Is There a “Gay Voice”? | The New Yorker

Contents:

• REARCHG GAY SPEECH PATTERNS AT THE UNIVERSY OF ILLOIS
• FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• GAYDAR—SENDG MIXED SIGNALS
• STUDY: A GAY-SOUNDG VOICE COULD COST YOU A TOP JOB

REARCHG GAY SPEECH PATTERNS AT THE UNIVERSY OF ILLOIS

Bisexual men are perceived to sound more mascule than men who are straight, acrdg to a study of Atralian subjects.Amics at the Universy of Sydney pared the voic of gay, straight and bisexual men a study volvg 160 people.In the rearch led by clil psychologist Jam Morandi, people were reced to analyse the voic of 60 men, 20 of whom were gay, 20 straight and 20 bisexual.

They were then asked to rate the men on their sexual orientatn g a sle om zero (exclively heterosexual) to 10 (exclively homosexual).Listeners were also asked to rate each man’s perceived level of femy or masculy the voic on a siar sle.The men volved the study were asked to rerd themselv on a smartphone recg the first two l of the Atralian natnal anthem.Voice sampl were then modified to remove any background noise while volume levels were ma the same to ensure nsistency.Rults om the study showed listeners uld distguish between gay and straight men’s voic wh an accuracy of 62 per cent, apparently nsistent wh prev rearch.However, the study participants uld not terme any differenc between bisexual and straight men’s voic wh any gree of accuracy. The thors said their rearch showed bisexual men’s voic were perceived as beg more exclively attracted to women pared wh both gay and straight men’s voic.Bisexual men’s voic were rated as more mascule than both gay and straight men’s voic.Rearchers claimed the abily to intify a man’s bisexual inty om his voice alone uld have cril social implitns such as helpg to rce feelgs of alienatn.‘Voice may unter visibily many bisexuals feel’An abstract of the study, tled Can listeners tect if a man is bisexual om his voice alone, reads: “The prent study examed whether bisexual men n be intified om their voic ak to how gay men n be intified on their voice alone.“If this is the se, voice may be an important target of discrimatn on the one hand but may also unter the visibily many bisexuals feel (if their bisexual inti n be apprehend by their voice alone, whout explic disclosure required).“The fdgs may also she light on whether bisexual male voic, like gay male voic, differ om straight voic terms of their genr non-nformy – a qutn that to date has not been examed.”But amics noted the rearch was limed on the grounds all men who participated the study are Atralian, which may not be reflected among wir cultur.And the thors nced the study did not ntrol for the rerdg environment or microphone-to-mouth distance, which uld have affected the qualy of the voice sampl.The thors said the fdgs suggted that while the voic of bisexual men the sample were perceived as more mascule and attracted to femal, listeners did not associate this imprsn wh bisexualy.As a rult, while bisexual men may appear to be at lower risk of facg voice-based intifitn and discrimatn than gay men, they may often be mistaken as beg straight.The study was published the Journal of Sex Rearch.

FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY

In 1958, the US Supreme Court issued s first lg volvg the rights of what would later be known as the LGBTQ+ US postmaster general had seized pi of One Magaze, one of the natn’s first gay publitns, claimg was “obscene, lewd, lasciv, and filthy” simply for discsg homosexualy. Elenis, the urt’s nservative majory held that a graphic signer uld cle to build webs for same-sex weddgs vlatn of Colorado’s antidiscrimatn majory claimed that s cisn didn’t target gay people bee the webse signer would make weddg webs for gay people—jt not for same-sex weddgs. Takg a page om the anti-gay playbook, 2006, a group of Amerin law schools argued that bee the ary discrimated agast gay people at the time—a policy end by Print Barack Obama— would vlate the schools’ ee speech rights to let the ary rec on mp.

” In other words, unr the urt’s reasong, an anti-gay signer n refe to “create and dissemate” pro-gay speech, but a pro-gay law school n’t refe to do the same for anti-gay isn’t the first time that the urt has applied a double standard for speech favors. TleRearchg Gay Speech Patterns at the Universy of IlloisAuthor(s)Rch, JalynIssue Date2011-08Keyword(s)HomosexualSpeechLguistic PatternsGayAbstractThis rearch project seeks to answer the followg major qutns: are there homosexual lguistic patterns typil to gay men, at least on the Universy of Illois mp? After nductg my terviews and observatns, as well as lvg to some sendary sourc, I me to several nclns ncerng the afore-mentned rearch qutns: 1) there are intifiable gay speech patterns, 2) The quali of speech are not pennt on genr distctns, but exist along a spectm that clus both mascule and feme quali (and which all men and women, gay or straight, take part on some level).

3) Though sometim exaggerated stereotypil portrayals, the very exaggeratn of gay speech n exist as a symbol of gay power society, and as a means for gay men to tablish their prence wh a muny, as well as their right to a cultural voice.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

Through out the rearch procs I feel that my unrstandg of the gay culture and muny on this mp has epened nsirably, as well as my rpect for those dividuals who nsir themselv a part of Name or NumberENGL401 Sprg 2011: Introductn to the Story of the English LanguageProfsor Cathere VieraType of RourcetextPermalk. The send IRS whistleblower allegg that Hunter Bin received special treatment om the Department of Jtice (DoJ) over his tax affairs is a Democrat, has Ziegler told the Hoe of Reprentativ Oversight Commtee on Wednday he was a “gay Democrat married to a man” joed Gary Shapley, the origal whistleblower, appearg ont of a televised mtee hearg which they tailed their allegatns that the vtigatn to Hunter Bin was imped by the DoJ.

Milant tout tant que ludique, ce langage se vt également le défensr d’un certa style vie, cherchant à exprimer, manière la pl visible, poliquement rrecte et effice qui so, la richse s portements et s cultur du mon gay. 2Funny and provotive as may seem, this msage posted on Kks & Queens, a gay Swedish webse, not only reveals a visibily and culture that the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr muny was long pelled to hh, but also nfirms the existence of a lexin not que like standard English. From the darker ag when homosexualy was at s bt a s and/or a perversn until the prent environment of rabow flags and gay pris, gayspeak has been ed to transgrs social norms, articulate particular needs and emotns, as well as renstct, or re-terpret, realy.

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

When to elaborate polilly rrect fns of the « queer » universe, pk talk displays an extraordary plexy of sexual orientatns and subcultur, a possible means to pensate for lguistic ficiency and to claim a gay space on the social spectm.

Most male homosexuals therefore kept their sexual orientatns very much the closet unls amidst their k when they lled each other female nam—« Miss Kten », « Cha Mary », « Primrose Mary », and « Dip-Candle Mary »3—, a practice still faiar among ntemporary gay men. Until World War Two, rearch on what was then labeled the « language of homosexualy » foced on genr versn, wh homosexualy beg regard as a pathology characterized as sexual viance or perversn: whereas heterosexual language equated wh the appropriate genr, homosexual language displayed equent aquaci between the physil genr and the lguistic genr of the speaker. In the reprsive and secury-ncerned Cold War environment4, to talk about themselv, most gays and lbians relied upon phemisms such as « iends of Dorothy(‘s) », (after The Wizard of Oz, 1939, a classic mil popular wh gay dienc), « whoopsi », « (s)he’s is a ltle...

GAYDAR—SENDG MIXED SIGNALS

Dpe the achievements of gay rights, the stigma attached to a « love that dare not [always] speak s name », to quote Osr Wil, ocsnally lgers the way some gays e « them » to refer to their partners and « refully word speech to hi explic genr referenc »16. For many Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr—or LGBT17—people today, pk talk works as a hive force agast discrimatn, although they also adm that gay exprsns have actually shifted om the physil nfement of the 18th century molly ho to a lguistic nfement.

5Sce 1993 [, ] the Amerin Universy Washgton DC has been home to annual nferenc on Lavenr Language and Lguistics, wh Lavenr19 Language beg fed as the way « lbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgenred persons and queers e language everyday life »20. Leap mentned two other « betiful exampl »: whereas gay speech « pcher » intifi the sexually active dividual and « tcher » the receptive person, « If we say pcher or we say tcher, an ordary nversatn, I thk ’s unlikely that [straight people] would read anythg else to .

Whereas some lbians tend to speak at a lower pch than straight women—and their range of pch is lser than that of straight women29—the typil high pched disurse and adorned talks of some gay men, not necsarily of the effemate type, is another equent give-away. Food metaphors are not unmon, such as seafood (gay sailors) and related sailor queens (men whose primary tert is sailors), tuna (young gay sailors), jam (younger men), angel food (gay men the air force), rice queens (men attracted to Asians), ernment spected meat (a gay man the armed forc) to be found meat racks (gay male cisg areas).

STUDY: A GAY-SOUNDG VOICE COULD COST YOU A TOP JOB

Apts of the Scene (the gay club circu) attend whe parti, where Amy-Johns (after Amazons), lipstick lbians35 (stylishly drsed a tradnally feme way), and chapstick lbians (who do not wear make-up and are very much to sports)36 meet wh leather dyk, tomboys, and lemons (lbians).

As for gym bunni/queens (gay men who work out a gym), and mcle Mari (more effemate gym queens) who are a h among mcle queens (men who prefer mcular men), they will jo flamers (effemate gay men), baby Crocketts (psdo-wboys), and label queens (signers’ fashn victims)37. The yearly gay pris which take place most Amerin ci, the midst of ribbons, lorful paras, and mil shows, are a clear signal, as the name dite, that there is pri beg members of the « fay », a term the gay muny sometim appli to self39.

In this ebullience, Bce Rodger’s landmark The Queen’s Vernacular was released (1972), followed, to mentn jt a few, by Joseph Hay’s « Gayspeak » (1976) and « Language and Language Behavr of Lbian and Gay Men » (1978‑1979), Leonard R.

Pl Baker himself, who has nducted terviews among the Brish LGTB populatn, rearched gay archiv and d gay and lbian chats on the ter, released Fantabulosa: A Dictnary of Polari and Gay Slang 200242, wh 1, 700 entri rived om terviews, archiv, and gay and lbian web chats43.

The ter has s share, upon which the prent study has been partially based, such as the onle Dictnary of Gay Slang and Historil Terms, Flampeak, Queer Slang the Gay 90, Rebec Stt’s A Brief Dictnary of Queer Slang and Culture (1997), Matt & Andrej Koymasky’s GLTB Slang Dictnary (last updated 2005), and Robert Owen Stt’s prehensive Wizard Gay Slang Dictnary (last updated 2003)44. Whereas the 1960s gay and lbian scholars took a stake the polil advancement of homosexuals, directly enuragg the olr generatn to e the Lavenr language, gay youths cid to avoid what they nsired a relic of the past ( England, some claimed Polari to be « silly, femisg and outdated »45). In the mid-1970s and 1980s, however, the divisns between homosexuals flated, strengtheng the hn of the muny as well as a new approach of homosexualy which was fed terms of opprsed mory inty: after the manner of Ain-Amerins who promoted Black English vernacular, LGBT people found logil to adopt a specific language, although as we noted before, gayspeak has always been more a lexin than a language wh s proper grammatil and phonologil l.

Sce the late 1980s, the inty-based mol of homosexualy has been s turn challenged, for beg excsively foced on rpectabily, th excludg some margal liftyl—sadomasochists, workg-class femme lbians, Ain-Amerin drag queens, and bisexuals—wh the gay muny self. In an effort to reawaken the spir of activism om the post-Stonewall era, Queer Natn adopted a somewhat nontatnal approach and purposely ed the word queer for s shock value while rejectg the term gay, which for some had bee too mastream49.

It was possibly rived om the French fagot, a bundle of sticks and twigs bound together, ed for burng heretics and wch at the stake, or om an abive term for women, or reference to younger boys who performed duti for senrs Brish public schools, where homosexualy was viewed as enmic. « The label ‘homosexual’ », Norton explas, « stead of beg generated by society to ntrol people, was self-generated by gay (or gay-iendly) men to empower dividuals and set them on the road to eedom rather than enslavement »62. Whereas the neteenth century gay signated male and female prostut65, is now advantageoly displayg LGBT flamboyance, wh ls technily than the term homosexual and wh an assuredly ls explic lk between sexual activy and gay inty regardls of the genr66.

Gay and bisexual women who chat on the Inter or post personal ads do on s wh nam such as The Gay History of Pla Earth onle self has clearly specified that « the word ‘gay’ is ed throughout [their] se reference to women and men who form erotic same-sex relatnships »67.