The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick
33. Can Someone 'Sound Gay'?
The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick
Rusty Barrett [+]
University of Kentucky
Rusty Barrett is an Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Kentucky. His research focuses on language and gender, language and sexuality, Mayan languages, and language revitalization. He is the author of From Drag Queens to Leathermen: Language, Gender, and Gay Male Subcultures (Oxford University Press) and (with Kira Hall) is a co-editor of the (forthcoming) Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality.
Description
Whether someone can ‘sound gay’ depends on a listener having stereotyped assumptions of how gay people supposedly talk. Because such judgements are based on stereotypes, there is no direct relationship between how one speaks and their sexual orientation.