It’s been on Colbert Report and in tons of blogs even though some of the “findings” are in fact years old, but New York Magazine’s recent article The Science of GayDar discusses some of the odd findings in studies of gays v. lesbians v. straights. Amongst others:
-Gay men are far more likely (according to the report) than straight men to have a ring finger shorter than their index finger rather than vice-versa.
-Gay men are far more likely to have a hair pattern that swirls counter-clockwise than straight men.
-Lesbians are more likely to have a ring finger longer than the index finger than are straight women.
-Most people guess correctly the sexuality of a speaker when listening to a voice recording.
There are other oddities, but… let’s see how we stack up. Give your sexual demographic and how you stack up with the above examples (or any other you wish to use from the article).
Gay Male
Index fingers: both shorter than ring fingers (i.e. the “straight” version)
Hair: clockwise (most common) pattern
Voice: the main word used to describe it is “booming” or “bass” but I’ve never been told I sounded gay (which I suppose is really the same as “effeminate” for the purposes of the article)
I’m also a total slob in terms of housekeeping and I couldn’t name more than three kinds of flowers if you held a gun to my nesting doll collection, so I guess that cancels itself out.
Maybe I’ve been straight all these years and just really dyslexic or something. Maybe what I’ve really been wanting to do is start a new poultry sport of sicking ducks on each other.
I’m a straight woman with lesbian fingers too, although the length varies greatly depending on how I hold my hands. I found that TCR interview laughably short on scientific method, although the article does go into other factors (such as fingerprint whorls) that cannot be altered due to external forces such as holding your hands taut or loose, or using hair gel.
My hair swirls, when it was very short and you could tell, also varied depending on how I dried my hair. I think it might have gone counter-clockwise if I did absolutely nothing to it.
Oh. I actually measured my fingers, from the crease where the palm ends to the tip of the fingers. That doesn’t change with position. Left hand index: 63mm, ring: 74mm. Right hand index: 65mm, ring: 72mm. So I guess both my hands are gay, but the left one moreso.
I’m a bisexual female with ring fingers significantly longer than index fingers–it’s noticeable without measuring. (I have long fingers, though, so that may be why.) My hair is short, but it never seems to swirl due to how I have it cut. As for voice, I have a noticeably feminine voice; when I used to dress in such a way that I could be taken for a guy by a very casual observer, hearing me speak would clear up the matter immediately, to the obvious embarrassment of the person who had assumed I was male.
Straight male, androgynous hands (indexes and rings dead on), straight hair, straight voice.
I guess I can blame the hands for my not being very typically manly, although you wouldn’t notice it until you put me in a stereotypical situation, like a sports bar. I’d be the quiet one with a bourbon in front of me, staring glumly at other men’s women.
Straight male. Ring finger 1/4 inch longer than index. Have no idea which way my hair swirls, and not about to ask my wife and get into a long explanation about why I’m asking!
Straight female here.
My index finger is definitely longer than my ring finger.
From what I can see in the mirror, I’d say my hair whorl is clockwise (but not 100% sure because it’s hard for me to get a good look at the back of my own head ).
My voice is deeper than most girls’ my age (I think of myself as my generation’s answer to Bea Arthur).
The article mentions hobbies/jobs, so I will also mention that I am in a traditionally male line of work with a lot of traditionally male interests (and I tend to get along better with men on a purely friendly basis than I do with other women).
And yet I still like dudes.
I find it very interesting that on page 6 of that article they say that women don’t seem to have the same hard-wired binary sexual preferences that men do. I’ve never even fantasized about being with another woman, much less felt any serious urges to get busy with another chick. After some of the lousy relationships I’ve had with guys, I think by now I definitely would have tried pursuing women if I had any urges in that direction.
My index and ring fingers are very close in length–index finger just a tad longer.
My voice is pretty high pitched.
I know that the hair swirling thing is more of a guy thing, apparently, but I can’t tell how my hair swirls. Am I broken? (Granted, it’s wet now, but I think they all swirl in slightly different directions anyway…)
Lesbian here: index fingers are longer than ring fingers on both hands and I’ve never had anyone remark on my having “gay voice.” It doesn’t seem that gay women have the same (stereotypical) vocal markers as gay men might have and/or adapt?
Hetero female, index finger a tad longer than ring finger. My voice? Well, it could never be mistaken for a male voice, but it’s not high-pitched.
Think Kathleen Turner’s voice, but just ever so slightly higher-pitched than hers. It’s sort of husky, but not mistaken for a male voice.
What weird things the Dope will make you do. I actually went and inspected my hair in the mirror, which, at my best guess, looks like it does sort of swirl clockwise.
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I actually went and inspected my hair in the mirror, which, at my best guess, looks like it does sort of swirl clockwise.