Why do gay men have higher voices

Why Do Gay Men Sound Like ~That~?

An exploration of the gay accent and how it became popularized

( @jvn / Instagram )

As most people are accustomed to trust, gay men hold a very “gay” sound when they speak. They might speak in higher pitches and a more melodious groove to their speech. But is the gay accent even real? And if it is, why does it even exist?

In an attempt to increase my understanding of this world and how it works, I reached out to Joseph Radice, a linguistics Ph.D. learner whose research involves LGBTQ allyship.

*Disclaimer

For one, this phenomenon is referred to as “gay speak” to avoid unnecessary stereotyping. According to Radice, linguists often deviate away from the popular assumption that gay men sound more effeminate because not everyone falls into these “boxes.” So, it would be a mistake to strive and enforce these tropes on people. Following up on that, Radice also told me about that while this information can be particularly interesting to learn about, when in the mistaken hands, can be used against the community to discriminate.

What is "gay speak"?

One of the most valuable lessons I learned in this

The effect of sexual orientation on voice acoustic properties

Introduction

Homosexual individuals differ, on average, from heterosexual individuals on a roomy range of measures: These include physical traits such as facial structure (Skorska et al., 2015; Wang and Kosinski, 2018), body size (Bogaert, 2003), and weight (Bogaert and Friesen, 2002; Laska et al., 2015), as well as psychological traits such as preferred hobbies and occupations (Lippa, 2010, 2020), ego traits (Lippa, 2008b), and gender-typed action in both childhood and adulthood (Bailey and Zucker, 1995; Rieger et al., 2008, 2010). On average, homosexual men are more feminine than heterosexual men, and homosexual women are more masculine than heterosexual women—a pattern known as gender nonconformity (Lippa, 2008a; Baams et al., 2013; Swift-Gallant et al., 2017; Rieger et al., 2020a). When bi individuals were studied, they appeared to be in-between heterosexual and homosexual with respect to masculinity and femininity (Rieger et al., 2020b).

Another difference which may exist between lgbtq+ and heterosexual individuals of both sexes is in their voice properties. One proposal is that homos

Gay men who ‘sound gay’ interaction more stigma and discrimination from heterosexual peers

During this unique explore researchers from the University of Surrey investigated the role of essentialist beliefs -- the view that every person has a set of attributes that provide an insight into their self -- of heterosexual, lesbian and gay individuals and whether these beliefs lead to prejudice and rejection towards others. Previous explore in this area has shown that gay men’s and female homosexual women’s experiences with stigma can lead to a higher likelihood of emotional distress, depression and anxiety.

In the first part of the study, researchers surveyed 363 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 people can choose to sound homosexual or straight depending on the situation”).

Researchers also inve

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 question. After identifying phonetic characteristics that seem to make a man’s voice sound homosexual, their best hunch is that some gay men may subconsciously adopt certain female speech patterns. They want to know how men acquire this style of speaking, and why – especially when culture so often stigmatizes those with gay-sounding voices.

Rogers and Smyth are also exploring the stereotypes that male lover men sound effeminate and are recognized by the way they speak. They asked people to eavesdrop 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 same-sex attracted men sound gay, says Rogers.

The straightest-sounding voice in the study was in fact a gay dude, and the sixth gayest-sounding voice was a direct man.