People wh stereotypilly high-pched or ‘mp’ voic n fd people assumg that they’re gay, acrdg to one Amerin film-maker - even if they aren’t. Likewise, men wh ep voic n fd themselv wrongly assumed to be beg straight.
Contents:
- THE GAY VOICE
- THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
- WHY DO GAY MEN SOUND LIKE ~THAT~?
- WHAT DO MEAN TO SOUND GAY?
THE GAY VOICE
* gay sound like *
Why do some gay men “sound” gay? 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. Rogers and Smyth are also explorg the stereotyp that gay men sound effemate and are regnized by the way they speak. They asked people to listen to rerdgs of 25 men, 17 of them gay.
THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
Perhaps fewer than half of gay men sound gay, says Rogers. The straightt-soundg voice the study was fact a gay man, and the sixth gayt-soundg voice was a straight man. An exploratn of the gay accent and how beme popularized ( @jvn / Instagram)As most people are acctomed to believe, gay men have a very “gay” sound when they speak.
But is the gay accent even real? *DisclaimerFor one, this phenomenon is referred to as “gay speak” to avoid unnecsary stereotypg. Acrdg to Radice, lguists often viate away om the popular assumptn that gay men sound more effemate bee not everyone falls to the “box.
What is "gay speak"?
WHY DO GAY MEN SOUND LIKE ~THAT~?
One of the most valuable lsons I learned this terview is that gay speak don’t have an exact formula. Radice emphasized that when analyzg gay speak, ’s more important to foc on an dividual se rather than a populatn as a whole. For example, a gay man whose first language is Spanish and who grew up New York is gog to speak drastilly different than a gay man whose first language is English and who grew up Texas.
Now, what exactly is gay speak? When speakg to Radice, he mentned the 2014 documentary tled Do I Sound Gay? He explaed that the filmmakers disvered that uptalk (when you end a sentence on a higher pch), a vol y (when you kda end your sentenc wh a very low pch croak-like sooooounnnndd), and even a lisp are the most stereotypilly proment featur of gay speak.
WHAT DO MEAN TO SOUND GAY?
As mentned before, while this rmatn is eful, n also be harmful and rerce unwanted stereotypAnother aspect of gay speak are the actual words or phras ed by members of the LGBTQ+ muny. While the words n be stereotypilly seen as “gay speak” they often tend to origate om another dialect: Ain Amerin Vernacular English (AAVE) do exist? When talkg to Radice about the reasons for gay speak, he said, a nature v.
Nurture nversatn, most lguists agree that gay speak, and all speak, is more of a nurture matter. One of the explanatns for why some men speak wh gay speak is bee, Radice said, some gay boys gravate toward women and girls more. This would expla why some (but not all) gay men have gay speak and why even some straight men speak like this.
Radice also said he believ var words and phras specific to the gay muny n be traced to the gay ballroom culture of 1980’s New York, pecially Black gay men and Black drag queens.