Heh...
But, haven't you ever wondered why the hell they talk that way?
It's not exactly a lisp. It's a distinct accent or something. I can't describe it, but I know it when I hear it.
The question never coalesced in my brain. I was just trying to imagine a reason after reading your post.
I had a gay relative, and from listening to him and his gay friends there IS something in their manner of speaking which serves to pick out gays. This is an advantage to gays trying to make their orientation evident to other gays, so perhaps it's something in gay culture that's picked up.
It’s not exactly a lisp. It’s a distinct accent or something. I can’t describe it, but I know it when I hear it.Perhaps it’s Austrian?
I think a lot of what they do is talk with clenched teeth which produces something that’s almost like a lisp but not quite. Not uncommon for women to do this as well. For a common reference point listen to Mary Matalin. She does this. Course it doesn’t sound gay when a woman does it LOL.
Why do they talk that way? It’s a tribal thing. There are tons of sub-cultures that talk a certain way and gay is only one among many IMHO. Try -
- Airplane pilots (they’ve all got that Chuck Yeager thing going on).
- Football announcers (Keith Jackson?)
- Anyone having anything to do with Nascar.
- Radio Announcers - different sounds depending on the format. For NPR btw see above - the males all sound gay to me.
- Blacks
- etc. etc. etc.