Which Guys Have the Hottest Accent?

A short excerpt from the 34 page report by Lastovkina & Walts ."American Perceptions of Accented Speech."(2005)

80% of girls surveyed at the University of Massachusetts included Australian in their list of hot accents. One focus group was quite upset that a survey of "hot accents" did not include any samples of Australian, British, Scottish and Irish men. They informed us that there was a Scottish boy in their hall whose accent was "much hotter than any of those [the samples]." The Romance languages cracked the hot accents list with 2/10 girls each mentioning French and Italian.

As far as the reputation of sexy accents, British actually topped the list. It seems that the Australian accent affinity is an up and coming phenomenon since the girls confess to considering it the hottest but attribute the hottest reputation to British.

60% of participants considered British as having a reputation as a sexy accent, while Australian, French, and Italian were only mentioned by 20% of the listeners.

Carrie, an American reader desperate for advice submitted the following question to the Non-Expert, advice columnist for the online newspaper The Morning News, "I recently started dating a British guy. I think he's cute, but maybe it's just that he has an English accent. How can I tell the difference?" (Hepola, 2005) Carrie did not know if she was actually physically attracted to her British beau or if she was blinded by his accent. This supports the results found in our post-questionnaire proving that the British accent has a reputation for being sexy. Years of James Bond, the royal family, and American women's fantasies of marrying rich British Lords in the U.K. and residing in their mansions have bolstered the image of the sexy Brit. And how can we forget Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery? The whole point of the Austin Powers series was to mock the stereotype that women can not control themselves in the presence of men with British accents. Does he make you horny baby?

The Non-Expert writes to Carrie, "When it comes to the attractiveness of British men, American women are simply incapable of rendering a proper judgment. Bad teeth, the unibrow, Guinness bloat, doesn't matter; hell, we think Tony Blair is hot. Studies have proven that British accents are, in fact, the number one cause of hot women dating nerdy men" (Hepola, 2005).

If you google "hot accent" the first hits to come up are women discussing British men. Since 1985 People Magazine's readership has voted in a "Sexiest Man Alive." Over the past twenty years a few Brits (Sean Connery, Jude Law) and an Irishman (Pierce Brosnan) have been the only foreigners to break into the prestigious circle of sexiest men ever. Love for the British accent is alive and well with Jude Law, a Brit, winning the 2004 title. Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan have both starred as Agent 007. They may be in part responsible for the fact that women think British accents are sexy, because when Brosnan played Bond he used a typical British accent as opposed to an Irish accent. Accented nominees for 2006 include Orlando Bloom (known for his performance in Lord of the Rings), Scotsman Ewan McGregor and Antonio Banderas, a native of Malaga, Spain (Sexiest Man Alive, 2005). Can Antonio break into the elite circle made up of only native English speakers? Are women finally falling for the Spanish accent? According to Wikipedia, Banderas speaks Spanish with an Andalusian accent but uses a Castilian accent when acting in English ("Antonio Banderas", 2005). Banderas, even though he speaks with a Spanish accent, is still a European and not a Latino speaker. If Banderas can break in, this might be good news for up and coming Ricky Martins from Latin American to win the title. As for now, American women still prefer the American boy next door and the sexy men from the British Isles.

Men are also in on the secret that women like British accents. This was shown by our participants when the men started imitating British accents and commenting that they would have better luck picking up women with the fake accents. One Los Angeles man writes in his blog,

"If I had an English accent, well, you couldn't resist me. I would be intelligent and cultured and thoughtful and have the greatest manners and be trustworthy and honest and debonaire and have quite a witty sense of humor that combined my knowledge of history with my knowledge of teas and classic 16th century literature. I would stand up straight and I would eat with the right fork and I would have American women swooning at the simple mention of the words "cheers", "bullocks" and "right-o".

I could be the biggest, most annoying, idiotic man in the world, but because of my English accent - well, you would embrace me with all your heart.
As just a normal American guy, there are just some things I can't pull off. If I were to walk into a bar, spot a girl on the other side of the room, approach her and say, "You are quite fetching, so much so that I could just eat you up!" you would throw a drink in my face. But with an English accent? You would want to have my children. As just a normal American guy, if I were to offer to walk you across the street you would sack me in the face with your designer Kate Spade - but with an English accent? You would accept and then call all your friends to tell them the story about the debonaire English chap who proved to you that chivalry was indeed, not dead" (Davidson, 2005).

It is quite well established that American women just can not resist the British accent. As far as the Australian accent goes, this seems to be an up and coming preference among college students. We are moving from seeing prestige and attractiveness in men with manor homes in the U.K. to wanting men to be from the adventurous outback of Australia. Women are starting to prefer mountaineers, world travelers, surfers and crocodile hunters to polo players, so Prince Charles better get ready to step aside. Even though People's Sexiest Man Alive 2005 was a good old American boy, Matthew McConaughey is definitely closer to representing the stereotype of the "Outback boy." Are Australian men the new cowboys for American women? According to UMass college students, they are. With Australian backpackers starting to make their way around and have more contact with American travelers, the accent and the men are gaining popularity. Australian men may also gain some points by addressing every woman they meet with terms of endearment such as"love."

Disclaimer: The Analysis of Pop-Culture is done by someone who doesn't spend more than one hour a month watching TV, movies, or learning anything about pop-culture combined.