Of lisps and lguistics: The power of the gay voice

Contents:

• OF LISPS AND LGUISTICS: THE POWER OF THE GAY VOICE
• IS THERE A REASON WHY A LOT OF GAY MEN SPEAK WH A LISP?
• WHY IS ANY GUY WH A LISP ASSUMED TO BE GAY?
• THE GAY VOICE
• THE PREVALENCE OF LISPG GAY MEN
• WHY DO GAY GUYS SPEAK WH A LISP??
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• GAY LISP
• GAY PCH, LISP?
• WHY DO GAY MEN TALK SO FUNNY?
• WHAT DO LIMP WRISTS HAVE TO DO WH GAY MEN?

OF LISPS AND LGUISTICS: THE POWER OF THE GAY VOICE

The prent study examed the popular stereotype that gay men lisp by evaluatg to what extent listeners associated ntal or ontal articulatn/lispg wh gayns.

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

Based on the ratgs of the listeners of the prent study, lispg speakers were signifintly more often judged to be homosexual.

This was te for the group as a whole as well as for the subgroup of homosexual and heterosexual men separately. Furthermore, there was no signifint genr difference wh rpect to associatg lispg wh gayns.

The rults of this study nfirmed prev prelimary fdgs that suggted that ontal or ntal articulatn/lispg is a feature that listeners associate wh gayns. Grapplg wh the issue of homosexualy: perceptns, attus, and beliefs among high school stunts Kenya.

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

Inferenc About Sexual Orientatn: The Rol of Stereotyp, Fac, and The Gaydar Myth. When Universy of Toronto rearchers Ron Smyth and Henry Rogers nducted a study on the so-lled “gay voice” the early 2000s, they me to an unsurprisg ncln.

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. 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. 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?

THE GAY VOICE

Thorpe never liked the sound of his own slightly effemate voice, but was the sound of other gay men’s voic that propelled him to make the film.

“I was on a tra ri to Fire Island [off Long Island] and I heard all the gay voic around me, and I was repelled, ” he says.

“I uldn’t believe that after 20 years of beg out and fightg to create a gay muny, I was repulsed by my own people, and by myself. 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. 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.

THE PREVALENCE OF LISPG GAY MEN

Savage, whose sex advice lumn is syndited ternatnally, says he se this distaste for the stereotypil gay voice progrsive straight muni, too. Savage often gets mail om straight people who are happy to accept their newly out, gay male iends, but who are equally annoyed by how “mpy” they sound. “I’ll get letters om straight men and women sayg, ‘I love my gay iend but why do he have to act this way?

But ’s also easy to see why a closeted gay kid might want to -swch for other, more unrstated reasons, too. But is rare, even today, that a good, virtuo character has an explicly gay-soundg voice a kid’s movie. 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 .

“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. idk why but the high pched voice and slight lisp (i dont thk lisp is the right word, there's jt somethg that stands out about the S but isnt a full TH noise like a lisp) is very stereotypil of gay guys, but only a uple of the gay guys i know irl actually speak like this.

WHY DO GAY GUYS SPEAK WH A LISP??

It jt always seemed to me to be a flamboyant thg that immediately poted people out as gay and seems to be much more mon gay celebri famo for beg gay than actual real life people. When media began to place more and more gay men to the spotlight they went wh stereotyped gay men ( you rarely see a gay man the media who isn't Obvly gay) and so the ial for a gay man to anyone growg up on this media was the flamboyant type wh that lisp. As a rult orr to "F " as the OP said a lot of gay men are jt playg out the stereotype.

I've been out for over twenty years and known hundreds if not thoands of gay men and I actually n't thk of any who spoke wh a lisp. I jt asked my partner if he knows any gay men who speak wh a lisp and he also said no. There are fely certa nc that many gay men fall to when speakg wh each other but a lisp?

There are a large amount of gay men I've met that f the stereotype their speakg, but I've never thought "lisp" was the right word. And of urse this isn't all gay men, but this is one stereotype that om somewhere. I've met many gay men, and I n actually only thk of one who didn't have "the voice".

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

I have, however, met one boy who was a Sophomore high school who intified as straight who had "the voice" as well.

Though I thk this uld be the se for some (as they take on "the voice" orr to be noticed and regnized by other gay guys) I have a iend I ma this year who is gay and has the voice, and jt spis gay stereotyp.

GAY LISP

He hat drag, he hat gay guys who are overly "mpy" and is jt repulsed by all of , he says do nothg for him sexually and he also feels giv the rt of the gay muny a bad name. I fd tertg that there's no clear answer about the "gay lisp" (and y, I know isn't a te lisp, but that is what has e to be lled). I thk there is some tth to this, but certaly don't apply to all or even most gay men.

GAY PCH, LISP?

It's no secret that many gay men were effemate as kids, playg wh girls' toys, havg a lot of female iends. I've jt been cur about this bee seems like a lot of gay men really emphasize the "s" sound.

Firstly, YES there are some gay men who talk wh a lisp, or as is probably more accurate to say, wh a certa "accent". My theory is that this probably has somethg to do wh homophobia, or rather how some gay men al wh homophobia.

I pos that some gay male kids are eher outright rejected by other boys, or choose to distance themselv om boys out of fear of nsequenc.

WHY DO GAY MEN TALK SO FUNNY?

I've met hundreds of gay men my life, and the only one that spoke wh a straight-up lisp was the one wh a cleft palate. I learned my psych class that there is a theory that if a man has a lot of olr brothers, he is more likely to be gay. So as more male babi are born, the ttosterone plet and the youngt n end up more feme or gay.

But this is jt a theory and there are fely other factors that terme if a fet is gay or not. Many feme gay men did not jt one day ci to act like that; they were always feme..

WHAT DO LIMP WRISTS HAVE TO DO WH GAY MEN?

Why would they emulate somethg which is looked very down upon by society and even the gay muny for e. Two spir dian nativ (pletely unaware of wtern stereotypil prentatns on gay men for obv reasons). I thk the stereotyp may be exaggerated by some gay men as a way to rebel agast femy beg seen as weak or femy men beg seen as negative; hence the need to be "fierce" and "fabulo".