Abstract

This chapter traces the history of perceptual work in language, gender, and sexuality, noting particularly the points at which key concepts revolutionised the field as well as enduring themes which have recurred throughout. Perceptual work in gender and sexuality has been dominated by the perception of men’s masculinity and sexual orientation, with subfields focusing on accuracy (how do perceptions map to speakers’ own self-identifications, particularly of sexual orientation) and acoustic features (which features influence judgements, independent of speaker identity).Other threads have included perceptions of transwomen’s speech and to a lesser extent transmen’s, and small literatures on perceptions of women’s sexual orientation and feminist identity.