Do you sound gay? What our voic tell – and what they don’t | David Shariatmadari | The Guardian

Contents:

• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
• HOW CAN I GET RID OF MY GAY VOICE?
• WANT TO GET RID OF YOUR 'GAY ACCENT'? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT
• THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
• JAGUARS’ KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY US MEN’S PRO SPORTS
• CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
• DWIGHT HOWARD SUED BY MAN CLAIMG NBA STAR FORCED HIM TO HAVE GAY THREOME
• GAY GAY HOMOSEXUAL GAY / I CAN STILL HEAR HIS VOICE
• KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND
• FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'
• A NEW STUDY ON “GAYDAR” YIELDS SURPRISG RULTS
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS KEV MAXEN BE FIRST PROFSNAL MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
• MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS
• MEN MORE LIKELY TO DISCRIMATE AGAST PEOPLE JOBS IF THEY 'SOUND GAY'
• DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
• THE GAY VOICE

WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'

Stay ahead of the trend fashn and beyond wh our ee weekly Liftyle Ed newsletterStay ahead of the trend fashn and beyond wh our ee weekly Liftyle Ed newsletter After a particularly bad break-up, David Thorpe, a journalist who’s his forti, cid to take his md off thgs by leavg his ts his Manhattan apartment and drowng his sorrows at a gay beach town on Fire Island. “I knew then that I had to get to the bottom of that feelg and to the importance of the voice as part of gay inty. ”It was the start of a four-year journey of self-disvery durg which Thorpe tried to figure out his so-lled “gay voice”: when did he start talkg that way, what ed , how exactly did sound, and, fally, what was so wrong wh anyway?

The rults n be seen his new documentary, Do I Sound Gay?, which featur terviews wh lguists, amics, fay and iends, as well as a number of high-profile personali, cludg David Sedaris and Dan Savage. Another expert that he terviews for the film is a Canadian lguist who studi vol microvariatns between gay and straight men and speculat that many gay men more readily pick up speech s om women. Intertgly, a straight iend of Thorpe’s has what is nsired to be an archetypal “gay voice” and turns that out he was raised entirely by women at an ashram.

When he was younger, Thorpe not, the only “gay voic” on televisn were those belongg to figur such as Liberace and Charl Nelson Reilly, the host of The Match Game. He also wonrs if Disney villas such as Aladd’s Jafar and The Ln Kg’s Sr, wh their soft, threateng voic, have ma young people associate soundg gay wh beg evil.

HOW CAN I GET RID OF MY GAY VOICE?

It pleas him to hear so many more “gay voic” reprented today, pecially young vloggers such as Lohanthony and Tyler Oakley. “Growg up, I was always told that what was wrong wh me was that I was gay, so ’s not hard to unrstand that a moment of vulnerabily I might also feel secure about my sexualy. As Dan Savage, the activist who found the It Gets Better mpaign, says the film: “What’s wrong wh soundg like you are who you are – a gay man?

WANT TO GET RID OF YOUR 'GAY ACCENT'? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT

Too often, people ask me if I'm gay when they've only jt met there any vol/nasal exercis that actor's e to get rid of ?

Should be easy enough to gay voice is often acpanied by gay you hold yourself like a woman, OP, you know, cross your legs like a girl, flounce your arms and all that?

I liked a lot of the gays he terviewed - they seemed very sey and nice (I know this is a VERY UN-DL thg to say) I agree - his attempts to change his voice were pathetic. So Iike other gay men of my generatn I worked extra hard to get ahead, takg on more rponsibili than my straight lleagu to make myself dispensable. I'm openly gay and make no bon about that, but I prent a very mascule way, and work environments I mostly have male iends.

THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT

I'd say 1 out of every 10 gay guys I meet do not have any "gay voice" flectns--voice and mannerisms, and that about 1 out of every 5 are "flam om space" gay wh very extreme gay voice and mannerisms. The rt are somewhere 's fely a workplace issue--whether should be or not is another matter, but men wh extreme gay voice do make some people very unfortable, the same way people wh strong regnal/ethnic accents that said, the person wh the most extreme gay voice and mannerisms I've ever met was married to a woman and equently talked about his viss to strip clubs. [quote]I'd say 1 out of every 10 gay guys I meet do not have any "gay voice" flectns--voice and mannerisms, and that about 1 out of every 5 are "flam om space" gay wh very extreme gay voice and mannerisms.

So many married men wh kids at my work sound pretty gay, so I don't really worry about how I Anonymoreply 44April 2, 2017 2:29 PM. I will support someone's else's advice: this day and age, I don't thk they really re if you're GAY or not (and probably most would be down for a discreet BJ). It's not like black people llg each other the n-word, bee 's often ed as a way to "remd" other gay men that they are "ls than" as Anonymoreply 48April 2, 2017 2:38 PM.

A lot of gay men, I've noticed, particularly young on emulate the speech patterns of teenage girls: drawg out vowels, uptalkg, too many "lik, " why, speakg wh hancy rather than wh assurance, speakg fast and excedly, etc. It's a fact that many closeted gays don't sound gay until they e out, and subsequently beg makg iends wh guys who speak the gay vernacular and s tone.

JAGUARS’ KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY US MEN’S PRO SPORTS

I agree that a vol ach n tra you to speak a mascule way, particularly if droppg your gay soundg iends isn't a sirable optn for you, and if hangg wh straight soundg men seems equally unsirable or voice do seem to be an affected accent (like the boys' the posted vio), but if you're havg a good time wh good iends, and also lovg your life, then maybe you simply shouldn't not give a damn about your voice, and jt nfintly speak like the gay man you actually are.

In this way physil scientists n study the vol register of mal and turns out that gay voice is related to a specific equency measure Hertz characteristic of a speech pattern known as falsetto. What the powerful psychology partments won't tell you is that what they ll male heterosexualy is actually a form of effemacy, as much as gay voice. Obvly this is a very simplistic explanatn but you get the fact, neher heterosexualy nor gay voice would happen if the exposure to femal is elimated, bee the female sex is what nuerophysicists ll an "agent or a vector".

CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER

The theori are the reason why sexual aroal is label as homosexualy and heterosexualy, and ncepts such as "sexual attractn" or "sexual orientatn" are monly ed stead. Exgay therapists love the psychology fabrited terms bee the terms overlook the nrologil of aroal, which is somethg that we do not choose, sce is impossible to ntrol the way our nrons functn when absorbg sexual Anonymoreply 63April 2, 2017 4:30 PM. I haven't taken the time to fully analyze what people ll "gay voice" but a cursory listen mak me thk that some "gay voice" has to do wh addg a ntuo "breaths" and staed timbre--thk the female teacher who would sg-song say "People!

Perhaps my own tert rs, and associatns wh a lot of straight guys also terted rs has prevented me om pickg up 'gay voice'. People wh gay voice sound wishy-washy and unsure of themselv, which mak me thk 's more a rult of your state of md and how you view Anonymoreply 83April 2, 2017 7:29 PM.

You hear ls and ls extreme gay voice which dit that a lot of is sub-culture herd mentaly and the tenncy youth to intify more wh young women than men. Sayg that gay voice is becuase of gay culture is wrong, there are children wh affemate manerisms and gay voice, by Anonymoreply 86April 2, 2017 9:34 PM. Even if you have the voice of Barry Whe, you will sound gay if you're are llg guys "girl, " "she, " or talkg about divas and show Anonymoreply 100April 3, 2017 3:33 AM.

DWIGHT HOWARD SUED BY MAN CLAIMG NBA STAR FORCED HIM TO HAVE GAY THREOME

As a sger seems so strange to me that gay men live smaller liv wh more paful problems than choir sgers, amatr actors, CEO's, preachers or porn performers.

[quote] would be hard to remember to force your voice to a lower register every time you speak;I thk that's a misnceptn about gay voice, that 's a matter of lowerg your are many gay men wh DEEP barone voic, who still sound gay as ever. I thk the gay voice is mostly bee of the exprsivens our voic rather than the monotone of straight Anonymoreply 110April 3, 2017 6:16 AM.

GAY GAY HOMOSEXUAL GAY / I CAN STILL HEAR HIS VOICE

"And i agree "Do I Sound Gay" is a really an rmative documentaryOffse Lkby Anonymoreply 111April 6, 2017 6:04 PM. A lot of gay guys felt more fortable hangg out wh girls durg high school and osmotilly picked up that valley girl speech pattern. There's an old Details article on the speech therapist who helps emergg gay actors sound ls Anonymoreply 131June 14, 2017 3:46 AM.

Sometim Southern men sound gay but really aren't and some that sound like the biggt hillbilly the world are as gay as Anonymoreply 133June 14, 2017 4:33 AM.

If someone asked me if I was gay right after I met them, as the OP says is happeng to him, I'd tell them to go fuck themselv and md their own fuckg bs if they didn't want a boot their ass. In the wake of the whole Newsweek gay actors thg, Details sought out the wisdom of longtime voice ach Bob Corff, who helps actors get rid of Gay what, exactly, is the difference between a straight male voice and a gay male voice? Jacksonville Jaguars associate strength ach Kev Maxen is believed to be the first openly gay male ach major North Amerin men's sports after g out publicly an terview wh Outsports.

KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND

”Maxen is believed to be the first openly gay male ach the NFL and all of major Amerin men's pro sports, acrdg to Outsports. " San Francis 49ers assistant Katie Sowers, a pneer among female ach the NFL, me out as the the league's first openly gay ach 2017, acrdg to Outsports.

FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'

He add that he reached out last year for advice on g out om former Las Vegas Rairs lebacker Carl Nassib, who beme the first active openly gay player NFL history 2021. An entreprenr lnched a nned cktail this week lled “Gay Water” that’s aimed at LGBTQ drkers — and said he’s lookg to palize on Bud Light’s mistak. But “Gay Water” — which adopts a moniker the gay muny has long given to the simple vodka and soda cktail — has been spired by the dtup to bee even bolr about the dience ’s targetg, founr and CEO Spencer Hodson told The Post.

A NEW STUDY ON “GAYDAR” YIELDS SURPRISG RULTS

Gay Water — a nned cktail brand that plays on the gay muny’s lloquialism for the vodka-and-soda mixed drk — lnched on Wednday and promis to unrstand s dience better than Bud Light. The 30-year-old Hodson said he is g suggtive — albe playful — msagg and imagery Gay Water’s social media and webse, cludg a provotive nod to the 12-ounce n’s 6.

“Our missn is to -stigmatize the word ‘gay’ and start to create reprentatn spac that tradnally don’t have queer-owned products, let alone products wh the word ‘gay’ their tle, ” Hodson told The Post.

“Part of the pot of lnchg outsi of Pri month is to rerce the msage that Gay Water is here to make the LGBTQ+ muny more visible 365 days a year, not jt a sgle month, ” he said. Gay Gay Homosexual Gay or I Can Still Hear His Voice is a tchphrase often paired wh imag of characters om popular media, which one character remisc another character mockg them. In the panel foreground, the character Yugi Muto remembers the character Pharaoh Atem, sayg, "I n still hear his voice…" In the eded background, Atem says, "Gay gay homosexual gay, " creatg the imprsn that the memory of Atem is mockg Yugi.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS KEV MAXEN BE FIRST PROFSNAL MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

The film won’t say , but a post-creds punchle about Ken’s handwrg, plete wh hearts and stars surroundg his name, tells what we need to heavily implied nature of Ken’s gayns Toy Story 3 harkens back to Hollywood’s tradnal gay bt iend-type characters. In the Hays Co era, explic referenc to homosexualy weren’t allowed, so characters like Van Buren (Frankl Pangborn) 1937’s Easy Livg, Kip (David Wayne) 1949’s Adam’s Rib, or Addison (Gee Sanrs) 1950’s All About Eve stead were imbued wh effemate characteristics, offerg a glimpse outsi of heteronormativy whout explicly beg of the characters were the same—some were tty, others sweet.

Des later, 2010, the gay bt iend was all the rage; Teen Vogue even went so far as to proclaim the GBF as the summer’s mt-have accsory. In movi like Mean Girls (2004), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Easy A (2010), No Strgs Attached (2011), and Isn’t It Romantic (2019), gay iends exist entirely the orb of their female iends. ” But Barbie do, and for Ken, that’s are plenty of reasons why the film wouldn’t outrightly state that Ken is homosexual.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

Mattel, of urse, vehemently nied any claims that Ken was gay, let alone that he had somethg as prepostero as a ck rg around his neck. As a rult, gay men bought the doll drov, and spe Mattel ultimately rellg the doll and wipg away any trace of Earrg Magic Ken, was near-impossible to see Ken as anythg but the glor homosexual he was born to be om then on. Though Mattel don’t seem to be willg to say Ken is actually gay, the Ken dolls of recent years seem to really lean to Ken’s queerns.

While there is no way to “drs gay, ” there are several dolls that seem to suggt otherwise, such as:Fashnista Ken #193, who looks very exced to tell you about his new obssn, Troye Sivan;Travel Ken Doll, who has a satchel perfect for bathho and a purple overnight bag that lerally proclaims he’s “extra;”Ken Looks Doll, servg “I’m gonna give you a makeover”-type realns while sportg black pleather pants;This Ken, who wears the least heterosexual double nim I have a feelg the new Barbie movie will put the work to nvce that Ken is a hetero du who lov nothg life more than Barbie herself, the wrg’s already on the wall: Ken is, and always will be, Barbie’s gay bt obssg! " In his new film, Do I Sound Gay?, Thorpe search for the orig of that stereotype and documents his own attempts to sound "ls gay" by workg wh speech pathologist San Sank.

"David was the first person who me to me who was upont right om the begng about soundg gay and what he wanted to do, " Sank tells Gross. " Interview Highlights On beg self-nsc about soundg gay Thorpe: I grew up the '80s, which was a ls acceptg time for LGBT people.

MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS

And as Dan Savage says the movie, effemate kids, whether they are gay or straight, get persecuted for, kd of, how they walk and how they talk.... On where the "gay sound" om Thorpe: If I have to speculate about where the so-lled gay voice om, for me, both the most predomant answers work.

At the same time, I totally get that when I me out, I wanted to be regnized as gay; I wanted the world to know I was gay and I wanted to f to this existg muny, so I thk my voice really did change after I me out. What I took om San was more an easy way of speakg and an abily to speak thentilly rather than changg my style to sound ls gay.

On Thorpe's gay iends also stgglg to accept their voic Thorpe: One of the revelatns of makg this film was that this is somethg that had always bothered me and every time, basilly, I talk to a gay man I would fd out that he also had eher spent a lot of time thkg about his voice or ed to be self-nsc about his voice or still felt self-nsc about his voice. However, a study has poured ld water on this ia, sayg both straight and gay participants were pretty siar when me to gusg the sexualy of others when to their voice.

MEN MORE LIKELY TO DISCRIMATE AGAST PEOPLE JOBS IF THEY 'SOUND GAY'

In a send study, rather than a bary “gay/straight” choice, he asked participants to rate speakers on a Ksey-like sle.

The rearchers suggt that gay people might be ls hibed labelg other people as gay, whereas straight people might be more ut of dog so, given the stigma that is often still attached to beg queer. “Send, we did not fd any support for the ia that gaydar is an ‘nate’ or ‘adaptive’ skill that only LGB dividuals have.

DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T

Instead, we found that LGB participants were ls ‘rigid’ their sexual orientatn tegorizatn and more likely to tegorize speakers as gay as shown by their weaker straight tegorizatn bias. A recent study Sydney found that both gay and straight people were more likely to judge a straight-soundg man as more petent and profsnal. Fasoli nclud, “Overall, both LGB and heterosexual dividuals appear to be que accurate their gaydar judgments, ” when based jt on voic.

The way that male gays talk don't even really bother me unls 's overtly flamboyant, I fd myself sensive to loud talkg no matter who is. No one r if you ARE gay but you n’t ACT gay…” Sce then I have ponred what even means to “act gay”-- or to “act straight, ” for that matter. But at the time I knew exactly what meant: I had a “gay voice” and was therefore cursed to live a life of mute daydreamg.

THE GAY VOICE

) But 99% of the time the magic would fa once I was st, revealg me to be a guy who uld ocsnally hi behd a ep voice, but who generally prented as “gay.

For stance, a classmate om nservatory--who ed to tease me about my effemate mannerisms, BTW--was eventually st as a gay activist a big award-wng movie, based on a big award-wng play, about gay liv. As stg director Brette Goldste told me 2008, the thg about the gay rol on televisn and film is that “You’ll often have straight men playg them. Though some gay actors are effectively creatg their own opportuni to play a variety of rol (gay, straight, mascule, feme, and everythg between), such as the makers of the entertag seri East Sirs.