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Guardian report on young children's speech and gender

11 replies

Ekphrasis · 17/02/2018 08:07

(Feel like adding Guardian in the title is click bait now!)

I'm still half asleep and it warrants a more thorough read but I feel the overwhelming results of the study were that it's the stereotyping of the adults that's at test here.

I think the guardian is attempting to make too many links to gender dysphoria and the title is rather misleading.

This could be misconstrued as early trans identities, but who / what really causes distress in a child who doesn't 'fit' with the gender stereotype linked to their sex? It's not from the child.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/16/child-gender-speech-age-five-research-university-minnesota?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

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OldCrone · 17/02/2018 09:56

Loads of waffle about how children pick up speech patterns from loads of sources, then right at the end (if you're still reading) we get this:

While Munson said gender dysphoria/GID is a good predictor of who is going to grow up to be a adult gay man, he rejected concerns that speech traits in childhood could be used to predict future sexual orientation

So all the stuff about speech traits is a bit of a sideshow, but there is a correlation between GID in childhood and sexual orientation according to this scientist.

Original poster
Ekphrasis · 17/02/2018 09:47

No it's not science. It's a snap shot of social stereotyping homophobia in action.

It links to another article essentially talking about the same thing.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/17/camp-the-voice-gay-rights?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

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UpstartCrow · 17/02/2018 09:29

The guardian printed that as science? Wow. Just wow.

rb67 · 17/02/2018 09:23

"Researchers in the US, looked at a group of 90 youngsters who had been brought to a gender clinic by parents because they were their children were behaving differently to others of their biological sex".
(from the Telegraph)

so this is not a scientific sample.

Not sure it really matters much apart from the fact the Guardian wants to get the topic in as many articles as they possibly can.

Geronimoleapinglizards · 17/02/2018 08:53

I thought it sounded like absolute junk science wuth the researchers very much wanting to make a point. The guardian have jumped on it gleefully. It's so shit.

And homophobic

Original poster
Ekphrasis · 17/02/2018 08:22

Last para:

Instead, he said, understanding why children pick up sounds from certain people could help researchers aid children who have difficulties learning language.

I think the whole thing has been badly reported and taken out of context. (Obvs) Some children on the autistic spectrum adopt accents from much loved tv characters/ personalities completely different to their families (pretty much learning to talk from those sources) and I wonder if the origins of the research are more linked to this. And we know there's a higher %of autism within the trans community.

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Original poster
Ekphrasis · 17/02/2018 08:12

It's significant that adult stereotypes were in play, and yes, homophobic ones too.

I wonder if the results would be the same in another country? Ie are stereotypes the same as they were in this area of the US?

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Gileswithachainsaw · 17/02/2018 08:11

Kinda reminds me of that woman who gave that talk that's on you tube about refusing to wear hair clips and undoing poppers on baby grows being gender messages ..

I am extremely uncomfortable seeing kids involved in anything to do with this.

Leave them alome

NotTerfNorCis · 17/02/2018 08:10

That article means nothing unless the children were monitored until adulthood.

Original poster
Ekphrasis · 17/02/2018 08:10

But the team also found that boys who pronounced an “s” with a lisp were also considered to sound less prototypically boy-like.
*
That, said Munson, was surprising.

“We never see [that pronunciation] in adult men in gay populations or really in adult men very much at all, or women for that matter,” he said . “But what we do find is that they are very prevalent in stereotypical portrayal of gay men’s speech.”*

“Perhaps the reason that we see a higher incidence of the [lisp] in these kids is because the parents were troubled by it because the parents themselves had this stereotype in their minds,” he said.

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QueenLaBeefah · 17/02/2018 08:07

I felt it was extremely homophobic.

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