Apr 21, 2008

Discreetionary: -er

-er

-er [ERR] noun 1. an attractive blue-collar worker or one who looks like a stereotypical blue-collar worker. adjective 2. pertaining to blue-collar workers. example: “Enzo [...] and Adong (Wil Sandejas, ‘er’-sexy but whose acting is distracting) are childhood friends.” —McVie, on Sikil. etymology: from the English suffix -er, which pertains to somebody connected with an action, often as an occupation.

It's somewhat a stereotype that gay guys generally like the fair or mestizo, clean-looking, model-type yuppies from the high classes of society so getting attracted to the barako, tough-looking men who often hold blue-collar jobs is considered just a bit unusual so much so that these men are given the term -er. This term comes from the suffix that pertain to many blue-collar jobs such as factory worker, taxi/bus driver, carpenter, waiter, plumber, police officer, and seafarer. Of course, there are many white-collar occupations that also end in -er, but the term exclusively refers to blue-collar workers. According to this thread at the Guys4Men forums (log-in required), the term was coined before 2004 and was popularized on the Internet.

Got any Discreetionary terms to share? Send them my way at discreetmanila at gmail.com.

8 comments:

Kai Santorino wrote on April 22, 2008 at 10:56 AM:

haha i LOVE this post

 
closet case wrote on April 23, 2008 at 9:57 PM:

i feel so ER =)

 
Anonymous wrote on April 24, 2008 at 8:41 PM:

I have to disagree...I know more gay men who go for the -er types rather than the fair ones. All things being equal I usually go for -er types myself. :P

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on April 25, 2008 at 12:06 AM:

Kai, glad you liked it. :-)

CC, according to Tony, many guys are into -er so you're lucky! ;-)

Tony, I can actually go for both types. I guess the -er types are attractive because they exude the masculinity that many PLUs are lusting for. Hehehe.

 
closet case wrote on April 27, 2008 at 8:56 AM:

that explains my recent post. harharhar
closet_case07@yahoo.com.ph =)

 
mrs.j wrote on April 29, 2008 at 11:21 AM:

er---na! hahaha

 
Anonymous wrote on June 3, 2009 at 11:27 PM:

lobster .. i wonder how your boyfriend would take it if he hears u like ers. haha i never make the mistake to admit that in presence of my bf.

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on June 6, 2009 at 10:39 PM:

Anon, I think lobster-tony and his BF are in an open relationship so I think this is OK.