I don't have a particularly large circle of people I talk to. Basically, there's my family, the people I interact with through work, and youse mob here on the blog. And since the tiny handful of gay men that I know well enough to ask this question to are too masculine to answer it, I'm going to throw it out here and see if anyone can tell me anything.
But first, a little back story …
The other day, I had to discuss a job with a client … or at least try to. From the guy's accent it was clear that he wasn't born in Australia. I'm going to guess he was Greek … or maybe Macedonian? Look, I don't really know, the point is he had a reasonably heavy accent, but not so thick you couldn't deal with it. However, on top of the accent he also had a pronounced Elmer Fudd type speech impediment (I believe the proper term is rhotacism?), where all of his "L" and "R" sounds were coming out as "W". AND on top of that, he also had one of the gayest gay "accents" I've ever heard outside of stage or screen.
After chatting to this bloke for nearly an hour about the pros and cons of responsive web design versus dedicated mobile phone apps, I was relieved to be able to end the conversation. As you may know, if you've ever had to have a serious and prolonged dialogue with somebody working in an overseas call-centre, talking turkey to someone whose speech is that difficult to decipher can be downright draining. As I thought about it though, a couple of questions started going around and around in my head …
First of all, exactly how much of the gay lilt is natural and how much of it is a performance? If it's completely natural, what causes it? Why does it manifest in only a subset of gay men? Why is there no equivalent in gay women? And are there equivalents found in languages other than English? If it's more of a conscious affectation, what's the point of it? Is it predominantly about signalling to other gay men? How many gay men actually find that way of talking attractive? Can it be modulated, or turned off altogether? And if it can, why the fuck would you purposefully choose to layer it ON TOP of a foreign accent AND a fucking speech impediment!?
You know, in spite of all the docos I've seen, and shit I've read about linguistics and sexuality as separate and independent topics, I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about the way they influence each other—and I've certainly never heard anyone explain the phenomenon of gay-speak. I'm not saying that nobody ever has, and given how prevalent it is, I would have to assume that somebody almost certainly has, it's just not something that I've ever come across.
And so, I throw this question open to you, my friends. Has anybody here ever had it explained to them by a gay mate? Have you ever read anything? Seen anything? Can anybody shed any light on this whatsoever?
2 comments :
I do not know the answer to this; what I can say is that there are some guys at my work I would have sworn were gay, but turned out not to be (well, at least, they married a woman).
As to the other thing, YES I sometimes just end conversations with people with insane accents because I get the shits with putting up with it, it's so exhausting (particularly some Indians - how do they even understand each other??). I don't know if that makes me racist or just impatient.
I know it's a common thing to do, but I'm NOT a fan of this practice of shoveling every commentary or critique of human differences under the umbrella of racism, sexism, etc-phobia. To your point, I have also found the Indian accent to be the hardest to understand. I once added an English language news show from India to my podcasts list, with the expectation that it would help in that regard. I dropped it after about six months, because I'd made absolutely no progress. I'm starting to wonder if there isn't some specific issue with people who are used to hearing the Australian accent.
From memory, I think I've met one super effeminate bloke who fit all the gay stereotypes but turned out to be hetero. That was in the early 2000s. I will say, however, that when I go into the city now, I do see a lot of really androgynous looking young people, who I sometimes can't even tell if they're men or women. That seems to be a bit of a trend these days.
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