Why Do Gay Men Sound Like ~That~?

Contents:

• THE GAY VOICE
• WHY DO GAY MEN SOUND LIKE ~THAT~?
• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
• WHY IS IT THAT MANY GAY MAL SOUND DIFFERENT OM OTHER MAL?
• THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• 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. Rogers and Smyth are also explorg the stereotyp that gay men sound effemate and are regnized by the way they speak.

WHY DO GAY MEN SOUND LIKE ~THAT~?

They asked people to listen to rerdgs of 25 men, 17 of them gay. 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. *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.

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.

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

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. 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.

WHY IS IT THAT MANY GAY MAL SOUND DIFFERENT OM OTHER MAL?

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 IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT

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. Essentially, as prevly stated, a large portn of gay terms origate om AAVE. Another tertg thg I learned my nversatn wh Radice was that a lot of gay speak veloped as a way for queer people to avert discrimatn.

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

“Pronoun versn, ” which some gay men refer to other men wh she/her pronouns, is one example.

From a historil aspect, if a gay man wanted to refer to their partner but wasn’t out or feared for his safety, he’d refer to them as she/her public. In fact, Radice told me to look to the Polari dialect This dialect veloped om the entertament dtry the early 1900s (when homosexualy was still illegal the U. Gay speak todayWhile gay speak may have partially veloped om a place of discrimatn, this form of speakg now, some way, has bee mastream and even rri a sense of “prtige.

” In the past few years, public opn has shifted greatly favor of gay culture to the pot where gay people are almost seen as this ol llective group of people everyone wants to or should be iends wh. Although mak every bone me shiver, this is where the ia of every girl wantg a “gay bt iend” stems om. Shows, such as RuPl’s Drag Race, and social media have not only served to expose the public to gay culture, but have also ma gay speak and certa gay terms more mastream.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

Gay speak is so popular that, acrdg to Radice, var straight men on TikTok will tentnally e some form of gay speak bee they know ’ll ultimately get more clicks than if they ed their real voice. What I didn’t know back then was that gay speak isn't a sgle way of speakg but rather a bo of featur and an tertg topic that volv var layers of analysis. While technilly speakg there is no way to “speak gay, ” there are var monali between SOME gay men that leads to the characterizatn of such a phenomenon.

As gay speak enters the mastream we need to stop modifyg gay men and g this as a tool for discrimatn. So even though ’s an tertg topic, pecially when lookg at s evolutn to the mastream, gay speak should be looked at as jt that — an tertg topic**(update: didn’t work)Luigi Bensme is an onle wrer at Rowdy Magaze. 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.

On the Friday-night tra journey he found himself surround by loud chatterg gay men. “I knew then that I had to get to the bottom of that feelg and to the importance of the voice as part of gay inty. ”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?