- Elton John, Ricky Martin, The Babadook.
These days, we know a gay icon when we see one,
but is it possible to know a gay icon when we hear one?
(Upbeat music)
From dating shows to facial recognition technology,
we're obsessed with ways of figuring out if someone's gay.
But sometimes, okay often, the cultural cues
we've decided read as gay are flat out wrong.
Sometimes that hanky is just a misplaced pocket square.
And thanks to Queer Eye,
even straight men know about French tucks.
And everyone loves a crop top.
But what we hear can be just as powerful as what we see
when influencing who we perceive as gay.
On this episode of Decoded, we'll explore the idea
of gay voice and whether it exists at all.
Here to help us out is our friend Gabe Gonzalez.
- Hey Franchesca...
(Record scratch)
Sorry, that sounded like a little too straight.
Let's try again.
(Clears throat)
Hey, Franchesca.
That sounded like super gay, right? Okay, fab.
Like a P-town go go dancer covered in Vaseline,
the idea of gay voice can be a slippery one to grasp.
Despite gay voice seeming like an entirely subjective
and often inaccurate assessment of someone's sexuality,
there are some particular speech characteristics in men
that Americans have decided just sound gay.
So, let's take a look at what those might be.
And just so we're clear, I'm going to use gay this episode
to refer to gay men specifically.
No shade to my lesbian comrades, but butch voice
is a whole separate topic and I'm definitely
not qualified to talk about it.
First, there's the gay lisp.
Which isn't so much a lisp as it is a very crisp
and hyper-pronounced S sound.
Think Jack from Will & Grace.
Because if your scream sounds like this,
you know exactly what I'm talking about!
This variation on the symbolent S sound
is one of the predominant speech characteristics
associated with gay voice.
It's such a prevalent stereotype that speech scientist
Benjamin Munson from the University of Minnesota
actually put the theory to the test in 2015.
His team asked a group of 34 young men
to repeat the phrase the squirrel sat on the seesaw
to see how many exhibited the gay lisp.
And whether or not it actually
correlated to their sexuality,
or feelings of gender dysphoria.
Preliminary results show it didn't.
And previous studies found no strong correlation
between a gay lisp and gay orientation in adult men.
Which is kind of disappointing because I've always felt
that snakes are gay icons.
The next speaking straight associated with gay voice
is often called a vocal fry.
And for those who don't know,
a vocal fry's hot.
Basically, it's a speech characteristic
distinguished by elongated vowels and
a slightly nasal sound.
That ends up sounding vaguely Californian.
Like some unholy union between Paris Hilton
and every creaky door in a horror film.
I'm here.
Think Tim Gunn from Project Runway,
who in my opinion combines gay lisp and vocal fry
to great gay effect.
The first time I hear him say designers, let's caucus,
I renounced all straight things in my life, even rulers.
But, don't get me wrong.
Using vocal fry doesn't mean a man is gay,
which you'd know if you ever listened to NPR.
It 2011, Stanford linguistic professor Robert Podesva
actually explored how gay men might lean into the vocal fry.
And camp it up among friends because it's perceived
as a more fun, or laid back mode of speaking.
Meaning vocal fry is more of a cultural development
than anything inherent to gay men's biological makeup.
It's like The Babadook of gay speech characteristics,
we've embraced it and it's ours now.
There's also the subject of pitch in regards to gay voice.
Higher pitched voices are perceived as feminine
and when exhibited by men, presumed to imply they're gay.
Now, you might have noticed that examples of gay voice
actually span the spectrum of sexuality.
Both straight and gay men are often mocked
for exhibiting these speech characteristics.
And that's because studies overwhelmingly show
that gay voice isn't an accurate
predictor of someone's sexuality.
So it isn't gay at all.
While I might have popped out of the womb fully flaming,
my sexuality did not determine the way
I sound for the rest of my life.
But, it could have influenced how
I learned to speak growing up.
While there's still a lot of research left to be done
into how and why men might pick up on these speech ticks,
the general consensus is that they aren't inherent
to gay men, just more widely embraced by them.
But that also depends on the setting.
Because these patterns are learned,
they're either consciously or subconsciously
used in different settings.
You might queen out at a bar with your friends,
or butch it up by nixing your vocal fry
or lowering your pitch on the phone a job interview.
Or, let's say while talking to your one
judgy aunt who still can't take a hint
and keeps asking when you'll find a nice woman to marry.
Even if I did get married, it would be to a dude.
So the answer is still nunca tia.
But the fact of the matter is that
the root cause of shame over sounding gay
is based on the absolutely incorrect assumption
that being gay is wrong or bad, it's not.
So far, it's been great.
So, straight, gay, bi, pan and no matter where
you fall on the spectrum of sexuality,
the way you speak is up to you.
Refusing to perform gender the way society dictates
you should has nothing to do
with your worth as a human being.
And when it comes to how you talk,
very little to do with your sexuality.
Well, I've got a date with some squirrels on a seesaw
right about now, so back to you Franchesca.
- Thanks, Gabe!
So you're telling me that the way someone sounds
tells me more about how they want to talk
than who they want to bone?
Well okay!
Thanks so much Gabe Gonzalez for joining us,
and thanks for watching.
We'll see you next time right here on Decoded.
(Upbeat music)