In my ENG240 class (the language of gender and sexuality), something we discussed recently was the topic of gay-sounding voices. What does this mean? What does this say about society and their attitudes to voices and queerness? One question that was addressed is, are society’s attitudes towards these voices misogyny, homophobia, or a blend of the two? For me, I considered how gay-sounding voices often share qualities women and feminine people use as they speak: held out vowels, upspeak, and high-frequency s’s. Since society doesn’t like the sound of women’s voices (think Hilary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election), this may be a reason why misogyny can tie into the distaste for gay-sounding voices. In terms of homophobia, it’s no secret the LGBTQ community isn’t 100% accepted anywhere. Since these voices can “out” a person, it could be worst for the speaker and lead to unpleasant meetings in public with strangers.
“Gay-sounding” Voices
Square
It is absolutely mind boggling that we as people try to assume people’s sexual preferences purely based off of their voices. Everyone has different inflections when they are excited or scared for example. People with deep voices still scream like children when they are scared. This often subconscious preference uncovers a lot of the more misogynistic and predatory tendencies that we share as a society.