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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Sexuality
Vol. 8:1 (2019) ► pp.30–52

Materializing gay identity

An analysis of gay-sounding speech in Thai

| Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand
| National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), Bangkok, Thailand

This paper aims at investigating (1) whether young Thai adults can distinguish between straight male and gay-sounding speech and (2) how listeners feel about speech sounds performed by Thai straight and gay speakers in varying situations in terms of likeability and annoyance. Two experiments were conducted: first, straight males, gay males and females listened to voice stimuli of self-identified straight males and gay males and were asked to identify the sexual orientation of the speakers; second, another three groups of listeners were asked to rate the speakers’ levels of likeability and annoyance using a 5-point Likert scale. The findings indicate that there exist voice characteristics of gay- as opposed to straight-male sounding speech. Regarding the listeners’ perception in relation to speech style in four varying situations, the results indicate that listeners’ perception is not affected by situations in which the speech is delivered.

Keywords: straight male speech, gay-sounding speech, gay male speakers, straight male speakers, gendered voice
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Recent research on gay-sounding speech: Concepts and approaches
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1First experiment
      • 4.1.1Speakers and their task
      • 4.1.2Recording
      • 4.1.3Listeners and their tasks
      • 4.1.4Findings of the first experiment
    • 4.2Second experiment
      • 4.2.1Speakers and their task
      • 4.2.2Recording
      • 4.2.3Listeners and their task
      • 4.2.4Evaluation form
      • 4.2.5Findings of the second experiment
        • Three groups of listeners
        • Voice stimuli (from Speaker SM1, SM2, SM2toGM, and GM2) in relation to other variables
        • Situations: Formal and informal settings, and academic and non-academic contents
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 March 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.17013.osa
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