4 ms·

> Participants were not informed of the sexual orientation of the person but allowed to freely guess from the voice or face of the individual. > ‘gay- sounding

> Participants were not informed of the sexual orientation of the person but allowed to freely guess from the voice or face of the individual. > ‘gay- sounding’ voice Jesus, it's batshit-insane to me that people still think like this.

mathw 10y ago
It's awful. I know plenty of straight guys who have a "gay-sounding" voice, and I'm gay but people tell me I sound "straight", which at least in my experience means this is all complete nonsense. What they really mean is that if someone thinks you're gay or lesbian then you're likely to suffer from homophobic discrimination. While a reminder of that is probably useful for the world at large, it's not new to anybody who identifies outside the straight cisgender categories. Or actually, anybody who is straight and cis who somebody has decided "looks gay".
- joestr87 10y ago
  I know right? People look for things that confirm their own biases ("X Y and Z are gay and they sound like this"). Oh, and I wasn't having a go at the study, even if it is a little ropey, just bewildered that people still think in that way. Like people thinking that if you're black you probably talk a certain way, or like certain music.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > What they really mean is that if someone thinks you're gay or lesbian then you're likely to suffer from homophobic discrimination. Discrimination is always based on characteristics as percieved by the one doing the discrimination.
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redsummer 10y ago
People are pretty accurate at judging 'gay faces': https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/something-queer-about-that-face/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/somethin... I'm sure voices are similar. I expect an AI would be able to distinguish without too many problems.
- joestr87 10y ago
  "For example, when shown only the eye region ("without brows and cropped to the outer canthi so that not even "crow's-feet" were visible"), perceivers were amazingly still able to accurately identify a man as being gay" That's pretty mental.

mathw 10y ago

It's awful. I know plenty of straight guys who have a "gay-sounding" voice, and I'm gay but people tell me I sound "straight", which at least in my experience means this is all complete nonsense. What they really mean is that if someone thinks you're gay or lesbian then you're likely to suffer from homophobic discrimination. While a reminder of that is probably useful for the world at large, it's not new to anybody who identifies outside the straight cisgender categories. Or actually, anybody who is straight and cis who somebody has decided "looks gay".

joestr87 10y ago
I know right? People look for things that confirm their own biases ("X Y and Z are gay and they sound like this"). Oh, and I wasn't having a go at the study, even if it is a little ropey, just bewildered that people still think in that way. Like people thinking that if you're black you probably talk a certain way, or like certain music.
dragonwriter 10y ago
> What they really mean is that if someone thinks you're gay or lesbian then you're likely to suffer from homophobic discrimination. Discrimination is always based on characteristics as percieved by the one doing the discrimination.

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redsummer 10y ago

People are pretty accurate at judging 'gay faces': https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/something-queer-about-that-face/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/somethin... I'm sure voices are similar. I expect an AI would be able to distinguish without too many problems.

joestr87 10y ago
"For example, when shown only the eye region ("without brows and cropped to the outer canthi so that not even "crow's-feet" were visible"), perceivers were amazingly still able to accurately identify a man as being gay" That's pretty mental.