Is there a “gay accent”?

--“You’re gay?! But you don’t sound gay.”

--“Um…thank you?”

Although my gay friends and I get this a lot, this innocent questioning sheds light on the perception of groups of people based on the stereotyped ways in which they speak.  For gay males, the notable deviations from “standard” English speech are the variations of the /s/ sound and higher-pitched vocal inflections; however, this is not to say that all gay men speak like this or that the manner in which one speaks indicates one’s sexuality. Known colloquially as the “gay lisp” or the “gay accent,” these minor variations in placement and manner have come to characterize an entire group of people based on a subset within the group.

Various aspects of speech characterize the gay accent, including a wide pitch range, a high and changing pitch, a breathy tone, careful pronunciation, lengthening of fricatives, and affrication of /t/ and /d/ sounds. Other stereotypes of gay male speech include catty insults, esoteric slang, an abundance of sexual innuendos, and sarcasm.  In the face of stereotypes and prejudice, people shouldn’t worry whether or not they fit the stereotype of one of the facets of their identity, but instead just embrace the qualities with which they were born.

The most prominent feature that is often caricatured in gay male characters is the “lisp” of sibilants such as /s/, /z/, and /ʃ/.  There is a sizeable subset of the gay male community who self-identify as having the gay accent. One study claims that about 40% of self-identified gay men speak with the fronted /s/ sound, producing a sound almost like the unvoiced dental fricative /θ/ (Van Borsel, et al., 2008). This relatively large subgroup possibly facilitated the formation of the stereotypical gay accent, and those who fit this stereotype unintentionally  perpetuate it due to people’s perception. Other studies have shown that in fact, a number of straight men naturally speak with accents that are perceived as gay.  The reliability of aural “gaydar” (the ability to determine if a person is gay without directly asking) has about 65% accuracy, which definitely leaves some room for error.

University of Toronto professors Henry Rogers and Ron Smyth found that people can distinguish gay and straight sounding voices based on the above phonetic patterns. Their current research investigates how some gay men acquire these speaking patterns. Some researchers believe that the accent’s source is physiological and therefore is based on genetics. Different vocal apparatus structures or hormone levels could potentially influence the pitch and modulation of gay men’s vowels throughout their development. Others believe that gay men develop their sibilant consonants socially by subconsciously and/or consciously imitating the female speakers around them.

While reading an experimental study on the processing difficulty of foreign accents and the perceived credibility of the speaker (Lev-Ari & Keysar), I was wondering if there are negative or positive correlations between the stereotypical “gay” accent and perceived credibility, whether negative due to prejudice or positive depending on what the speaker is talking about such as giving hair and makeup advice.  For something like the "gay accent" to have a specific name and presence in scientific studies, it seems like more than just a social construction of sexuality. What do you think?  Is the gay accent a social cue (albeit a stereotyped and perhaps erroneous one) for a speaker’s credibility or is it just the manifestation of stereotypes about gay men and therefore should not be investigated in the realm of social linguistics or psychology?  Furthermore, if there is a stereotypical “gay” accent, referring specifically to gay males, is there a stereotypical lesbian accent besides a stereotyped lower pitch compared to straight females? 

For more on the gay accent, check out this informative and well-crafted video about the accent and perception of sexuality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu2hgaIp1Uw

Bibliography

“Gay lisp.” Wikipedia (2014). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_lisp

Lev-Ari, S., & Keysar, B. (2010). Why don't we believe non-native speakers? The

influence of accent on credibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 1093-

0196.

Rynor, Michah. “Researchers examine patterns in gay speech.” University of Toronto News,

(2002). http://web.archive.org/web/20071101043238/http://www.newsandevents.

utoronto.ca/bin2/020218c.asp

Van Borsel, J., De Bruyn, E., Lefebvre, E., Sokoloff, A., De Ley, S., and Baudonck, N. (2008).

The prevalence of lisping in gay men. Journal of Communication Disorders, 42(2), 100-

106.