Of lisps and lguistics: The power of the gay voice

Contents:

• THE PREVALENCE OF LISPG GAY MEN
• OF LISPS AND LGUISTICS: THE POWER OF THE GAY VOICE
• THE "GAY" LISP, IS REAL OR IS FORCED?
• WHY IS ANY GUY WH A LISP ASSUMED TO BE GAY?
• GAY PCH, LISP?
• WHY DO A LOT OF GAY MEN HAVE A LISP?
• GAY LISP
• GAYDAR—SENDG MIXED SIGNALS
• THE GAY LISP?
• THE FLUENCE OF /S/ QUALY ON RATGS OF MEN'S SEXUAL ORIENTATN: EXPLIC AND IMPLIC MEASUR OF THE ‘GAY LISP’ STEREOTYPE
• STUDY SE ROOTS OF 'GAY LISP' BOYHOOD
• WANT TO GET RID OF YOUR 'GAY ACCENT'? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT
• A QUEER PROPOSAL: IS DAVID SEDARIS GAY?
• EMEM AND THE “GAY LISP”
• WHY DO PEOPLE TRYG TO TALK LIKE A GAY PERSON JT TALK WH A LISP?
• IS THERE A REASON WHY A LOT OF GAY MEN SPEAK WH A LISP?
• ANY GAY WH A LISP HAS A HERO BIN AND AMANDA GORMAN
• IS TIM TEBOW GAY?

THE PREVALENCE OF LISPG GAY MEN

Wele back to “Ask a Homo, ” Outward’s no-judgement answer service for all your qutns on LGBTQ polics, culture, etiquette, language, and other queer nundms.

OF LISPS AND LGUISTICS: THE POWER OF THE GAY VOICE

I am a gay man and this is drivg me crazy bee other aspects of the stereotypil "gay voice" are intifiable (even though they are still homophobic, I at least know what people are referrg to when they talk about them).

THE "GAY" LISP, IS REAL OR IS FORCED?

Two clicians who were unaware of the specific purpose of the study and the populatns volved judged randomized d-rerdgs of 175 gay mal, 100 heterosexual mal and 100 heterosexual femal for the prence of lispg durg readg of a standardized text. Breakdown of the rults of the gay participants two different age groups showed a higher prevalence of lispg the younger age group than the olr age group.

WHY IS ANY GUY WH A LISP ASSUMED TO BE GAY?

Learng out: The rears of this article will able (1) to discs articulatory behavur as a possible marker that may distguish gay om heterosexual men (2) to discs the prevalence of lispg gay by (0)1aspirant van het Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onrzoek full textCopyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. But Ive also met lots of gay guys who talk "normally" (not that beg gay is abnormal, but I'm not sure how else to scribe ) Do this phenomena occur other languag?

When openly gay humour wrer David Sedaris lls down to the ont sk at a hotel, for example, he is often addrsed as “ma’am, ” by the ncierge; a mischaracterizatn that lights him, but also fills him wh ep shame.

GAY PCH, LISP?

Sedaris expounds on this feelg Do I Sound Gay?, an Amerin documentary starrg Brooklyn filmmaker David Thorpe that premiered this week at Doc NYC, and was featured at the Toronto Internatnal Film Ftival September.

WHY DO A LOT OF GAY MEN HAVE A LISP?

Thorpe, who directed the film and promoted at TIFF wh sex lumnist Dan Savage (who also mak an appearance the film), wanted to explore this shame and answer a qutn that has been on his md his entire adult life: Why do so many gay men who are seemgly fortable wh their sexualy hate the way their voic sound? In Do I Sound Gay?, Thorpe not only exam the myster, unrolved orig of the gay voice (characterized by a lisp and the elongatn of certa syllabl), but tri and fails, to rid himself of his own gayish flectn.

GAY LISP

He practis a variety of voice epeng, speech therapy exercis—employed equently we learn, by closeted gay actors who want to butch up their voic for a straight dience. In the end, the greatt irony about the arguably misogynistic aversn to the gay voice—as a sign of meekns and spelsns—is how strong one has to be to actually e .

GAYDAR—SENDG MIXED SIGNALS

“To leave the hoe as the credibly swishy, fierce gay hairdrser tak a lot more urage than to leave the hoe as Jason Colls, ” says Savage, referrg to the NBA player who ma history earlier this year when he me out of the closet. Personally, I don't thk 's found a higher proportn gay men over any other group jt like pretty much any other characteristic but I ma the thread to fd out what the rt of you thk. don't thk 's found a higher proportn gay men over any other group jt like pretty much any other characteristic but I ma the thread to fd out what the rt of you thk.

THE GAY LISP?

You may be nfg wh over-enunciatg certa words and the nce which some gay men speak when they're foolg around, but general most people I know speak like a regular human beg.

Only one of my gay iends universy had that lisp, and he had basilly e over om Lebanon havg watched a ton of Will & Grace and thkg that's how gay people are supposed to act. Maybe a few people naturally have , and I feel AWFUL for them, but 99% of s age is by the kd of gays who look for attentn anywhere they n get , and attract overweight femal wh guy issu like goddamn tubs of Ben & Jerry's. The third one is a kid too so I assume he's jt mimickg what he believ gay people do an attempt to eher seem more gay or lash out at his parents who are hardre Christians who aren't very supportive of him.

It's real to a gree, but 's certaly don't apply to a lot of gay boys and where do manift 's often a subtle upwards tonatn and not the exaggerated stuff you see on TV. Every article would redirect me to an d terview where he spoke, and judgg by that and the ments, the suggtn beg the evince that he was gay was actually his own voice.

THE FLUENCE OF /S/ QUALY ON RATGS OF MEN'S SEXUAL ORIENTATN: EXPLIC AND IMPLIC MEASUR OF THE ‘GAY LISP’ STEREOTYPE

I kd of agree wh R1's rponse, but I'd say 's more like 75% would be my, on a semi-related note, there's an tertg documentary about this topic DO I SOUND GAY?

STUDY SE ROOTS OF 'GAY LISP' BOYHOOD

Meanwhile, the vowels 'bud, ' 'bo' and 'boot' all shift Trawick-Smh found that the paper nfirmed somethg he had already noticed himself about the Californian-ns of the gay accent. Pomona, CAA 19-year-old male asked:2 doctor answers • 7 doctors weighed A Verified Doctoranswered42 years experienceI don't believe that: There is any rrelatn between havg a lisp and beg gay, at least the midwt. 6k viewsReviewed >2 years agoEmergency Medice 32 years experienceMost don't: Lisps are pennt of sexualy but when we see a gay man wh a lisp fs a stereotype fostered and rerced by vio entertament and other societal nveyanc jt as when we see a straight man wh a lisp we associate him wh acuntants, nerds, or somethg siar.

Several speech featur are stereotyped as markers of gay male inty: reful pronunciatn, wi pch range, high and rapidly changg pch, breathy tone, lengthened itive sounds, and pronunciatn of t as ts and d as dz.

However, as a gay man, I thk of gaydar not so much as a tool for intifyg one’s orientatn, but as a meang and discrimatory weapon ed to ntrast sexual and social differenc. The key to unrstandg gaydar is the telemunitn ncept of “radar, ” which is fed as “a radtermatn system based on the parison of reference signals wh rad signals reflected or retransmted, om the posn to be termed” (ITU Rad Regulatns, 2013).

WANT TO GET RID OF YOUR 'GAY ACCENT'? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT

Hence, the technil fn of gaydar is a “system based on the parison of reference signals wh language reflected or retransmted, om the posn to be termed, ” where the posn to be termed ultimately translat to inty. A historil example of this is what lguists ll the onted “s” sound that is typilly characterized as a lisp, also known as the “gay lisp” (Mack and Munson 2012).

A QUEER PROPOSAL: IS DAVID SEDARIS GAY?

This associatn between language and behavr puts speakers g this variable a double bd: they are perceived eher to have a speech fect or to be gay—wh both perceptns rryg negative nnotatns. Heteronormativy is the iology that driv many heterosexual men to be particularly aware of gay dory cu as they strive to protect their exprsns of masculy through their lguistic performanc. This iology is what prompted me to hi my “gay accent” as a child—I was tryg to f this ialized heteronormative mold, I was tryg to appear heterosexual, I was tryg to sound normal.

Ultimately, the lguistic repertoir that are symptomatic of a functng gaydar form the lguistic hab shared by members of the English-speakg gay speech muny. Even though some semtic tras are ed markers of belongg, gaydar is merely an abstractn created by the society that is not based on trsic factors and therefore do not guarantee accuracy. Explicly nceived as a haven for gay men, was known for s youthful clientele, celebry patrons, and notorly hedonistic vibe; beme even more of a draw wh the openg of “The Backlot, ” an adjacent performance venue that featured some of the biggt “A-list” acts of the era.

EMEM AND THE “GAY LISP”

AbstractTwo experiments examed whether listeners associate ontally normal and misarticulated /s/ wh gay-soundg voic, as is suggted by the popular culture stereotype that gay men “lisp”. Crilly, the patterns were robt across different primg ndns which listeners were prented wh eher a gay- or a heterosexual-soundg talker prr to the voice-regnn task.

However, though gay-soundg voic elic longer reactn tim a voice-regnn task, we found no evince that stereotyp about sexual orientatn and /s/ productn affect implic procsg of talkers' voic.

WHY DO PEOPLE TRYG TO TALK LIKE A GAY PERSON JT TALK WH A LISP?

When to the gay voice, Medil Daily not that “as a society we associate” a lisp wh beg gay, though the lisp is actually “no way lked to a child’s future sexual preference. “Now prelimary data om a Universy of Mnota study may shed some light on where our belief the so-lled "gay lisp” om: The study found that boys ag 5 to 11 diagnosed wh genr dysphoria—they don’t intify as boys—are more likely to e “th” sounds when pronouncg the letter “s” than their peers. While all boys wh genr dysphoria certaly don’t bee gay men, they are “statistilly more likely” to do so, says rearcher Benjam Munson, who prented his fdgs at the biannual Meetg of the Atil Society of Ameri.

IS THERE A REASON WHY A LOT OF GAY MEN SPEAK WH A LISP?

Based on the fdgs, one of Munson’s theori on the “gay lisp” stereotype is that when we were children we regnized the lisp as the speech of “ls mascule” boys, and so we assume adult gay men will speak the same way. )By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore(Photo: Corbis Imag)More From Newser:Judge Orrs Gay Foster Parents to Give Up BabyWhy Girls This Town Bee Boys at PubertyYour Earwax Says a Lot About You‘Gaydar’ Isn’t Real, but It Is DangeroStudy: Parents Who Do This Have Better Sex LivThis article origally appeared on Newser: Study Se Roots of ‘Gay Lisp’ Boyhood. I have several iends who are gay (and hear many others, as I go to school the Bay Area), and they are spl about half and half havg the "gay accent" (or lisp) that you see often on TV shows, movi, etc.

One of the major thgs that probably ntribut a great al to all the Jse Metlfe gay mors is the fact that not only do he appear to be typest as the “token hot guy” a lot of rol, but he also n't seem to stop takg his cloth off for his craft. In the wake of the whole Newsweek gay actors thg, Details sought out the wisdom of longtime voice ach Bob Corff, who helps actors get rid of Gay what, exactly, is the difference between a straight male voice and a gay male voice? By puttg Sedaris’s work nversatn wh Swift’s “A Most Proposal, Roxane Gay’s “Confsns of a bad femist”TED Talk, and Yasm Nair’s “Gay Marriage IS a Conservative Cse, ” I will illtrate how Sedaris’s “A Most Proposal” vok the aforementned them of queerns through s satiril form.

Sedaris’s feelgs towards marriage are plited as the say progrs wh his cln of flashbacks to his childhood, prr to him owng his his “young[er] years, “the early seventi, ” to be exact, Sedaris says that livg Raleigh, North Carola ma “beg gay [feel] like the worst thg that uld happen to a person. His mother’s e of the word “queer, ” upled wh his gay inty at the time of wrg this say, exhibs the generatnal gap surroundg this grown up “the early seventi, ” as noted his say, Sedaris experienc the generatnal change which the scriptor “queer” evolv om meang weird and outsi of the norm, as did the Baby Boomer Generatn, to beg a rogatory slur for people who have sexuali or genr that viate om heteronormative standards, those standards beg heterosexualy and cisgenred-ns, when a person’s genr matchg his or her sex. Perhaps bt known LGBTQ+ studi for her rmal say “Gay Marriage IS a Conservative Cse, ” Yasm Nair stands as a sort of in for the member of the LGBTQ+ muny who advote agast the legalizatn of gay marriage.

ANY GAY WH A LISP HAS A HERO BIN AND AMANDA GORMAN

Through this say, Nair argu that the ph for gay marriage is nservative that , as Saris puts , “ sence, the fight to be as square as straight people, ” square meang to be further phed to the box of heteronormativy. "While Nair never says whether or not she believ people should have the optn to marry, gay or otherwise, she do believe is a right that would feat the purpose of beg queer. Nair also sists that the phrase “marriage equaly” perpetuat the ia that assiatn to marriage’s heteronormativy is necsary; she mak a liberate choice speakg to “gay marriage, ” as vok the ia of queerns as polil.

IS TIM TEBOW GAY?

Usg this policized phrase allows Nair to speak more directly to the ia that “marriage has been the anthis of everythg queer people have wanted” due to s sistence that the queer muny is no longer outsi of the norm, that they nform to society as married, gay upl who don’t threaten heterosexual marriag or relatnships wh their sexualy.

Nair’s say tablish what a good queer person should advote agast, gay marriage, implyg that a bad queer person would be favor of marriage equaly, jt as Roxane Gay’s “Confsns of a bad femist” tablish creria for a “good femist. In this talk, and her book, Gay nfs her “fail[ur] as a woman” her “failg as a femist” by her listeng to “thuggish rap at a very loud volume” on her way to work, “belie[f] man work” as stereotypilly mascule chor, her abily to “enjoy fashn magaz and pretty thgs, ” and addnal “flagrant” “transgrsns.

" In her notg the “transgrsns, ” Gay highlights the expectatns of a femist and terms herself a “Bad Femist” bee she fails to stand opposn to those who wre rap mic, watch romantic edi, and produce fashn magaz.