people can become hypervigilant in public spaces, more alert to who’s around us and whether they might pose a threat.

You’ve probably done it yourself. Been extra cautious walking down the street. Clocked the group of people coming towards you. Thought twice about holding your partner's hand, or unconsciously toned down something about the way you’re behaving until you've passed them and are at a safe distance.

So, could years of learning to move through public space with that heightened awareness have contributed to the fast-walking stereotype?

Maybe.

Still, I’m not entirely convinced. After all, just because you’re being hypervigilant doesn’t mean you break into a power walk every time someone looks at you a bit funny.

2. We've Learnt To Walk Like We Own The Place

The next theory is slightly more defiant.

Yes, we’ve all learnt to be hypervigilant. And, yes, we’ve also likely learnt that we’re expected to make ourselves smaller (or even invisible) in public spaces. 

So, what if queer walking mode is a direct response to this. What if, at least on some level, it’s our way of finally taking up space?

Shoulders back, head high, walking with real purpose?

I’m not sure there’s any way of proving this one either. But, as theories go, I find it a little more convincing.

3. Maybe The Straights Are Just Slow?

Perhaps the real answer is the most mundane one?

Maybe it isn’t that queer people walk unusually fast.

Maybe straight people just walk unusually slowly?

Maybe you and I are travelling at a perfectly sensible speed, and it's heterosexual, cisgender people who insist on dawdling three abreast along the pavement, stopping unexpectedly to look at their phones, and generally behaving as though there’s nowhere in particular they need to be.

I’ve got to say, I don’t think I’m qualified to judge this one. I don’t spend enough time with heterosexual people to have a good idea of how fast the average one walks.

And, since the scientific community is yet to investigate this important phenomenon, I guess it falls to us to conduct some completely legitimate, scientifically robust research of our own.

Please complete the poll below and let me know what you think…