Current Events > When gay men have stereotypical lisps, is it natural or put on?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Obviously not all gay men do.
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Only like 1/10 of the gay men I know has the lisp at all. Far as I'm concerned it's a dead stereotype. Hell I know more straight dudes who talk like that than gay dudes.
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More importantly, why do so many nerds have lisps and speech problems?
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I don't know, but I had a gay friend in highschool who had absolutely no lisp (since knowing him, and according to his brother, never) until he came out after graduation, at which point he had a monster stereotypically gay lisp. So either the non-lisp was put on for almost 18 years, or the lisp was put on.

ForestLogic posted...

More importantly, why do so many nerds have lisps and speech problems?

Imagine that you're normal looking (not overweight, not overly athletic, etc.) in elementary school. Take a version of you with a lisp/speech problem and a version of you without. Which one gets bullied?
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ForestLogic posted...

More importantly, why do so many nerds have lisps and speech problems?

Among other things, it could be linked to some brain wiring stuff for how we learn. I had a speech impediment as a child and my biggest issue was r sounds. Weird in hindsight but I also was reading middle school material by the time I was finishing first grade so. :/ Who knows, maybe the fact I was not socializing as much was why I didn't get exposed to how r sounds are pronounced enough to naturally pick up on it.There's also that brief period as an infant where I was deaf for a few weeks or months and afterwards I became extremely picky.

But then there's tons of other nerds I've met who had speech impediments as kids too.

Most outgrow them. But then I have met more than a few who still have them. Lots of wa wu wo noises on sounds that shouldn't have them.
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gunplagirl posted...

ForestLogic posted...

More importantly, why do so many nerds have lisps and speech problems?

Among other things, it could be linked to some brain wiring stuff for how we learn. I had a speech impediment as a child and my biggest issue was r sounds. Weird in hindsight but I also was reading middle school material by the time I was finishing first grade so. :/ Who knows, maybe the fact I was not socializing as much was why I didn't get exposed to how r sounds are pronounced enough to naturally pick up on it.There's also that brief period as an infant where I was deaf for a few weeks or months and afterwards I became extremely picky.

But then there's tons of other nerds I've met who had speech impediments as kids too.

Most outgrow them. But then I have met more than a few who still have them. Lots of wa wu wo noises on sounds that shouldn't have them.

You sure you're not just from Boston? We all have issues with the lettah 'R'
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lol. That WOULD definitely do it as well. But no, I'm from Washington. So plenty of kids and (military, ergo young) parents asked my mom why she didn't have the same accent I did.

Then again those same kids and parents thought I was 'special' because again, up to middle school content by the time I was in first grade. I was speaking way beyond their level of education.

And look at me now, a mildly cute girl with plenty of other girls who hit on me and we touch butts. Why don't more nerds just admit they're trans girls and come to the estrogen side of the force.
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It's both and more. There's the 'me' I show to strangers and at work, and the way I present myself around people I feel completely comfortable with. Somewhere out there, there's also the person I imagine I might someday become.

One can't really exist in society without learning how you are expected to look and sound, and society claps back hard at people who can't pass, so we all learn that sooner or later. At the same time we also want to model ourselves after the people we admire and for a lot of gay men those are women with strong personalities and a larger than life presence who overcame adversity to be themselves.
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How is this stereotypical? wut
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gunplagirl posted...

ForestLogic posted...

More importantly, why do so many nerds have lisps and speech problems?

Among other things, it could be linked to some brain wiring stuff for how we learn. I had a speech impediment as a child and my biggest issue was r sounds. Weird in hindsight but I also was reading middle school material by the time I was finishing first grade so. :/ Who knows, maybe the fact I was not socializing as much was why I didn't get exposed to how r sounds are pronounced enough to naturally pick up on it.There's also that brief period as an infant where I was deaf for a few weeks or months and afterwards I became extremely picky.

But then there's tons of other nerds I've met who had speech impediments as kids too.

Most outgrow them. But then I have met more than a few who still have them. Lots of wa wu wo noises on sounds that shouldn't have them.

I think that nerds generally have a poor sense of visual and auditory subtlety. It's why their taste in media is usually, by conventional standards, terrible; why it's more common for nerds to put the emphasis on the "incorrect" syllables; why, even when they try to look fashionable, they don't pull it off because they miss some subtlety and end up just looking strange.

None of this is meant to be negative. It's great that people are truly diverse (as opposed to the superficial definition of diverse, i.e. skin colour).

It's generally a conscious effort for some, an unconscious tick in others, and just plain natural speaking voices for the rest. The gay guys that do it consciously, do so to make themselves easier to identify, though plenty of straight and gay men have a lisp either way. Too lazy to look right now, but I remember seeing an experiment when they had some guys who had lisps under anesthesia and they would lose the lisp while they were under. Sometimes

The big thing skewing these numbers, however, is confirmation bias. You assume the lisp means someone is gay and don't keep track of how many times you've been wrong about the assumptions versus how many times you have been right. You also aren't likely to realize how many guys without lisps are gay since you're not looking for it.
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My roommate is gay and he switches to a different voice around other gay guys
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my question is a lot of gay guys I know act and talk like caricatures of women

at that point, are you not just trans?

YonicBoom posted...

Only like 1/10 of the gay men I know has the lisp at all. Far as I'm concerned it's a dead stereotype. Hell I know more straight dudes who talk like that than gay dudes.

Yea but somehow I doubt you know an anywhere near equal number of gay and straight men.
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I think gay men are naturally inclined to have a lisp, that is, if they're bottoms.

Bottoms fill the passive feminine role in the relationship and that role would probably manifest in other feminine mannerisms.

Easy to explain really.
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gunplagirl posted...

ForestLogic posted...

More importantly, why do so many nerds have lisps and speech problems?

Among other things, it could be linked to some brain wiring stuff for how we learn. I had a speech impediment as a child and my biggest issue was r sounds. Weird in hindsight but I also was reading middle school material by the time I was finishing first grade so. :/ Who knows, maybe the fact I was not socializing as much was why I didn't get exposed to how r sounds are pronounced enough to naturally pick up on it.There's also that brief period as an infant where I was deaf for a few weeks or months and afterwards I became extremely picky.

But then there's tons of other nerds I've met who had speech impediments as kids too.

Most outgrow them. But then I have met more than a few who still have them. Lots of wa wu wo noises on sounds that shouldn't have them.

Pretty much me too.
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I have a theory that the lisp is caused by trying to talk like women do. Is this because they hang out with women more than men? Is it because their brain is more feminine? I don't know.
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None of my friends had lisps. Isn't a lisp more of an actual speech problem anyway?

I personally think lisps are freaking adorable!
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Pepys Monster posted...

I have a theory that the lisp is caused by trying to talk like women do. Is this because they hang out with women more than men? Is it because their brain is more feminine? I don't know.

Idk man, I possess a dick, but I'm into women and mostly hang out with chicks. I don't have a lisp.
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my dissertation involves this phenomenon, my current working hypothesis is the imbalance in testosterone causing an influx of taste molecules enlarging the tongue to produce the effect
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Pepys Monster posted...

I have a theory that the lisp is caused by trying to talk like women do.

Do women have lisps tho >_>
*not in the sense that 'can women have lisps', in the sense that why would putting on a lisp be a feminine thing to do
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A man trying to sound feminine is what make the lisp.
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Xelltrix posted...

It's generally a conscious effort for some, an unconscious tick in others, and just plain natural speaking voices for the rest. The gay guys that do it consciously, do so to make themselves easier to identify, though plenty of straight and gay men have a lisp either way. Too lazy to look right now, but I remember seeing an experiment when they had some guys who had lisps under anesthesia and they would lose the lisp while they were under. Sometimes

The big thing skewing these numbers, however, is confirmation bias. You assume the lisp means someone is gay and don't keep track of how many times you've been wrong about the assumptions versus how many times you have been right. You also aren't likely to realize how many guys without lisps are gay since you're not looking for it.

probably the most insightful post in this topic
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What kind of women you guys meet where they have lisps??? Lisps=\=women speaking.
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