The term and its purported mythic powers hold that some homosexuals can ostensibly tell if a person is gay based solely on their own intuition and some visual or verbal clues — sometimes without even talking to the subject in question.

As much sense as it would make for gay men and women to sense something exclusively alternative in the appearance and quirks of another homosexual, that perception has been criticized for pigeon-holing homosexuals into one definitive, all-encompassing “look” that stereotypes rather than celebrates. But there may be more shadowy factors at work as well.

But as much as visual clues may be fairly accurate in determining someone’s sexuality, there has been some recent scientific study to aid the notion of gaydar as an acquired biological skill for gay men and women to seek out mates much more effectively.

The October 2004 issue of The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America brings a short article detailing the different vowel inflections of gay men and lesbian women. According to the article, lesbian and bisexual women produce less of a fronted “a” and “u” sound than straight women, while gay men expanded vowels significantly more than straight men.

The study suggests vocal inflections in gay men and women are not so much the result biological factors. Instead, it proposes that gay men and women adopt certain behaviors of the opposite sex as they come into their sexuality. So rather than gay men sounding inherently feminine or lesbian women sounding inherently masculine, the groups’ projection of themselves is the selective attribution of certain gender traits to themselves.

It was found that gay men and women preferred body odors from those of their own sexual orientation, which may suggest that there are subliminal biological workings in progress in the bodies of gay men and women that may help them distinguish potential suitors from people of a different sexual orientation.

Though gaydar is most likely the product of identifying and then categorizing the familiar behaviors and appearances of men and women of different sexual orientations from trial and error, there may also be other factors, which may be known or unknown to the senses.

Though humans may have all but forgotten much of their basic survival instincts, some linger on. Whether you are gay or straight, next time you find yourself strangely aroused in a room full of people it may not be because someone in the room is just looking too damn good to not get all totally wigged out by.

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