Why do gay people sound different
Why do some gay men “sound” gay? After three years of research, linguistics professors Henry Rogers and Ron Smyth may be on the verge of answering that scrutinize. After identifying phonetic characteristics that appear to make a man’s voice sound gay, their finest hunch is that some gay men may subconsciously adopt certain female speech patterns. They hope for to know how men acquire this manner of speaking, and why – especially when society so often stigmatizes those with gay-sounding voices.
Rogers and Smyth are also exploring the stereotypes that gay men sound effeminate and are recognized by the way they communicate. They asked people to listen to recordings of 25 men, 17 of them gay. In 62 per cent of the cases the listeners identified the sexual orientation of the speakers correctly. Perhaps fewer than half of gay men sound gay, says Rogers.
The straightest-sounding voice in the study was in fact a gay man, and the sixth gayest-sounding voice was a straight man.
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Gay men who ‘sound gay’ encounter more stigma and discrimination from heterosexual peers
During this unique analyze researchers from the University of Surrey investigated the role of essentialist beliefs -- the view that every person has a place of attributes that provide an insight into their identity -- of heterosexual, lesbian and gay individuals and whether these beliefs steer to prejudice and rejection towards others. Previous research in this area has shown that gay men’s and lesbian women’s experiences with stigma can direct to a higher likelihood of feeling distress, depression and anxiety.
In the first part of the study, researchers surveyed heterosexual participants to assess their essentialist beliefs regarding gay and lesbian individuals and asked a series of questions in regards to discreteness ( e.g. “When listening to a person it is possible to detect his/her sexual orientation from his/her voice very quickly”), immutability (e.g. “Gay/lesbian people sound gay/lesbian and there is not much they can do to really change that”) and controllability (e.g. “Gay/lesbian
Gay or straight? His speech may deliver a hint
When people hear a guy talk and verb he’s gay, they’re really listening to how he says his vowels, suggests new research.
In past studies, researchers own recorded homosexual and heterosexual men speaking long passages from texts of plays, and test subjects were adj accurate in picking out the gay voices among them.
But Eric Tracy, a psychologist at Ohio State University, wanted to see just how little information people needed before they made up their mind about if a speaker was gay. He recorded a group of 36 gay and straight men speaking single syllable words, like “mass” and “soap,” and played it back to a check group of men and women.
The check subjects − volunteer college students — ranked each speaker on a scale from 1 to 7, to represent their guess about the speaker’s sexual orientation: gay (7 points) or not (1 point). The gay speakers received a score of compared to the heterosexual speakers, who received an average score of
Once Tracy found that his test subjects tended to perceive gay speech differently based on short
What it means to 'sound gay'
But is there any reality to this stereotype? Do gay men actually sound other than straight men? And if so, why?
These are the questions in a new documentary, "Do I Sound Gay?" It's a fascinating and nuanced film, in which the filmmaker, David Thorpe, uses his feelings about his voice to watch at attitudes toward homosexuality. It raises a complicated discussion about gay pride, lingering homophobia, disguised misogyny, and the extent to which we all adjust the image that we present to the world.
As the film begins, Thorpe is disturbed because he realizes he doesn't fond his voice any more. He's just gone through a break-up and is feeling unconfident and low. "Who could respect, much less fall in treasure with, an vintage braying ninny prefer me?" he asks.