Why do gay guys have high voices

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 male lover, their best hunch is that some gay men may subconsciously adopt certain female speech patterns. They want to know how men acquire this conduct of speaking, and why – especially when culture so often stigmatizes those with gay-sounding voices.

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

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

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

During this unique explore researchers from the University of Surrey investigated the role of essentialist convictions -- the view that every person has a put of attributes that provide an understanding into their persona -- of heterosexual, lesbian and homosexual individuals and whether these beliefs guide to prejudice and rejection towards others. Previous research in this area has shown that queer men’s and homosexual woman women’s experiences with stigma can head to a higher likelihood of heartfelt distress, depression and anxiety.

In the first part of the study, researchers surveyed 363 heterosexual participants to assess their essentialist beliefs regarding gay and womxn loving womxn individuals and asked a series of questions in regards to discreteness ( e.g. “When listening to a person it is workable 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 perform to really convert that”) and controllability (e.g. “Gay/lesbian people can choose to sound gay or straight depending on the situation”).

Researchers also inve

When Your Voice Outs You

Over the years, I realised I possess had a lot of talents.

I can roll my tongue, impersonate a pigeon (my head tut is phenomenal), fly a kite without help, and most importantly, lie my way through a resume even while asleep. It’s a lot for one person.

But faking a baritone is clearly not one of them.

I knew my voice was “soft” (read: too girly for the masses and the misinformed) when I was eight. And unlike algebra or the recorder, booming favor a blue whale wasn’t taught in kindergarten. To avoid years of ridicule, I chose the only solution that seemed safe.

Silence.

I stopped yelling across playgrounds. Answered questions only when I had to. Played shy so I wouldn’t have to speak. It’s amazing what you can go by off when you say you’re an introvert.

But the cracks showed. My voice would squeak out, high and sharp, and with it came sniggers and snide remarks.

“Why do you sound so nasal?”

I’d respond with something vague and medical, enough to close them up until I changed schools—and bullies.

Eventually, I adapted. I modulated my voice to fit the room. Gruff North Indian tones for male colleagues. Breathier Bombay lilt with female acquaintances. Onl

The effect of sexual orientation on voice acoustic properties

Introduction

Homosexual individuals differ, on average, from heterosexual individuals on a broad 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), character traits (Lippa, 2008b), and gender-typed deed 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 bisexual person 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