Acting Gay: Male Actors Shift the Frequency Components of Their Voices Towards Female Values When Playing Homosexual Characters

Cartei, Valentina; Reby, David

doi:10.1007/s10919-011-0123-4

Cited by 27 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…According to this account, because the defining features of gay/lesbian group membership (e.g., gay/lesbian identity, same-sex attraction) are not highly visible, gay and lesbian stereotypes developed—and persist—in culture specifically to create a set of highly visible cues that make it seem that these social groups are visibly identifiable. This function is readily apparent in the media, which has a history of using stereotypic cues to imply that a character is gay or lesbian (Cartei & Reby, 2012; Dennis, 2009; Russo, 1987). Indeed, an abundance of self-report, correlational, and experimental evidence has shown that people rely on stereotypic attributes, such as fashion, hairstyle, or femininity/masculinity, to make judgments about orientation (self-report: Matthews & Hill, 2011; Shelp, 2002; correlational: Ambady, Hallahan, & Conner, 1999; Freeman, Johnson, Ambady, & Rule, 2010, Studies 2 & 3; Gaudio, 1994; Johnson, Gill, Reichman, & Tassinary, 2007, Study 3; Rieger et al, 2010; Smyth, Jacobs, & Rogers, 2003; Van Borsel, & Van de Putte, 2014; experimental: Cox & Devine, 2014; Dotsch et al, 2011, Study 3; Freeman et al, 2010, Study 1; Johnson et al, 2007, Studies 1 & 2).…”

Section: Inferences About Sexual Orientation: the Role Of Stereotypesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferences About Sexual Orientation: The Roles of Stereotypes, Faces, and The Gaydar Myth

Cox¹,

Devine²,

Bischmann³

et al. 2015

The Journal of Sex Research

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In the present work, we investigate the pop cultural idea that people have a sixth sense, called “gaydar,” to detect who is gay. We propose that “gaydar” is an alternate label for using stereotypes to infer orientation (e.g., inferring that fashionable men are gay). Another account, however, argues that people possess a facial perception process that enables them to identify sexual orientation from facial structure (Rule et al., 2008). We report five experiments testing these accounts. Participants made gay-or-straight judgments about fictional targets that were constructed using experimentally-manipulated stereotypic cues and real gay/straight people’s face cues. These studies revealed that orientation is not visible from the face—purportedly “face-based” gaydar arises from a third-variable confound. People do, however, readily infer orientation from stereotypic attributes (e.g., fashion, career). Furthermore, the folk concept of gaydar serves as a legitimizing myth: Compared to a control group, people stereotyped more when led to believe in gaydar, whereas people stereotyped less when told gaydar is an alternate label for stereotyping. Discussion focuses on the implications of the gaydar myth and why, contrary to some prior claims, stereotyping is highly unlikely to result in accurate judgments about orientation.

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Section: Inferences About Sexual Orientation: the Role Of Stereotypesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferences About Sexual Orientation: The Roles of Stereotypes, Faces, and The Gaydar Myth

Cox¹,

Devine²,

Bischmann³

et al. 2015

The Journal of Sex Research

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“…For instance, homosexual males produce an expanded space in some vowels (here, the vowel/l/) more than heterosexual men, which is similar, although not identical, to heterosexual women [21]. On the other hand, despite the stereotype that homosexual men have female-like vocal traits and higher voice pitch in particular (even actors playing a gay role use higher-pitched voices [22]), the empirical data do not show any differences in mean voice pitch between homosexual and heterosexual men [4], [23]. Further, other research showed differences between homosexual and heterosexual men in vocal traits that usually do not differ between the sexes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived Sexual Orientation Based on Vocal and Facial Stimuli Is Linked to Self-Rated Sexual Orientation in Czech Men

Valentová

Havlı́ček

2013

PLoS ONE

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Previous research has shown that lay people can accurately assess male sexual orientation based on limited information, such as face, voice, or behavioral display. Gender-atypical traits are thought to serve as cues to sexual orientation. We investigated the presumed mechanisms of sexual orientation attribution using a standardized set of facial and vocal stimuli of Czech men. Both types of stimuli were rated for sexual orientation and masculinity-femininity by non-student heterosexual women and homosexual men. Our data showed that by evaluating vocal stimuli both women and homosexual men can judge sexual orientation of the target men in agreement with their self-reported sexual orientation. Nevertheless, only homosexual men accurately attributed sexual orientation of the two groups from facial images. Interestingly, facial images of homosexual targets were rated as more masculine than heterosexual targets. This indicates that attributions of sexual orientation are affected by stereotyped association between femininity and male homosexuality; however, reliance on such cues can lead to frequent misjudgments as was the case with the female raters. Although our study is based on a community sample recruited in a non-English speaking country, the results are generally consistent with the previous research and thus corroborate the validity of sexual orientation attributions.

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“…Dubbing seems to be a tool that functions in a similar way, as shown by the fact that the media portray characters in a stereotypical way by playing with vocal cues. This happens by choosing voice actors/actress whose voices are congruent with a certain stereotype (DeMarco, 2006a) or by asking actors acting a gay role to alter their voice in order to meet the "effeminacy" stereotype (Cartei & Reby, 2012). Starting with these observations, the present research, for the first time, experimentally investigated whether voice can be a tool to maintain stereotypes through dubbing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, our work suggests that voice is not only an input that conveys information which listeners pick up to make inferences about the speakers, but also an outcome that can be used to influence individuals' perceptions and beliefs. As actors and actresses mold their voice in order to fake it in one or another way (Cartei & Reby, 2012), producers can decide how to dub a character, enhancing or deconstructing stereotypes (e.g., by offering multifaceted characters with a different non-stereotypical voice, see Lenton et al, 2009). Hence, voice is an important tool that affects listeners in a subtle but effective way.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a matter of fact, television and movies have paid attention to such cues when portraying gay characters. For instance, Cartei and Reby (2012) have found that some American actors feminized their voice (by altering their way of speaking) when playing gay characters in order to meet stereotypes that want gay men to speak more "like a woman". The voice sound may also matter in dubbing.…”

Section: Dubbing and Stereotypesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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When Characters Impact on Dubbing: The Role of Sexual Stereotypes on Voice Actor/Actress’ Preferences

2016

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Dubbing is a procedure through which an original actor's voice is replaced with that of a voice actor, usually speaking a different language. Dubbing is not only an adaptation to language but also to cultural beliefs. Across 2 studies, we analyzed how some Italian participants would prefer a TV series’ character to sound like. In Study 1, participants read a male/female character description that was manipulated according to gender and sexual stereotypes in order to be masculine, feminine or neutral. Next, participants were asked to indicate their preference for 3 voice actors/actresses who sounded heterosexual, gay/lesbian or ambivalent. Study 2 tested the interplay between a character’s description and the voice of the English-speaking (gay/lesbian- vs. heterosexual-sounding) actor/actress who played the role in the original TV series on dubbing preferences. The results of both studies showed that a character's description affected dubbing preferences. Participants preferred the gay/lesbian-sounding voice actor/actress to the counter-stereotypical character (i.e., a feminine man or a masculine woman) and the heterosexual -sounding voice actor/actress to the stereotypical character. Interestingly, at least for male targets, the original actor's voice itself affected the preference for voice actors in the same way. This work suggests that dubbing can maintain and reinforce stereotypes

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Acting Gay: Male Actors Shift the Frequency Components of Their Voices Towards Female Values When Playing Homosexual Characters

Cited by 27 publications

References 58 publications

Inferences About Sexual Orientation: The Roles of Stereotypes, Faces, and The Gaydar Myth

Inferences About Sexual Orientation: The Roles of Stereotypes, Faces, and The Gaydar Myth

Perceived Sexual Orientation Based on Vocal and Facial Stimuli Is Linked to Self-Rated Sexual Orientation in Czech Men

When Characters Impact on Dubbing: The Role of Sexual Stereotypes on Voice Actor/Actress’ Preferences

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