Gay accent. Geic, or affectatn? - Factual Qutns - Straight Dope Msage Board

Contents:

• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR MEN'S PRO SPORTS TO INTIFY AS GAY
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE COACH TO COME OUT AS GAY MAJOR U.S. SPORTS
• THE GAY VOICE
• "DO I SOUND GAY?"
• GAY ACCENT. GEIC, OR AFFECTATN?

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

Why is there a "gay" accent? 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. Is this an effect of the media sterotypg of gays, or is the stereotype based on realy.

Ed: Never meant to imply that all gay mal had an accent. I don't unrstand why male homosexuals have an "accent".

I am not homophobic. 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.

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

I know a few gay men who don't talk this way at all. Why do gay guys have an accent?

Before anythg, I am not homophobic, we live a ee world wh ee choic. As far as I am aware beg a gay guy means that you feel like a man and you like men, and beg trans means that you are the wrong body and you feel like youre the oppose genr. So why do gay guys have a girlish accent when talkg?

(Please rrect me if im wrong on anythg im open to learng, also i mean some gay people not all). Most of are faiar wh the stereotype of a “gay voice.

JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR MEN'S PRO SPORTS TO INTIFY AS GAY

Do gay men actually sound different than straight men? The are the qutns a new documentary, “Do I Sound Gay? ” It’s a fascatg and nuanced film, which the filmmaker, David Thorpe,  his feelgs about his voice to look at attus toward homosexualy.

It rais a plited discsn about gay pri, lgerg homophobia, disguised misogyny, and the extent to which we all alter the image that we prent to the the film begs, Thorpe is disturbed bee he realiz he don’t like his voice any more.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE COACH TO COME OUT AS GAY MAJOR U.S. SPORTS

He rri out thoughtful nversatns wh his iends and proment gay and lbian figur – cludg Gee Takei, David Sedaris, Dan Savage, Margaret Cho and Don Lemon – about what means to “sound gay. But so dog, v everyone to thk about what their own voice says about who they are, where they me om, and where they want to science of “the gay voice”To start wh, the stereotypil “gay voice” isn’t necsarily a study published 2003, Ron Smyth, a lguist at the Universy of Toronto, found that participants readily separated rerdgs of 25 diverse voic to those who “sound gay” and those who “sound straight. ” People picked up on featur of the gay stereotype – voic that were higher and more melod were more often labeled "gay.

In Smyth's study, people rrectly gused a man’s sexualy about 60 percent of the time, only a ltle better than another small study at the Universy of Hawaii, both gay and straight listeners were equally as likely to misclassify people as gay or straight. In fact, the straight men wh so-lled gay voic weren't aware that people thought they sound gay at turns out that what most people perceive as a stereotypil "gay voice" is jt a male voice that sounds more stereotypilly feme -- maly, higher pched and more melod.

THE GAY VOICE

And that often has more to do wh the voic that a person intified wh as they grew up, rather than and other rearchers say some men, both gay and straight, velop more feme voic bee they are fluenced by women when they are young.

But that don't mean that they are gay. "Some men wh 'gay voic' are straight, and some men wh 'straight voic' are gay, " says Smyth.

"DO I SOUND GAY?"

"There are butch and fem gay men, there are butch and fem straight men, there are butch and fem straight women.

GAY ACCENT. GEIC, OR AFFECTATN?

If you've ever found yourself talkg to someone wh a different accent and gradually emulatg them, you're faiar wh the gay men, adoptg what's lled "mp" -- a theatril gay accent, like an old-school starlet -- n be a way of embracg their inty. “As a hly mted gay man, I learned how mpg up uld be liberatg, ” Thorpe says the there may be more subtle ways that sexualy and our sense of self fluence our voic.

Benjam Munson, who studi language and speech at the Universy of Mnota, found one study that gay men did e a slightly different pronunciatn than straight men.