“Do I sound gay or masculine?” - sociolinguistic judgment task on gender and sexuality: a socio-phonetic investigation of mean ‘pitch’
Abstract
The present article discusses the findings of a sociolinguistic judgment task regarding the effect of the mean ‘pitch’ variable on the perception of how masculine or gay a particular man sound. Perception is generally associated with a construct relative to the set of processes through which our cognition recognizes, organizes, and understands the sensations received from external stimuli. Considering this, the discussion explores how axes of social differentiation regarding gender and sexuality can be indexed and associated with specific linguistic forms in sociolinguistic perception. For the construction of the experiment, eight male voices were selected from which two paired stimuli were devised: the first maintaining the original mean ‘pitch’ and the other with a mean ‘pitch’ altered by +30Hz. The experiment was conducted online with the assistance of Google Forms, and the presentation design of stimuli to listeners was within-subject. In total, 265 listeners participated in the final experiment. The data were modeled and analyzed using the R programming language. The overall results indicate a uniform direction of perception for the speakers: when respondents interacted with the stimulus at +30Hz, seven speakers (Carlos, Lucas, Vitor, Matheus, Neto, Ricardo, Johny) out of the eight speakers were perceived as sounding more gay and less masculine. The central contribution of this study lies in the broadening of perspectives on the control of the gender variable in sociolinguistics. Instead of understanding gender as a binary and fixed category or even as a synonym for biological sex, this article proposes to consider a control of two axes of social differentiation: masculinity and gayness.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Referências
Agha, A. (2003). The social life of cultural value. Language & Communication, 23(3-4), 231-273. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0271-5309(03)00012-0
Avery, J. D., & Liss, J. M. (1996). Acoustic characteristics of less-masculine sounding male speech. Journal of The Acoustical Society of America, 99 (6), 3738-3748.
Bernaards, C., Gilbert, P., & Jennrich, R. I. (2005). GPArotation: Gradient Projection Factor rotation. Retrieved from https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=GPArotation
Boersma, P., & Weenik, D. (2015). PRAAT: Doing phonetics by computer. Retrieved from http://www.praat.org/
Borine, M. (2007). Consciência, emoção e cognição: o efeito do priming afetivo subliminar em tarefas de atenção. Ciências & Cognição, 11(1), 67-79
Bourdieu, P. (2002). A dominação masculina (2ª ed., M. H. Kühner, Trad.). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Bertrand Brasil
Braid, A. C. M. (2003). Fonética Forense: tratado de perícias criminalísticas. Campinas, SP: Millenium.
Bucholtz, M. (2003). Theories of discourse as theories of gender: discourse analysis in language and gender studies. In J. Holmes & M. Meyerhoff (Eds.), The handbook of language and gender (p. 43-68). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2004). Theorizing identity in language and sexuality research. Language in Society, 33(4), 469-515. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404504334020
Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4-5), 585-614. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407
Butler, J. (2003). Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade (22a ed.). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Civilização Brasileira.
Cameron, D. (1997). Performing gender identity: Young men’s talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In S. Johnson & U. H. Meinhof (Eds.), Language and masculinity (p. 47-64). New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwel.
Cameron, D., & Kulick, D. (2003). Language and sexuality. Cambridge, GB: Cambridge University Press.
Chesebro, J. W. (1981). Gayspeak: gay male/lesbian communication. New York, NY: Pilgrim Press.
Cheshire, J.(2002). Sex and gender in variationist research. In J. K.Chambers, P. Trudgill, & N. Schilling-Estes (Eds.), Handbook of language variation and change (p. 423-434). Oxford: Blackwell,.
Clempi, C. B. (2024). Contribuições de teorias sociais de gênero para o estudo da mudança linguística: uma discussão sobre a implementação de marcas de 3P associadas a “você” (Tese de Doutorado). Universidade Estadual Paulista, Faculdade de Ciências e Letras, Araraquara.
Coates, J. (2015). Women, men and language: a sociolinguistic account of gender differences in language (3rd ed.). London, GB: Routledge.
Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities: Knowledge, power and social change. Berkeley/Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Connell, R. W., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2013). Masculinidade hegemônica: repensando o conceito. Revista Estudos Feministas, 21(1), 241-282. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-026X2013000100014
Crist, S. (1997). Duration of onset consonants in gay male stereotyped speech. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 4(3), 53-70.
Drager, K. (2014). Experimental methods in sociolinguistics. In J. Holmes & K. Hazen (Eds.), Research methods in sociolinguistics: a pratical guide (p. 58-73). Chichester, GB: WileyBlackwell.
Eckert, P. (1989). Jocks and Burnouts: social categories and identity in the high school. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Eckert, P. (2012). Three waves of variation study: the emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Annual Review of Anthropology, 41, 87-100.
Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (1992). Think practically and look locally: language and gender as community-based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology, 21(1), 461-488. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.21.100192.002333
Eckert, P., & Podesva, R. J. (2011). Sociophonetics and sexuality: Toward a symbiosis of sociolinguistics and laboratory phonology. American Speech, 86(1), 6-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-1277465
Freitag, R. M. K. (2015). (Re)Discutindo sexo/gênero na sociolinguística. In R. M. K. Freitag & C. G. Severo (Orgs.), Mulheres, linguagem e poder: estudos de gênero na sociolinguística brasileira (p. 17-74). São Paulo, SP: Blucher.
Gal, S. (2016). Sociolinguistic differentiation. In N. Coupland (Ed.), Sociolinguistics: Theoretical debates (p. 113-136). Cambridge, GB: Cambridge University Press.
Gal, S., & Irvine, J. T. (2019). Signs of difference: language and ideology in social life. Cambridge, GB: Cambridge University Press.
Gaudio, R. P. (1994). Sounding gay: pitch properties in the speech of gay and straight men. American Speech, 69(1), 30-57.
Kent, R. D., & Read, C. (2015). Análise acústica da fala. São Paulo, SP: Cortez.
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Ladefoged, P., & Maddieson, I. (1996). The sounds of the world's languages. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Lambert, W. E., Hodgson, R. C., Gardner, R. C., & Fillenbaum, S. (1960) Evaluational reactions to spoken languages. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60(1), 44-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/h0044430
Leap, W. L. (1995). Beyond the lavender lexicon: authenticity, affiliation, and the normativity of ‘gay’. Journal of Homosexuality, 25(4), 99-118.
Leap, W. L. (1996). Word’s Out: Gay Men’s English (NED-New edition). University of Minnesota Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttv95n
Levon, E. (2006). Hearing “gay”: Prosody, interpretation, and the affective judgments of men’s speech. American Speech, 81(1), 56-78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-2006-003
Levon, E. (2007). Sexuality in context: variation and the sociolinguistic perception of identity. Language in Society, 36(4), 533-554.
Levon, E., & Mendes, R. B. (2016). Language, sexuality, and power: studies in intersectional sociolinguistics. Oxford University Press.
Linville, S. E. (1998). Acoustic Correlates of Perceived versus Actual Sexual Orientation in Men’s Speech. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 50, 35–48. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1159/000021447
Livia, A., & Hall, K. (1997). Queerly phrased: language, gender, and sexuality. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Malhotra, Naresh K. (2010). Review of marketing research. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
McElhinny, B. (2014). Theorizing gender in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. In S. Ehrlich, M. Meyerhoff, & J. Holmes (Eds.), The handbook of language, gender, and sexuality (p. 19-41). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Mendes, R. B. (2018). Percepção e performance de masculinidades: efeitos da concordância nominal de número e da pronúncia de /e/ nasal (Tese de Livre Docência). Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.
Milroy, L., & Milroy, J. (1992). Social network and social class: toward an integrated sociolinguistic model. Language in Society, 21(1), 1-26.
Moonwomon, B. (1985). Towards a study of lesbian language. In S. Bremner, N. Caskey, & B. Moonwomon (Eds.), Proceedings of the first Berkeley women and language conference (p. 96-107). Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group,
Munson, B. (2007). The acoustic correlates of perceived masculinity, perceived femininity, and perceived sexual orientation. Language and Speech, 50(1), 125-142. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309070500010601
Ochs, E. (1996). Linguistic resources for socializing humanity. In J. J. Gumperz, & S. C. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (p. 407-437). Cambridge, GB: Cambridge University Press.
Osgood, C. E., Suci, G. J., & Tannenbaum, P. H. (1957). The measurement of meaning. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Patil, I. (2024). ggstatsplot: 'ggplot2' Based Plots with Statistical Details. Retrieved from https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ggstatsplot
R Core Team. (2021). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, AU: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
Revelle, W. (2024). psych: procedures for psychological, psychometric, and personality research. Retrieved from https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=psych
Rickford, J. R. (1986). Social contact and linguistic diffusion: hiberno-english and new world black english. Language, 62(2), 245-289.
Sene, M. G. (2022). A percepção sociolinguística de gênero e sexualidade: efeitos da duração de /s/ e do pitch médio (Tese de Doutorado). Universidade Estadual Paulista ‘Júlio de Mesquita Filho’, Araraquara.
Smyth, R., Jacobs, G., & Rogers, H. (2003). Male voices and perceived sexual orientation: An experimental and theoretical approach. Language in Society, 32, 329-350. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047404503323024
Smyth, R., Jacobs, G., & Rogers, H. (2003). Male voices and perceived sexual orientation: An experimental and theoretical approach. Language in Society, 32(3), 329 350. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404503323024
Trudgill, P. (1974). The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY AND COPYRIGHTS
I Declare that current article is original and has not been submitted for publication, in part or in whole, to any other national or international journal.
The copyrights belong exclusively to the authors. Published content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) guidelines, which allows sharing (copy and distribution of the material in any medium or format) and adaptation (remix, transform, and build upon the material) for any purpose, even commercially, under the terms of attribution.
Read this link for further information on how to use CC BY 4.0 properly.
Funding data
-
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
Grant numbers Código do Financiamento 001
6.png){kind=logo}
