Why do gay people sound weird
Why do some gay men “sound” gay? After three years of research, linguistics professors Henry Rogers and Ron Smyth may be on the verge of answering that question. After identifying phonetic characteristics that seem to make a man’s voice sound queer, their best hunch is that some gay men may subconsciously adopt certain female speech patterns. They want to know how men acquire this way of speaking, and why – especially when world so often stigmatizes those with gay-sounding voices.
Rogers and Smyth are also exploring the stereotypes that same-sex attracted men sound effeminate and are recognized by the way they speak. They asked people to hear to recordings of 25 men, 17 of them gay. In 62 per cent of the cases the listeners identified the sexual orientation of the speakers correctly. Perhaps fewer than half of homosexual men sound gay, says Rogers.
The straightest-sounding voice in the study was in fact a gay guy, and the sixth gayest-sounding voice was a vertical man.
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The Science of Gaydar
As a presence in the world—a body hanging from a subway strap or pressed into an elevator, a figure crossing the street—I am neither markedly masculine nor notably effeminate. Nor am I typically perceived as androgynous, not in my uniform of Diesels and boots, not even when I was younger and favored dangling earrings and bright Jack Purcells. But most people immediately read me (correctly) as gay. It takes only a glance to construct my truth obvious. I know this from strangers who find gay people offensive enough to elicit a remark—catcalls from cab windows, to use a recent example—as well as from countless casual social engagements in which people easily assume my orientation, no sensitive gaydar necessary. I’m not so much out-of-the-closet as “self-evident,” to use Quentin Crisp’s statement, although being of a younger generation, I can’t subscribe to his creed that it is a kind of disfigurement requiring lavender hair rinse.
I once placed a personal ad in which I described myself as “gay-acting/gay-appearing,” partly as a jab at my peers who opt for to be thought of as “str8” but mostly because it’s just who I am. Maybe a better way to group of words it would have
Why Do Gay Men Sound Like ~That~?
An exploration of the gay accent and how it became popularized
( @jvn / Instagram )
As most people are accustomed to think, gay men acquire a very “gay” sound when they speak. They might speak in higher pitches and a more melodious groove to their speech. But is the gay accent even real? And if it is, why does it even exist?
In an endeavor to increase my understanding of this world and how it works, I reached out to Joseph Radice, a linguistics Ph.D. learner whose research involves LGBTQ allyship.
*Disclaimer
For one, this phenomenon is referred to as “gay speak” to avoid unnecessary stereotyping. According to Radice, linguists often deviate away from the popular assumption that gay men sound more effeminate because not everyone falls into these “boxes.” So, it would be a mistake to strive and enforce these tropes on people. Following up on that, Radice also told me about that while this information can be particularly interesting to learn about, when in the erroneous hands, can be used against the community to discriminate.
What is "gay speak"?
One of the most valuable lessons I learned in this i
by Fred Penzel, PhD
This article was initially published in the Winter 2007 edition of the OCD Newsletter.
OCD, as we know, is largely about experiencing drastic and unrelenting doubt. It can cause you to doubt even the most basic things about yourself – even your sexual orientation. A 1998 explore published in the Journal of Sex Research create that among a organization of 171 college students, 84% reported the occurrence of sexual intrusive thoughts (Byers, et al. 1998). In order to hold doubts about one’s sexual identity, a sufferer requirement not ever have had a homo- or heterosexual experience, or any type of sexual experience at all. I have observed this symptom in adolescent children, adolescents, and adults as well. Interestingly Swedo, et al., 1989, found that approximately 4% of children with OCD experience obsessions concerned with forbidden hostile or perverse sexual thoughts.
Although doubts about one’s have sexual identity might come across pretty straightforward as a symptom, there are actually a number of variations. The most obvious develop is where a sufferer experiences the thought that they might be of a different sexual orientation than they formerly believed. If the su
The evolutionary puzzle of homosexuality
These figures may not be tall enough to sustain genetic traits specific to this team, but the evolutionary biologist Jeremy Yoder points out in a blog upload, external that for much of up-to-date history gay people haven't been living openly gay lives. Compelled by population to enter marriages and have children, their reproduction rates may have been higher than they are now.
How many gay people have children also depends on how you define existence "gay". Many of the "straight" men who have sex with fa'afafine in Samoa go on to get married and have children.
"The category of homosexual sexuality becomes very diffuse when you take a multicultural perspective," says Joan Roughgarden, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Hawaii. "If you proceed to India, you'll find that if someone says they are 'gay' or 'homosexual' then that immediately identifies them as Western. But that doesn't intend there's no homosexuality there."
Similarly in the West, there is evidence that many people proceed through a phase of homosexual outing. In the 1940s, US sex researcher Alfred K