Part of: Religion and Queerness
Authors: Yu-Che Jackson Chou, Tsung-Lun Alan Wan
Abstract:
Variationist sociolinguistics has explored the speech patterns of gay speakers, with most studies focusing on European and North American contexts. Levon’s (2009) work in the Israeli context stands out, as Israel has positioned itself as a gay-friendly country compared to its neighbors. However, self-conflicts were still observed among Orthodox Jewish men engaged in same-sex romantic and sexual relationships (Levon, 2015). Building on this, the current study shifts focus to Taiwan, the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage. Despite this milestone, conservative Christian institutions continue to resist LGBTQ rights. Drawing inspiration from Levon’s analysis of creaky voice as an index of “suppressed affect” in an Orthodox Jewish man, this study expanded the scope of speaker number and examines how six Christian gay speakers in Taiwan use creaky voice to navigate their conflicted identities. Through sociolinguistic interviews, the study systematically analyzes the indexical meanings associated with the use of creaky voice when discussing religion and gay-related topics.
The study investigates how creaky voice, coded categorically as present or absent in phonological environments (i.e., mid-falling tone) where it is likely to occur, varies quantitatively across different conversational topics. These topics include discussions of masculinity, emotional experiences, emotional suppression, gay-related issues, religious issues, and the conflicts between gay and Christian identities. With the diversity of the topics, we aim to provide insights into what indexicalities of creaky voice are utilized by the speakers. To expand upon previous research, we measured participants’ openness to gay identity (Meidlinger & Hope, 2014), different aspects of gay identity (Mohr & Kendra, 2011), and religious strength (Plante & Boccaccini, 1997). These measures aim to pinpoint the conflicts between identities without presuming that gay and Christian identities are inherently mutually exclusive.
Mixed-effects regression analysis on a group-level model revealed that creaky voice was statistically prominent in discussions of gay-related issues, emotional suppression, and identity conflicts. Interestingly, creaky voice was found statistically less prevalent in discourse related to masculinity, challenging the common association between creaks and masculinity. After including the psychometric measures in the model, only “outness” significantly improved model fit and showed interactions with certain topics. However, qualitative analysis of the speakers’ narratives did not clearly support these statistical interactions. Given the limited sample size (N=6), we interpret these interactions conservatively. Ultimately, the findings indicate that creaky voice can indeed index “suppressed affect,” derived from the social meaning of emotional suppression. This provides further evidence that the indexical meanings of creaky voice can be shared across speakers from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Reference
Levon, E. (2009). Dimensions of style: Context, politics and motivation in gay Israeli speech. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(1), 29-58. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00396.x
Levon, E. (2015). Conflicted Selves: Language, Religion, and Same-Sex Desire in Israel. In E. Levon & R. B. Mendes (Eds.), Language, Sexuality, and Power: Studies in Intersectional Sociolinguistics (pp. 215-239). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190210366.003.0011
Meidlinger, P. C., & Hope, D. A. (2014). Differentiating disclosure and concealment in measurement of outness for sexual minorities: The Nebraska Outness Scale. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 1(4), 489-497.
Mohr, J. J., & Kendra, M. S. (2011). Revision and extension of a multidimensional measure of sexual minority identity: the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity Scale. Journal of counseling psychology, 58(2), 234-245.
Plante, T. G., & Boccaccini, M. T. (1997). The Santa Clara strength of religious faith questionnaire. Pastoral Psychology, 45(5), 375-387.
