Monday, November 9, 2015

The origin of the 'gay lisp' stereotype



Seth Green in "Party Monster"


We've all seen the depictions of gay men with lisps, limp wrists and effeminate characteristics (and maybe some of us are) but it is still an offensive, negative stereotype.  According to an article on Scencemag.org, studies have not succeeded in finding that a lisp is more prevalent in gay men rather than straight men.

A speech scientist at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities has shown how patterns of speech do correlate with gender and sexual orientation.

Sometimes.

The article talks about how gay men produce a crisper "s" sound, the level of crispiness falling somewhere between straight men and women.  To research this further, Benjamin Munson, the speech scientist studied 34 boys from ages 5 to 13 years old, diagnosed with gender dystopia, a condition in which a child feels a "distressing mismatch between the gender they experienced and the one assigned them at birth."

The delivery doctors see a penis and "assign" the baby as male.  And somehow this is flawed?

Also diagnosing a mental health disorder to a 5-year old because his parents perceive Little Johnny as being less macho than the other kindergarteners is simply tragic.

http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2015/11/where-did-gay-lisp-stereotype-come?rss=1

No comments: