Hayes (1976) suggests gay speech is modulated by openness and gay type: secret, social and activist. Each gay type articulates lexicon and speech patterns differently. Secret gays or gay men that have yet to openly disclose their sexuality, articulate words and phrases differently than social or activist gays. This difference, Clark (1998) suggests is a ‘self-defense’ mechanism carefully designed to prevent social ostracism. Social gays and gay activists, less concerned by society consequences, are not compelled to hide their gay speech, openly and to some extent actively use gay speech similar to ‘your typical gay’ stereotype, flamboyant and flaming. Schwieter insists gay men feel “language uses them just as much as they use language” (p. 93). This ability to use language, alternating speech patterns and categorical lexicon, allows gay men to express a broad range of roles within and outside the gay community. Contrary to Burgess (1949) who claimed “the homosexual world has its own language incomprehensible to outsiders” research suggest gay language is a not a distinct dialect but socio-culturally acquired language characterized by atypical male speech variation and word pronunciation.
Listeners tend to rate a speaker sexual orientation as ‘sounding gay’ independent of pitch range or sibilant duration, suggesting the existence of multiple auditory cues. In an effort to better understand this phenomenon, segmental phonics or single words taken from read text, have been investigated for perceptual characteristics indicative of sexual orientation. Pierrehumbert (2004) asserts gay men hyper-articulate vowel space when compared to heterosexual men, indicting gay men might produce multiple stressed words within a sentence. Accor...
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Language is a powerful tool. The artful manipulation of language has sparked countless revolutions and has continuously fueled social progression over the course of human history. In Carmen Vàzquez’s “Appearances,” Vàzquez argues that homophobia is a serious concern in society. She rallies for all people, regardless of sexual orientation, to challenge society’s unyielding gender roles and homophobia. Through the art of persuasion, Carmen Vàzquez blended careful diction, emotional stories, and persuasive structure to aggressively address the problem of homophobia both coherently and effectively.
The extended duration of /s/ and /l/ has been explored in studies researching the speech styles of gay men and gay-sounding men. Researchers found that gay sounding men often often lengthen their pronunciation of the letters ‘s,’ creating a hissing sound, and ‘l,’
masculinity in men) indexes heterosexuality, while non-normative behavior (i.e. effeminacy in men) indexes homosexuality.” This states that the perception of heteronormative speech essentially goes undetected and sounds more natural or standard in conversation. n this study we aim to understand the functions of code-switching as it pertains to gay speech. One of the many reasons people code-switch is to fit so they are accepted in any social situation. Whether it’s amongst friends, or co-workers, one tends to adapt to their surroundings via linguistic variables such as meticulously articulated phonemes, and prescriptive or descriptive linguistic formalities. Previous research has shown that gay speech is self-managed, and gay men tend to code switch depending on context (CITE). Our research is aimed to understand the functions of code switching and how men who identify as gay, bisexual, and transgender change their speech depending on their environment. While complex, our goal is to address how race and region affects vocabulary and voice production. Our intent is to determine how and why the ability to hide (or project) one’s sexuality or gender identity and conform or reject dominant social lexical norms, and how it is replicated depending on what identity the speaker is trying to
Andrew Sullivan, author of, What is a Homosexual, portrays his experience growing up; trapped in his own identity. He paints a detailed portrait of the hardships caused by being homosexual. He explains the struggle of self-concealment, and how doing so is vital for social acceptation. The ability to hide one’s true feelings make it easier to be “invisible” as Sullivan puts it. “The experience of growing up profoundly different in emotional and psychological makeup inevitably alters a person’s self-perception.”(Sullivan)This statement marks one of the many reasons for this concealment. The main idea of this passage is to reflect on those hardships, and too understand true self-conscious difference. Being different can cause identity problems, especially in adolescents.
In Michael S. Kimmel’s work, Masculinity as Homophobia, he reveals the great secret of all men: We are afraid of other men. Kimmel urges the reader to realize that men are grouped int...
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Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon, and how acceptable one’s relationship is determined by society’s view of gender roles. Because the majority of the population is characterized as heterosexual, those who deviate from that path are ...
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The method was used in this study, half women and half men participants in the sexual orientation nonverbal test. All dyads consist of individuals of the identical sex. All homosexual participants were conscious of their own sexual
Jacques Balthazart, in the book, Biology of Homosexuality, examines the historical and cultural context in which homosexuality is expressed and attempts to dissect homosexual behavior and cognition from a biological perspective. He explains that there are behaviors in human sexuality that exhibit greater diversity than the sexual behavior of other animals. This exertion may lead one to conclude that human sexuality, as a result of its biological and emotional components, is more complex than the sexuality of other species. (Balthazart, p.4)
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