From Steven Levine on Facebook yesterday, some astonishment at getting a targeted ad for
Levi’s® Premium 501® ’93 STRAIGHT MEN’S JEANS
Well, yes, it’s just a familiar sort of structural ambiguity: X Y Z as
[X + Y] + Z ( [straight men’s] [jeans] ‘jeans for straight men’) (A)
or X + [Y + Z] ( [straight] [men’s jeans] ‘men’s jeans that are straight’ (B)
(where the Adj straight in (B) is a truncation of straight-fit / straight-leg ‘straight-legged’, while the Adj straight in (A) is a rough synonym of heterosexual)
The Levis people had (B) in mind, But Steven and I, as gay men, immediately perceived (A), straight vs.gay being especialy salient for us, so we found the ad hilarious, wondering just what sort of purity test would be applied before guys were allowed ro buy the jeans.