Whats up with the "gay vioce"?

Factual Questions
1

This is fascinating to me, and I never heard any serious comments on this:
the stereotypical feminine, lisping mannerism of speech that is attributed to some homosexual men. Im talking about the “flaming gay stereotype”.

Given, not all gay men speak and act like this, but ONLY gay men speak like this.

Is there any consensus on this phenomenon
Is it purely cultural, a way to signal to your surrounding that you are part of a group?

Genetic? if so, did people talk this way in say the 1600s?

A mix of the above?

I never got a real good answer on this one (if there is one).

2

Previous thread from 2007.

3

Former NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip talks like that (with a southern twang mixed in) but isn’t gay (is married and has kids).

4

Two more old threads where this was discussed:

5

My high school Latin teacher was likewise rampantly flaming, but apparently heterosexual.

6

A Brit acquaintance of mine had the Gay Lisp down, flaming as he was. Unfortunately he actually had a lisp from birth. And his name was Tristram. Poor guy.

7

Took a friend on a road trip to re-connect with her brother after 10+years, and he revealed that he was gay. No probs, great guy, got to meet his partner, who was great, had a great time, everything was great. On the way home, I asked her if he always had that beautifully lilting lisp.

She started laughing, and said “Not for the first thirty years of his life. Maybe it was part of the initiation lessons!”

So, anyone else picked it up, maybe as a desire to be accepted? Or maybe like an accent? I pick up accents so effortlessly, I have to try hard nawt to utilise the Queen’s tongue when returning from Merry Olde, what?. I’ll have to watch myself after hanging out with my flaaaaaming friends…

8

I find that the “gay lisp” is usually also accompanied by effeminate mannerisms, ranging from the subtle to the flat-out-flaming.

Do any of the above examples include mannerisms? Just curious (in this topic, that is!) if we need to correlate both aspects to make a determination.

9

I posted almost this same question back in 2004 to my linguist list. We found a cite from 1904 which read:

. Before you jump on the word “gay,” it probably wasn’t used in 1904 in a homosexual context.

At least one professional linguist posted his opinion, and no one diagreed

. Of course, it’s suggested that Oscar Wilde was homosexual, so, where do we go from here?

10

Our church has a GLBT group, and I just assumed the flamboyant gentleman with the eye for accessorizing was “in that club”. We were chatting (he was getting almost giggly over “the innocent little Pinot” that I’d brought, and the Apricot Brie that was “soooo yummy”) and he mentioned that he’d been out to this “under-appreciated little nook of a bistro”(try saying that with a lisp), that had “just the most precious escargots”, with his wife.

I didn’t hear the rest of the paragraph. I think having your jaw drop affects your ability to process language.

11

Look, I’m not proud of my jaw dropping in the above example. I blame it on my need to fit people into handy categories. I have no problem with my gay, bi, or even virgin friends. But i want to know where to put them in the Dewey Decimal System that is my mind.

I have a client who’s in the process of being transgendered, and one where I (and my associates) could NOT pinpoint a gender for months, and it’s unsettling.

12

Interesting. Approximately how long have you believed that gays and bis are born nonvirgins?

Yeah, they’re only undergoing a major upheaval in their life, but it makes you unsettled and that’s totally inappropriate.

13

Touché. You’re right. It’s totally appropriate for them. My reaction is what’s inappropriate. I’m just being honest about my gut feelings.

I said I wasn’t proud of it. And I’ve always said this place is cheap therapy.

(And I’d contend that my virgin/eunuch friends are more of a separate category than merely inexperienced homo- or hetero-sexuals).

14

What’s up with the “straight voice”? Why do straight guys go through life grunting and growling like they’re all auditioning for a NASCAR commercial? Is it a signal to other heterosexuals? Were they born talking like that? And is it always accompanied by those gut punching, back-slapping mannerisms? Did straight guys talk this way back in the 1600s?

Given, not all straight men speak and act like this, but ONLY straight men speak like this.

15

[Clint] Ya gotta point, Mac? [/Clint]

16

It’s fake, my ex girlfriends little brother spoke just like any normal man, then he came out as gay and started talking like a gay.

17

There is no need to get offended. It is a real question and that is why people keep noticing it on their own and keep asking it. Of course, not all gay men speak with a lisp or have a special skip in their step but some do even from an early age when their peers certainly aren’t doing it. I think we have all had the experience of the non-shock of finding out that someone has come out of the closet just by noticing their mannerisms even if they weren’t exposed to many other gay men as a reference. There are a few supposedly straight men that are a little light in the loafers as well so I am not sure how much confirmation bias is involved in those observations but I have known more than a few of those that eventually came out later in life.

To lighten things up a bit, one of my favorite Onion News stories deals with this topic.

18

No. No one was born talking.:smack:

19

I’m just relieved that none of our resident Pit Jerks have invaded this thread just to try typing with a lisp…
If I were superstitious, I’d be afraid that I just jinxed us…

20

Personally, I’ve never really noted the “lisp” part of the accent, as much as the lilt/tone aspect.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand—my mother had a friend in high school who came out to her, IIRC after basically living by himself in 1970s San Francisco over the summer. The first thing she said to him was, that while she didn’t really understand it, she still supported him and loved him as a friend…but why was he talking like that? His voice never sounded like that before.

The friend, kind of chagrined, said it was “cultural.”

So, for what that’s worth, it makes as much sense as anything else. Just like surfers or pirates or cowboys ending up sounding alike—just be glad that socio-politico-geographical conditions weren’t different enough that the gay accent ended up sounding like Pat Buttram. As fitting as that would have been.