Is there a ‘gay voice'? Why this student's controversial thesis went so viral
Is there such a thing as a "gay voice"? And if so, what constitutes it?
A linguistics student at the University of Oxford recently investigated this topic for her undergraduate thesis − and went viral in the process.
When Erin Broadhurst explained her thesis in a TikTok video interview on Oxford's campus, she became a viral sensation, getting over 8 million views, 1 million likes and thousands of comments from people curious about the controversial, and complicated, intersection of language, gender and sexuality.
Broadhurst says this intersection − an area of academia known as "lavender linguistics" − is one she's been passionate about for a while. It's also one that, she believes, warrants more research.
Given the massive response online to her thesis, it's clear others feel similarly.
"As a bisexual girl myself, I was interested in the queer side of linguistics," Broadhurst says. "Whether we are correct or not, we do form impressions of people's sexuality from their voices. But what is it within their voices that we are thinking sounds 'gay'?"
'A tiny piece in a massive puzzle'
Prior research on "gay voice," Broadhurst says, has primarily focused on gay men's vowel duration and sibilance, or the way they pronounce "s" and similar consonants.
So, when Broadhurst brought her thesis idea to her supervisor at Oxford, he suggested she look into word initial voice onset time, something that hasn't been heavily researched in regard to gay people.
Broadhurst describes this as the amount of time between a stop consonant − such as an unvoiced "t" or "p" sound − and a sound that requires the vocal folds to vibrate.
Do gay people exhibit a shorter or longer voice onset time than straight people do? And, if so, could that affect how their consonants sound, thus contributing to "gay voice"? Broadhurst wanted to find out.
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To do this, she analyzed the speech patterns of a pair of identical twins and prominent YouTubers: Sammy and Niki Albon. Sammy is straight, and Niki's gay. The fact that they're twins, Broadhurst says, helps limit confounding variables, such as regional dialect and upbringing. Plus, because they're YouTubers, there's plenty of high-quality audio of them talking available online for analysis.
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Broadhurst compared the twins' voice onset times to each other, hypothesizing that Niki, the gay twin, would have a longer voice onset time than Sammy, the straight twin. She found the opposite − Niki actually had the shorter voice onset time.
That's not all. Broadhurst also compared how each twin spoke when talking with straight people versus gay people. She found that both twins adjusted their voice onset times to match that of the person they were speaking to. When Niki and Sammy were speaking with a gay person, both twins' voice onset times got shorter. When they were speaking with a straight person, both their voice onset times got longer.
Broadhurst thinks this might have to do with something called "accommodation theory," which posits that people unconsciously mirror the speech patterns of who they're speaking with. After all, "if you want to build rapport with someone, you will kind of unconsciously make your voice more similar to that person," she says.
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All this warrants more research, Broadhurst says, but she hopes it continues to get people thinking about voice onset time and how it may contribute to what people think of as "gay voice."
"There have been tons and tons of people doing all sorts of research into that area," Broadhurst says. "What I did was just kind of a tiny piece in a massive puzzle of what people are trying to work out."
Why her viral thesis struck such a chord
Broadhurst has received thousands of comments − both positive and negative − about her thesis. Many find it fascinating. Others say it reinforces offensive stereotypes. Some worry it might give people with bad intentions more ways of discriminating against gay people.
Broadhurst understands these concerns but says her thesis was motivated by her love for the queer community and her desire to understand it better. She also says that the topic of "gay voice" is deeply complicated, involving sociological, cultural and interpersonal factors.
In her view, attempts to understand these nuances aren't reductive, but, rather, help reveal the complex nature of language itself.
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Broadhurst has since graduated from Oxford and is now pursuing a masters in forensic speech science at the University of York. She hopes to one day get a PhD.
She's enjoyed reading comments from people with suggestions on where research into lavender linguistics should go next. Overall, she hopes her viral thesis has encouraged more people to embrace their curiosity.
"I love that this whole thing has just had loads of people commenting their ideas," she says. "To any little girl or boy or whoever who's just constantly told that they're asking 'why' too often and asking too many questions, don't stop asking questions, because you can learn such cool stuff if you foster that curiosity within yourself."
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