"Do I Sound Gay?" | Psychology Today

Contents:

• PEOPLE N INTIFY WHETHER A MAN IS GAY OR STRAIGHT BY THEIR VOICE. BISEXUALS? NOT SO MUCH
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH COACH COM OUT AS GAY IN A FIRST FOR U.S.-BASED PRO LEAGU
• SIE MCCABE: ‘THE WORST ADVICE I’VE HAD? DON’T BE TOO GAY YOUR MATERIAL – MEN WON’T LIKE ’
• "DO I SOUND GAY?"
• HOMOSEXUAL MEN WHO ‘SOUND GAY’ AL WH MORE DISCRIMATN, STUDY SAYS
• THE GAY VOICE
• MY GAY VOICE
• MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS
• GAY VOICE: STABLE MARKER OF SEXUAL ORIENTATN OR FLEXIBLE COMMUNITN DEVICE?
• QUEER VOIC: DO I SOUND GAY? DO IT MATTER?
• ‘WHO SOUNDS GAY?’

PEOPLE N INTIFY WHETHER A MAN IS GAY OR STRAIGHT BY THEIR VOICE. BISEXUALS? NOT SO MUCH

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. A higher pch, wir pch range, longer vowels, expand vowel space, and more precise pronunciatn are voice characteristics associated wh gay men.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

Scientists hypothized that bisexual men’s voic might be nsired more feme-soundg than straight men’s and more mascule-soundg than gay men’s when me to self-reported and observer-reported masculy and femy. One hundred sixty participants, divid evenly between men and women, were asked to listen to voice sampl om 60 men (divid evenly between gay, bisexual, and straight men). Rearch to bisexualy has lagged due to “bisexual erasure, ” the tenncy to overlook the largt segment of the LGBTQ+ muny favor of gay or straight men.

Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual. Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league. -- Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer and to possibly spire others siar suatns.It's a cisn and move that drew praise and support om owner Shad Khan, who was a vol and emphatic supporter of a cy ordance that expand protectns on the grounds of sexual orientatn, genr inty and genr exprsn."I don't want to feel like I have to thk about anymore," Maxen said the piece published Thursday afternoon.

Outsi lebacker Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player to e out as gay and to play a game 2021.The Associated Prs ntributed to this report.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH COACH COM OUT AS GAY IN A FIRST FOR U.S.-BASED PRO LEAGU

There’s been a lot of chat about womanhood recently so I cid to look at how my genr and inty have been somethg that has taken me until now to unrstand – and that I’m a gay woman. ”—one of summer 2015’s mt see documentari acrdg to Entertament Weekly—is a new film by David Thorpe, a gay Whe Amerin wrer based Brooklyn, New York.

Through a seri of terviews and teractns wh Thorpe’s iends and relativ, a few celebri, and random strangers on the streets, we hear a spectm of perspectiv about what “sounds gay” and why soundg as such is perceived as bad.

SIE MCCABE: ‘THE WORST ADVICE I’VE HAD? DON’T BE TOO GAY YOUR MATERIAL – MEN WON’T LIKE ’

Many of the gay men the film adm to beg que fortable wh the sounds of their voic, not fully unrstandg why Thorpe would feel so strongly about his voice that he would even vis a speech pathologist and a celebry vol traer to get rid of his “gay voice. ” However, most of the gay men the film were able to relate to the secury of havg a more feme voice and some even relled tim that their “gay soundg” voic (and general gay inti) had led to gettg bullied or worse. Overall, the film do a nice job of explorg a very real but largely unseen, unheard, and perhaps unspoken psychologil stggle that many gay men may have.

"DO I SOUND GAY?"

As psychology profsors and rearchers, the first thg that popped to our mds while watchg the film was the ncept of ternalized opprsn, particularly ternalized homophobia* (please see note below about the term “homophobia”), which may be fed as the negative attus that LGBTQ people have about themselv bee of their sexual orientatns.

HOMOSEXUAL MEN WHO ‘SOUND GAY’ AL WH MORE DISCRIMATN, STUDY SAYS

” We believe ternalized homophobia is why “soundg ls like a man” would make a gay man view himself as ferr and unsirable, even to the ey (or ears) of other gay men.

In this regard for our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, rearch suggts that people velop ternalized homophobia bee they learned that beg different or genr nonnformg was bad (om their fai, iends, society general) and so they also learned not to love themselv. So beg strsed out and psychologilly bothered by “soundg gay"—to the pot that one’s self-teem and other aspects of one’s life are negatively affected—is a very tellg “symptom” of ternalized homophobia.

Several other terviewe the movie also shared other mon ncepts that are related to, if not signs of, ternalized homophobia, cludg “passg” (i. For example, thor David Sedaris talked about stanc which others may have prumed that he was heterosexual and he retrospectively ponrs what many gay men may also wonr: “Why do passg as straight make me feel good?

THE GAY VOICE

In addn, as a gay man, the first thor (Kev) also knows what ’s like to be ostracized for his high-pched, loud, and flamboyant voice. This wispread societal margalizatn of the “gay voice” and pretty much everythg that is “gay” is very real, as most if not all of are socialized or tght to associate negativy, ferry, and “otherns” wh beg gay.

) n attt to this wispread homophobia as he has wnsed – and even participated – many such stanc of otherg, teasg, and bullyg gay men, pecially those who speak wh high-pched, highly-feme, and flamboyantly “gay voic. We believe, however, that two of the other celebry terviewe—Dan Savage and Tim Gunn—more profoundly sum up the perfect batn of what many gay men stggle wh when to their voic. Rearch suggts that opprsn— this se homophobia or heterosexism—n be ternalized so eply that even those of who are most aware, most cril, and most “liberated” (or “lonized” as some other margalized peopl may refer to ) may still be affected by .

MY GAY VOICE

So for our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, they n love themselv and be proud of their inti, but that ltle piece of ternalized homophobia might always exist.

D., is an Associate Profsor of Psychology at the Cy Universy of New York, the Executive Director of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studi, and the thor of That’s So Gay!

MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS

*Note: Instead of “homophobia, ” some folks may e the term “heterosexism” – and this se “ternalized heterosexism” – which has been argued to be a more appropriate term given that anti-LGBTQ prejudice is not jt an dividual-level, clil-soundg problem (as the term “phobia” impli), but is also a wispread form of opprsn that is rooted our culture, society, and stutns.

GAY VOICE: STABLE MARKER OF SEXUAL ORIENTATN OR FLEXIBLE COMMUNITN DEVICE?

For this piece, however, we e the term “homophobia” as is more regnized by the general society and is the term heard often the “Do I Sound Gay? Rearchers om the Universy of Surrey say gay men are more likely to enunter discrimatn and prejudice than lbian women; particularly over the way they “sound.

Specifilly, study thors vtigated if sentialist beliefs toward gay and lbian dividuals actually lead to tangible discrimatn. For example, study thors probed to whether people believe “when listeng to a person is possible to tect his/her sexual orientatn om his/her voice very quickly” or “gay/lbian people sound gay/lbian and there is not much they n do to really change that.

QUEER VOIC: DO I SOUND GAY? DO IT MATTER?

This clud ggg their rpons to statements like “I thk male/female homosexuals are disgtg” and “I would not teract wh a man/woman who sounds gay/lbian if I uld avoid . This led to the ncln that far more gay men than lbian women believe that people n tect their sexual orientatn based on their voice. In particular, beliefs that gay men and straight men have different voic that allow people to tect their sexual orientatn was lked to stigmatizatn, possibly explag why some heterosexual dividuals stigmatize gay-soundg men regardls of their sexualy.

Unrstandg more about sentialist beliefs helps expla both the perpetratn of stigma by heterosexuals and the experience of stigma by lbians and gay men, ” says Dr. 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.

‘WHO SOUNDS GAY?’

We so equently hear that straight people don’t have a problem wh gays; they jt don’t unrstand why we have to “sound like that. Usg our voic, we bee a culture and a nearly anywhere the world that isn’t a gay bar, we mt assume the people around are straight.

So gay male culture mands that we be able to blend to the wallpaper when we need to, but also that we be pable of makg ourselv very known other suatns. Gay people so often fear other gay voic, voic we nnot ntrol reprentg our shared experienc and world, but bee so much is unsaid, we also hunger for our world to be scribed wh granur, wh men don’t like art about beg gay.

” So many gay men love leral mirrors, bee a mirror (or Instagram acunt), you are simply an image that n be groomed to distguishabily om straightns. I was traed to be quiet, and to hope other people like me would stay quiet to keep many gay voic ignored that teachg and beme grand and loud. Gay art isn’t jt works om an unrreprented muny; ’s voic that were traed to hi and be silent but were rolute enough to make noise spe the danger.