Sounding Dyke-ish: Demystifying the Conventions of Lesbian Speech

Abstract

The domain of queer studies as it pertains to sociolinguistic research has been predominantly concerned with analyzing the speech of gay men, while very little has been said about the nature of lesbian speech patterns. This failure to consider the speech of gay women as theoretically significant is a direct product of male supremacy as well as the unique combination of oppressive forces that ostracize lesbian existence, including misogyny and homophobia. This paper navigates a linguistic-anthropological approach towards dissecting the particulars of lesbian speech, drawing from a number of quantitative studies in tandem with queer theory. Data collected on phonetic and stylistic variables such as pitch, intonation, articulation, and politeness elucidate the complexities of lesbian speech habits, while shedding light on the phenomenon of “enforced invisibility” that hinders further research on the matter. Qualitative analyses on the social ramifications of perceived lesbian speech contest the reductive notion that lesbians merely seek to mimic the speech of heterosexual males, suggesting that the subversiveness of lesbian speech is inherent to the perceived deviance of the identity.