Updated -- the original posting was uncharacteristically critical, and I changed it.--------------
Gay men sometimes intuitively guess if someone else is gay by engaging in a guessing game using "gaydar."
What's "gaydar?" Well, according to an article in Wikipedia:
Gaydar ... refers to the intuitive ability to assess someone's sexual orientation as gay, bisexual, or straight. The function of gaydar relies on usually non-verbal sensory information and intuitions. These include the sensitivity to social behaviors and mannerisms....
My gaydar went off as I observed this young man texting away on his cell phone while he was seated at National Airport across from me.
I did not talk to the guy, but heard him speaking when his cell phone rang. His voice had a distinctive "gay sound." According to another website, the sound is called a lisp, though not actually a lisp. It is described thusly:
The markers of this speech pattern include higher than normal pitch that changes frequently and rapidly, a breathy tone, long fricatives, and a very careful pronunciation style.
He waved his other hand a lot while speaking, and generally gave off many signals that made my gaydar go off.
Is there anything wrong with that? No... and I never said the guy was or was not gay. It was behaviors I was observing that are similar to behaviors I have observed in some gay men I know. It doesn't matter if he is or is not gay. What I'm describing is that there are some behaviors that some men do that give signals that other gay men can read.
1 comment:
My son says the same things all the time. He's fifteen and finds older gay men very attractive, yet cannot abide queers his own age. He says they are facile, empty, self-absorbed, not MANLY at all.
I have thought the same things for a long time, but I just thought it was because I was older and favored the kind of manliness that was typical of leathermen of the 70/80's, but now I think it's part of a larger trend.
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