Is there such a thing as 'lesbian voice'?

Yes, imo. Paula Poundstone is a good example. Or Greta Van Susteren.

Yes. k.d. lang, Melissa Etheridge, and Paula Poundstone all have it.

It's kind of like a teenage boy's voice.

Who can ear them over all the flailing gays?

*hear

Jodie Foster and Rachel on MSNBC

Gillian Anderson, too

Of course not.

Hannah Wilke, sort-of... although she was straight.

Nancy Kulp owns this thread.

[R9] Nancy Kulp is also a style icon.

[R1] Weren't all the charges against Paula Poundstone embarrassingly dropped the day after 9/11 so no one would report on it?

Yes, Jodie Foster. I knew she was lez just by listening to her

Buddy on "Family" from the 80's

One marker I've noticed among the womyn listed is the opposite of a sibilant S -- the "shushing S." Like Liza's, only dykey.

[quote]Weren't all the charges against Paula Poundstone embarrassingly dropped the day after 9/11 so no one would report on it?

I actually missed that story, but just Googled...yikes! That deserves its own thread, if we don't have one for her already.

Well, they do call me "Sir" a lot.

Ellen's the Mainstream Dyke Voice.

Nancy McKeon, Etheridge, k.d. lang, the Indigo Girls....

The dyke on "Wake Up, Miami!" when Dorothy and Blanche had to pretend to be lesbians so that Rose would not lose her job: "We don't believe in labels," in the most lesbian of voices.

Martina Navratilova, Mary Carillo and Robin Roberts

Oprah's best friend, Gayle...

Whitney's best friend... Robin?

Oprah and Gayle sound alike a lot of the time. I don't know if it's lesbian voice, though.

Add me to [R2]'s fans.

[R8] More people should know who Hannah Wilke is. Beautiful reference.

Laura Prepon.

So, yeah.

I'm pretty sure now our sexuality shows up in our voices. I can't really explain it, but I'm pretty sure it's there.

In my day, they called it "cane voice" (sometimes spelled as one word).

Lesbians barely open their mouth when they talk. They sound like their mouths are full of oatmeal. They talk like straight men .. Or the way they think straight men talk.

Low and husky

Does Taylor Swift have lesbian voice?

Tea Leoni has a bad case, but the Anthem commercial I found online pales in comparison to the radio ads running on Tunein in which she states her boundaries regarding hornets in the crawlspace...which, to me, sounds like a euphemism for a yeast infection.

“Getouttathehouse! Mnmnmnnnow!”

Yes.

They over enunciate their “Rs”.

[QUOTE] n which she states her boundaries regarding hornets in

I actually laughed out loud at this.

R16! That was so fucking hilarious! I swear, it was the funniest thing I heard ALL year. Thank you! I needed a laugh!

If you look up lesbian voice in the dictionary it says see "Foster, Jodie in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore"

ScarJo has "that voice."

DL fave Matteo Lane does a pretty good one at the 24:25 mark.

So long, suckers!

I agree, R23. Only figured it out recently, but I'm pretty sure it's there. Otherwise we wouldn't sing. It's what other species do right before they mate, so why would we be any different?

I think I have bisexual voice. I'm not really bisexual, due to social realities (cannot stand men), but I don't think I have lesbian voice either.

How would you rate Debra Winger's voice? I don't know if that's lesbian voice but to me that's the sexiest ever and any woman who sounds like that will end up in the sheets sooner or later.

Interestingly, Greta Van Susteren (married to a man) is a Scientologist! So is her husband. I wonder if he has gay voice.

Paula Poundstone identifies as asexual (as per Wikipedia). Based on photos alone I'd say I find her supercute. I've no idea who she is. She's not famous outside the US.

Holy fuck!! Child abuse? Wtf

She does look like a child herself.

It's a scratchy, suppressed low tenor that growls slowly like a Yorkshire Terrier with a respiratory problem, without the slightest indication of the presence of any sense of humor, needy but noncommittal but earnest but vague.

I love the sound of it. So reassuring, with the cozy feeling of knowing no faucet will ever leak nor any car will need a trip to the shop for an oil change within its range.

This thread is assuming that all lesbians are bulldykes. Surely there's room for the Jessica Chastains and whatnots? ScarJo has a fantastic voice but she also has the looks to pull it off.

Karen Carpenter certainly had it

This thread has convinced me you can tell a woman's sexuality by her voice. Now I don't want to name names, but a few come to mind... Lord, they should come out already.

To the doubters: try reading r42 in Peppermint Patty’s voice.

Honestly, they just don't do that little girl, helpless, 'aren't I precious' thing that straight women do in order to attract straight men. Also, they use declarative sentences instead of looking for male approval by making it seem like everything they say is a question in need of a big, strong man's answer.

I can't tell if Natasha Lyonne has this as well as smoker's throat.

I always know when a broad is a carpet muncher on Chopped. they usually have a deepish monotone voice and when asked what they want to do with the money they usually mention partner/gf

Yes.

Does Kathleen Turner have lesbian voice?

No R49. That's just some straight hick talking.

Oh, FFS. It's on a deeper register and it's monotone---devoid of all inflection. And that's all it is. Don't over think it.

It's not devoid of inflection, it's just not chirpy and lilting and girly like society has been trained to expect from women.

Donna Brazile has to southern black lesbian voice and Amy Walter has the Mid Atlantic version. Surprisingly, Rachel doesn't have it to my ear.

Donna Brazile is too lazy to commit to be a lesbian. She wants to be Oprah.

Lea DeLaria.

This gyal has it.

I think so. My gaydar pings for one abd I sent her a rainbow through IM.

There is lesbian skin - for white women anyway. Product of no makeup, dong quai tea, and outdoor activities? Lesbians generally have very good skin until they are quite post-menopausal.

Amy Ray from The Indigo Girls has Lez Voice AND Lez Face

It’s husky yet soft.

I think professional white women could learn quite a bit from lesbian voice. Black women generally have more resonance to their voices anyway, but take the nasal, vocal fry, little girl voice of your basic white woman and feed more authority/force thru it and you get the harsh, nagging cackle of Hillary. Elizabeth Warren is an exception.

There's actually far fewer butch lesbians than you guys seem to think. The butch/femme lesbians are still around but it's nowhere near as common as non-lesbians imagine. Maybe it was once? Anyway, I tend to think of lesbian voice as calm, like a social worker, moderate tones, warm but careful to be precise with words. Then there's the sports type lesbians with the broadest of their hometown accents, loud and with frequent extroverted laughs.

Family Guy gets it right as usual.

Straight women hold on to their girlie voices far past the natural time to let them go because straight guys respond positively to it in a sexual or romantic context - but not in a professional one.

Stem?

Is that a stud fem. That makes no sense.

I know it when I hear it. I used to be able to pick it right up on radio call in shows. I can describe it though

Is Elizabeth Warren lesbian? She sort of pings to me. I don't follow American politics much.

Love that girl's voice R57 - wow. In short, KStew without the vocal fry.

There has actually some research on this by linguists. The studies are far too small to make strong generalizable arguments and confounded by the fluidity of self-identification (i.e. many would not claim lesbian as a stable and permanent identity), but the main features do seem to be use of lower register than of heterosexually-identified women and narrower pitch and intonation range. But, just like gayvoice, there is great variety, and these are, thus far, the only salient characteristics noted (and the studies have fewer than 50 respondents, so validity and reliability are questionable).

There has been some research on this by linguists, though in small studies (<50). The most salient and consistent characteristics have been slightly lower habitual register than heterosexuals and narrower pitch and intonation range (more monotone). Some of this is confounded by the comparative lack of permanent identity by some of the women as lesbians (i.e. some call themselves bi or fluid), and small numbers.

r71, was this research done buy Cunning linguists perhaps?

Susan Dey, Olivia Newton-Lez and Helen Lezzie

They like to talk in a deep voice that seems fake. They also manspread when they're sitting at the diner counter at the truck stop. They say "fuck" a lot.

Holland Taylor has it.

Jodie Foster is the most publicly recognizable speaker of lesbian voice; the fact she's also a lesbian, just makes it more easily apparent.

Lesbian voice is illegal in Mississippi. Most people don't know that.

Elizabeth Ashley and Catherine Keener have it, though I doubt they are lesbians.

Lesbians don’t open their mouth when they speak. The mumble.

Don’t know about the voice. Those hands, though. Dead giveaway.

Mary Carillo is such an obvious lesbian - it's painful to watch. Jodi Foster definitely talks like a lesbian as does Robin Roberts.

Many of them tend to speak in more male speech patterns - declarative statements, concise language - there's just something markedly different.

“Cane voice” made me LOL.

Ever since DL taught me about “cane face”, I see it everywhere. I have never seen a femme woman use a cane. I was going to say Katherine Porter (Sigourney Weaver) in “Working Girl”, but she registers as moderately butch to me.