Why do gay men have high voices

There is a higher male prevalence of puberphonia, as the voice disorder is characterized by a high pitch that would be inappropriate for the age and gender of the patient. Instead, the disorder is usually psychogenic in nature, meaning resulting from psychological or emotional factors, [3] and stems from inappropriate use of the voice mechanism. The habitual use of a high pitch while speaking is associated with tense muscles surrounding the vocal folds. Without treatment, the changes in the patient's voice can become permanent. During puberty , changes in the larynx typically result in a decrease in pitch in both males and females.

Gay male speech , particularly within North American English , has been the focus of numerous modern stereotypes, as well as sociolinguistic studies. Scientific research has uncovered phonetically significant features produced by many gay men and demonstrated that listeners accurately guess speakers' sexual orientation at rates greater than chance. Research does not support the notion that gay speech entirely adopts feminine speech characteristics — rather, that it selectively adopts some of those features. Linguists have attempted to isolate exactly what makes gay men's English distinct from that of other demographics since the early 20th century, typically by contrasting it with straight male speech or comparing it to female speech. What is sometimes incorrectly described as a gay "lisp" [7] is one manner of speech stereotypically associated with gay speakers of North American English, and perhaps other dialects or languages.

These are the core obsessions that drive our newsroom—defining topics of seismic importance to the global economy. Our emails are made to shine in your inbox, with something fresh every morning, afternoon, and weekend. What he unpacks is a multi-layered cultural phenomenon ensconced more heavily in gender and misogyny than in sexuality.

On the Friday-night train journey he found himself surrounded by loud chattering gay men. He felt repelled. As soon as I started speaking to my peers, I discovered that our voice was something that most, if not all, of us had thought about at some point and had anxiety about. The results can be seen in his new documentary, Do I Sound Gay?