Materializing gay identity

Abstract

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.