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The prevalence of lisping in gay men
John Van Borsel1, Els De Bruyn, Evelien Lefebvre
1Ghent University Hospital, Gent, Belgium. john.vanborsel@ugent.be
Unlabelled:
This study evaluated the stereotype that gay men lisp. Two clinicians who were unaware of the specific purpose of the study and the populations involved judged randomized audio-recordings of 175 gay males, 100 heterosexual males and 100 heterosexual females for the presence of lisping during reading of a standardized text. In the gay males a significantly higher prevalence of lisping was found than in the heterosexual males and females. Breakdown of the results of the gay participants in two different age groups showed a higher prevalence of lisping in the younger age group than in the older age group. No relation was found between lisping and age of coming-out or lisping and the probability of being gay as assessed by a questionnaire about sexual orientation. The origin of the high prevalence of lisping in gay men needs further investigation.
Learning Outcomes:
The readers of this article will able (1) to discuss articulatory behaviour as a possible marker that may distinguish gay from heterosexual men (2) to discuss the prevalence of lisping in gay men.
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