Is There a “Gay Voice”? | The New Yorker

Contents:

• GAY LISP
• THE PREVALENCE OF LISPG GAY MEN
• THE "GAY" LISP, IS REAL OR IS FORCED?
• OF LISPS AND LGUISTICS: THE POWER OF THE GAY VOICE
• GAY PCH, LISP?
• THE GAY LISP?
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• EMEM AND THE “GAY LISP”
• GAYDAR—SENDG MIXED SIGNALS
• STUDY SE ROOTS OF 'GAY LISP' BOYHOOD

GAY LISP

Wele back to “Ask a Homo, ” Outward’s no-judgement answer service for all your qutns on LGBTQ polics, culture, etiquette, language, and other queer nundms. This week, Bryan Lowr n-sth-irs the li-sth-p and other elements of the “stereotypil gay manner of speakg”—and honey, ’s jt fabulo!

I am a gay man and this is drivg me crazy bee other aspects of the stereotypil "gay voice" are intifiable (even though they are still homophobic, I at least know what people are referrg to when they talk about them). 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. Based on the ratgs of the listeners of the prent study, lispg speakers were signifintly more often judged to be homosexual.

THE PREVALENCE OF LISPG GAY MEN

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. Several speech featur are stereotyped as markers of gay male inty: reful pronunciatn, wi pch range, high and rapidly changg pch, breathy tone, lengthened itive sounds, and pronunciatn of t as ts and d as dz. Some rearchers report that North Amerin gay men tend to pronounce sibilants (s, z, sh, and the like) wh assibilatn -- more sibilatn, hissg, or strincy.

A study by Rudolf Gd vtigated claims that people n intify gay mal by their speech and that the listeners e pch range and fluctuatn cidg.

THE "GAY" LISP, IS REAL OR IS FORCED?

Some analysts say gay people speak wh an affected accent, as a way of signallg their inty and affiliatn wh the gay subculture, or a way to exprs femy.

Two clicians who were unaware of the specific purpose of the study and the populatns volved judged randomized d-rerdgs of 175 gay mal, 100 heterosexual mal and 100 heterosexual femal for the prence of lispg durg readg of a standardized text. Breakdown of the rults of the gay participants two different age groups showed a higher prevalence of lispg the younger age group than the olr age group. No relatn was found between lispg and age of g-out or lispg and the probabily of beg gay as asssed by a qutnnaire about sexual orientatn.

Learng out: The rears of this article will able (1) to discs articulatory behavur as a possible marker that may distguish gay om heterosexual men (2) to discs the prevalence of lispg gay by (0)1aspirant van het Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onrzoek full textCopyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. What the gay man was alludg to was the lisp he had and the expectatn that expected the guy who asked him to classify anyone wh as clearly gay.

OF LISPS AND LGUISTICS: THE POWER OF THE GAY VOICE

Personally, I don't thk 's found a higher proportn gay men over any other group jt like pretty much any other characteristic but I ma the thread to fd out what the rt of you thk.

GAY PCH, LISP?

So my qutn to you GAF is: Is the gay lisp real or is jt a forced thg that some gay men put on to somehow signify that they're gay?

I'd say 's an affectatn that's been so standard for so long that there are probably a lot of gays who don't even realize they're dog . don't thk 's found a higher proportn gay men over any other group jt like pretty much any other characteristic but I ma the thread to fd out what the rt of you thk.

THE GAY LISP?

You may be nfg wh over-enunciatg certa words and the nce which some gay men speak when they're foolg around, but general most people I know speak like a regular human beg.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

Only one of my gay iends universy had that lisp, and he had basilly e over om Lebanon havg watched a ton of Will & Grace and thkg that's how gay people are supposed to act. I had two iends high school that had that lisp but tried to tell me they weren't gay even though I pretty much assumed they were. I know a number of gay people who, if they don't have the lisp, they at least have some "tradnal" gay stereotype behavrs.

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

Maybe a few people naturally have , and I feel AWFUL for them, but 99% of s age is by the kd of gays who look for attentn anywhere they n get , and attract overweight femal wh guy issu like goddamn tubs of Ben & Jerry's.

One don't do the lisp, one do most of the time, and the other don't normally but sometim he go stereotypil gay guy and stts out the lisp. The third one is a kid too so I assume he's jt mimickg what he believ gay people do an attempt to eher seem more gay or lash out at his parents who are hardre Christians who aren't very supportive of him. Maybe 's a subnsc behavr when around other gay people to adopt those mannerisms and behavrs to bee more accepted by that muny?

EMEM AND THE “GAY LISP”

It's bizarre to thk that 's geic or somethg so I ually attribute to mimickg the gay people on TV who seem to all have that lisp.

It's real to a gree, but 's certaly don't apply to a lot of gay boys and where do manift 's often a subtle upwards tonatn and not the exaggerated stuff you see on TV.

Every article would redirect me to an d terview where he spoke, and judgg by that and the ments, the suggtn beg the evince that he was gay was actually his own voice.

GAYDAR—SENDG MIXED SIGNALS

My bt iend and his circle don't outwardly project gay until you get to know them better and unrstand their hobbi, fashn tast etc...

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? 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.

STUDY SE ROOTS OF 'GAY LISP' BOYHOOD

“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.

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. 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 .