Comment by YeGoblynQueenne

6 years ago

>> The pattern of clear starts and stops between words and limited range of pitch used sounds “male” to my ears.

This sounds like an exaggerated stereotype of how men speak. Interestingly, the stereotype is different for men from Southern European countries who are said to speak in a sing-songy voice with vowels flowing together between words like vocal ligatures.

For example, this stereotype is used for satirical effect in the following strip:

https://pbfcomics.com/comics/automatic-business/

I wouldn’t say it’s particularly exaggerated; the “gay voice” is basically male pitch ranges with stereotypically feminine prosody and/or alliteration (I don’t say this as a mockery at all; there’s a documentary on Netflix that goes into the origins of this).

Though I do agree that gender norms are largely cultural — but it doesn’t change the fact that a Spanish man sounds “gay” to most Americans.

  • >> Though I do agree that gender norms are largely cultural — but it doesn’t change the fact that a Spanish man sounds “gay” to most Americans.

    In that case, talking of a certain vocal style as being masculine or feminine, without a cultural qualifier, is meaningless. You should clarify that "this is how men speak in the US" or some such.

    I don't know if I'd take a Netflix documentary as evidence that a stereotype is accurate.

    • There’s ample SLP research and documentation on all of this and I think you’re battling a straw man.

      Edit: also your edit is just plain offensive. You have no idea what you’re talking about.

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