Why Do Gay Men Walk So Fast? | GQ

Contents:

• THE GAY VOICE
• WHY DO *SOME* GAY GUYS SPEAK DIFFERENTLY?
• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
• WHY DO SOME GAY PEOPLE SEEM TO TALK DIFFERENTLY?
• WHY DO GAYS ACT DIFFERENT?
• GAY PEOPLE LOOK DIFFERENT, WALK DIFFERENT THAN STRAIGHT PEOPLE
• WHY DO GAY MEN WALK SO FAST?
• GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?
• WHY ARE THERE GAY MEN?
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

THE GAY VOICE

After intifyg phoic characteristics that seem to make a man’s voice sound gay, their bt hunch is that some gay men may subnscly adopt certa female speech patterns. They want to know how men acquire this manner of speakg, and why – pecially when society so often stigmatiz those wh gay-soundg voic.

WHY DO *SOME* GAY GUYS SPEAK DIFFERENTLY?

The way that male gays talk don't even really bother me unls 's overtly flamboyant, I fd myself sensive to loud talkg no matter who is. Some straight men behave very effemate ways, I had a iend my high school years who other people were always askg me, is he gay?

So straight, gay, bi or purple, he will feel the prsur of our society breathg down his neck and expectg him to 'be a man', he will munite for the most part, like any other man and al wh thgs much the same way.

My pot is a man is a man, a woman is a woman, some are gay, some are bi and some are straight and beyond that all differenc are dividual, based on personal experience and emotnal history. Stay ahead of the trend fashn and beyond wh our ee weekly Liftyle Ed newsletterStay ahead of the trend fashn and beyond wh our ee weekly Liftyle Ed newsletter After a particularly bad break-up, David Thorpe, a journalist who’s his forti, cid to take his md off thgs by leavg his ts his Manhattan apartment and drowng his sorrows at a gay beach town on Fire Island. ”It was the start of a four-year journey of self-disvery durg which Thorpe tried to figure out his so-lled “gay voice”: when did he start talkg that way, what ed , how exactly did sound, and, fally, what was so wrong wh anyway?

WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'

The rults n be seen his new documentary, Do I Sound Gay?, which featur terviews wh lguists, amics, fay and iends, as well as a number of high-profile personali, cludg David Sedaris and Dan Savage. Another expert that he terviews for the film is a Canadian lguist who studi vol microvariatns between gay and straight men and speculat that many gay men more readily pick up speech s om women.

Intertgly, a straight iend of Thorpe’s has what is nsired to be an archetypal “gay voice” and turns that out he was raised entirely by women at an ashram. When he was younger, Thorpe not, the only “gay voic” on televisn were those belongg to figur such as Liberace and Charl Nelson Reilly, the host of The Match Game.

He also wonrs if Disney villas such as Aladd’s Jafar and The Ln Kg’s Sr, wh their soft, threateng voic, have ma young people associate soundg gay wh beg evil. “Growg up, I was always told that what was wrong wh me was that I was gay, so ’s not hard to unrstand that a moment of vulnerabily I might also feel secure about my sexualy.

WHY DO SOME GAY PEOPLE SEEM TO TALK DIFFERENTLY?

As Dan Savage, the activist who found the It Gets Better mpaign, says the film: “What’s wrong wh soundg like you are who you are – a gay man? I hope this don't e off as offensive but I'm jt cur: Is jt me or do some gays, some guy men specifilly, seem to have a distct accent?

Frankly, I thk the reason certa people general, not jt homosexuals, speak like that is some sort of attempt to sound eher feme, dramatic, or they're jt actg slightly stupid, pretent, and "snooty". If I had said I was homosexual myself I'm 100% sure this would have turned out differently and I n guarantee you some homosexuals would agree that there is a difference accent amongst some members gay society.

WHY DO GAYS ACT DIFFERENT?

One gay that i know kda talks like a girl, but thats 'e he hangs around wh a lot of girls and don't re about beg "gay", he only do this when talkg excedly other gays/bis i know talk normally. It's ually a lisp or jt an overtly feme tone, but 's still (ually) very easy for me to intify if someone's gay jt by listeng to them speak.

Or uld be that feme gays gravate towards havg female iends which uld affect their accent slightly, the same way someone adopts an accent om livg a certa culture at a young age.

GAY PEOPLE LOOK DIFFERENT, WALK DIFFERENT THAN STRAIGHT PEOPLE

Accents are generally a regnal thg, but seems like there is a stereotypil, standard effemate-soundg gay accent, no matter where the US you go. NOTE: Before the TSR ADHOMINEM/INSULT OP AND FLAME HIM FOR SAYING A WORD ABOUT GAYS, PLEASE HEAR WHAT I gay men are perfectly normal, que hench and act like proper gay men wear womens cloth and feel like they have to talk and act like women - que weird and shows the psychology behd why? If all gays felt they need to drs like that, fair enough, but gays are polarized, which shows some cultural or societal norm at work here.

Well I'm gog to take a shot the dark, but I'm gusg 's the same reason all people do - bee they're all is not what i was argument was that why do some gay men drs normally and act normally, while another group of gay men feel they need to talk differently, get skny and drs like woman? SpepowerThat is not what i was argument was that why do some gay men drs normally and act normally, while another group of gay men feel they need to talk differently, get skny and drs like woman?

That's all there isThe overwhelmg majory of women drs normally, like gays are polarized, spepowerThe overwhelmg majory of women drs normally, like gays are polarized, Ignorg how credibly offensive that are plenty of people who drs differently every social group.

WHY DO GAY MEN WALK SO FAST?

Cuckoo99Defe "normal" then maybe i'll jo on the only gay men I've ever met who acted mp were clearly intifyg wh the historic subculture. You mt remember that gay men are likely to overplay their role as a top or bottom so that they n fulfil each other's fantasi better.

But you don't even have to be a scientist to pass such judgments:We've found that sual observers n e ga and body shape to judge whether a stranger is gay or straight wh a small but perceptible amount of Bety Hack Doubl As Primer While Protectg Your SkOffEnglish Intertgly, 's easier to read such cu gay men than lbians. To fd out what else was gay, I looked to popular-culture, where I saw gay men mostly adherg to a fairly one-dimensnal set of stereotyp: fashnable, wty, effemate. Yet today’s gay men aren’t as reliant on reprentatns crafted by others, wh social media helpg to mocratize storytellg by providg a platform for people to share their experienc.

Both found the accuracy of the new trop difficult to prove, but explored their plex and often ntradictory that sense, the new(ish) stereotype that “gay men walk fast” is no different. On Twter, one person wr: “Straight people, look behd you, chanc are there's a gay person tryg to get past bee you're movg at an extremely glacial pace. ” Others joke that gays n halve the journey time timate on most travel apps, or suggt that gay men walk fast “to flee the straights” bee “they learned to walk to the beat of ‘Womanizer’ by Brney Spears.

GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?

To create “gay walkg lan” bee gay men supposedly walk so a fast walker, I’ve fely been there: that moment when you’re walkg through a public place, listeng to “Jump” by Madonna, and the (prumably heterosexual) public n’t seen to hurry up and get out of your way. But beyond my personal experience, and the admtedly pretty lazy humor of “gays walk fast” jok, is there any tth to the stereotype?

Gay men the Uned Kgdom, for example, are 30% ls likely to own a r when pared to the average populatn, ditg that they’re more acctomed to walkg. “If gay men feel self-nsc or fear attack, they uld walk quickly to get away om perceived risks orr to feel safe aga, ” she explas. “I lived Sydney for 20 years and there were a lot of nfint walkers Oxford Street, one of Sydney's gay areas, as this was a ‘safe’ area for people.

Psychologist Ian MacRae agre that walkg speed and style n be affected by eher posive or negative emotns, but also says that gay men are statistilly predisposed to walkg fast. ”MacRae tells me that walkg fast might be a method for gay men to give a “visual cue” of their physil fns and attractivens, and that there’s a genred element to how we perceive sexualy that may fluence walkg speed.

WHY ARE THERE GAY MEN?

”Regardls of whether gay men really do walk fast, there are psychologil reasons why many of want to embrace the ia that we do. I often worry that fdg some of the newer gay trop funny –mostly, if I’m hont, bee many of them apply to me– mak me sufferably self-absorbed. ”Benno Gammerl, a lecturer on Goldsmhs Universy’s MA Queer History London, thks that “gay’s walk fast” is rooted stereotyp of urban gay life.

”Gammerl explas that is no cince that someone like me feels reprented by the stereotyp and helps to spread them, bee young, urban-dwellg gay men are central to society’s mappg of what gay men are like.

For stance, gay men om ci (like me) might e this trope to subtly posn themselv as superr to suburban and ral people, who they associate wh beg behd the tim and irrelevant. “Not only are straight people slow movers, but they’re also slow bee they nnot follow the speedy jok and quips that gay men make. For example, “sissy that walk”—a drag term meang “to stt the most feme way possible”—was turned to a pop banger by drag superstar Twter—or more precisely “Gay Twter, ” on which I spend far too much time —appearg to be “booked and by” will w you pliments.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

New meme formats appear almost as quickly as they disappear, like the wily circulated meme of a gay man bargg ont of a lleague, sayg “move, I’m gay.

” Jok like this both mock and rerce the hierarchal stereotype unrpng them: that gay men are quick, and therefore superr, bee we simply don’t have a send to waste. Quickly graspg the “ joke” that others might not unrstand ( this se, that gay men are lerally fast movers) adds a further dimensn to the perceived rrelatn between quickns and many of the “new” gay stereotyp, “gays walk fast” helps accs a shared muny wh humor and togetherns. Though ’s important to remember that life isn’t all stttg at break-neck speed om bnch to Grdr hookups (while blastg Carly Rae Jepsen, of urse) for every gay man.

We might be the hab of puttg each other to ltle gay box which have a perceived hierarchy attached to them, om “tops and bottoms” to “daddi and twks”, but all gays are created equal.