We might thk we know what a gay person sounds like. But there are veats to the cliche — and ‘voice-shamg’ tells a lot more about our culture than do about the person speakg
Contents:
- DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
- WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
- WHY IS THAT SOME GAY MEN EMPLOY AN EFFEMATE VOICE?
- THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
- WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
- THE GAY VOICE
DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
* gay camp voice *
“You don’t seem gay. I n’t easily pute what means to be gay if ’s not havg jt intified yourself wh that label.
You haven’t – at least that moment, at that party – exhibed the mannerisms lked many people’s mds wh male homosexualy. The notn you would be pleased to fd this out reveals an unthkg prejudice: how rehg is to meet a gay who don’t make a meal of .
WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
What the way we talk says about gay pri and lgerg prejudice * gay camp voice *
Maybe I’m more “gay”. Y, seemg gay – broadly speakg, beg mp – is a way of holdg onelf, a way of drsg, but ’s large part a way of speakg. His qut to unrstand why he talks the way he do is the subject of a new documentary, Do I Sound Gay?
Apart om anythg else, ’s not the prerve of gay men or even human begs. They’re then asked to rate each one by perceived “gayns”.
WHY IS THAT SOME GAY MEN EMPLOY AN EFFEMATE VOICE?
The Effemate Voice trope as ed popular culture. A male character who is In Touch wh His Feme Si, Camp Gay, Camp Straight, androgyno lookg … * gay camp voice *
And y, the stretchg out of “sibilant” nsonants such as s and z (image Kenh Williams sayg “She sells sea shells on the sea shore” and you’re sort of there) what about gay women? There are a few theori knockg around as to why this might be: Arnold Zwicky, his mply tled 1994 paper Two Lavenr Issu for Lguists, suggts that: “For many lbians, what is most important is intifitn wh the muny of women – while for many gay men, what is most important is distancg themselv om straight men. First: there is a style of speakg that people associate wh gay men.
Send: not all gay men e , and some straight men do. Third: this style of speakg isn’t simply an importatn of “feme” quali to male speech, although that appears to be what a lot of people, we’re still left wh the qutn of why a gay male voice might emerge. But, lguistilly speakg, soundg gay is really no different om soundg street, soundg posh or soundg like a bro.
THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
This also appli to gay women and their employment of the mascule ton. * gay camp voice *
Bee gay men have long been stigmatised, the voice is often a source of shame. After a bad breakup, “I started to fd myself repelled by gay voic... By the chatterg gay voic around me”.
WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
People wh stereotypilly high-pched or ‘mp’ voic n fd people assumg that they’re gay, acrdg to one Amerin film-maker - even if they aren’t. Likewise, men wh ep voic n fd themselv wrongly assumed to be beg straight. * gay camp voice *
And here she is teachg David to sound ls gay. “The tertg thg, though, was that David was the first person who me to me and was upont about beg gay. When dis, a subversive dance movement that spoke to black people and women and gays, broke through, was vilified by mastream rock lovers for beg ksch and plastic.
If there are any lsons to be learned here, vol or otherwise, ’s surely that dis was ol, mp is fe and “soundg gay” is jt however gay people happen to sound. Most of are faiar wh the stereotype of a “gay voice.
THE GAY VOICE
Do gay men actually sound different than straight men? The are the qutns a new documentary, “Do I Sound Gay? ” It’s a fascatg and nuanced film, which the filmmaker, David Thorpe, his feelgs about his voice to look at attus toward homosexualy.
It rais a plited discsn about gay pri, lgerg homophobia, disguised misogyny, and the extent to which we all alter the image that we prent to the the film begs, Thorpe is disturbed bee he realiz he don’t like his voice any more. He rri out thoughtful nversatns wh his iends and proment gay and lbian figur – cludg Gee Takei, David Sedaris, Dan Savage, Margaret Cho and Don Lemon – about what means to “sound gay. But so dog, v everyone to thk about what their own voice says about who they are, where they me om, and where they want to science of “the gay voice”To start wh, the stereotypil “gay voice” isn’t necsarily a study published 2003, Ron Smyth, a lguist at the Universy of Toronto, found that participants readily separated rerdgs of 25 diverse voic to those who “sound gay” and those who “sound straight.
” People picked up on featur of the gay stereotype – voic that were higher and more melod were more often labeled "gay. In Smyth's study, people rrectly gused a man’s sexualy about 60 percent of the time, only a ltle better than another small study at the Universy of Hawaii, both gay and straight listeners were equally as likely to misclassify people as gay or straight.