“Word Is Out”: A Pneerg Documentary of Gay Voic | The New Yorker

Contents:

• A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
• FILMMAKER DAVID THORPE DISCS HIS NEW DOCUMENTARY THAT EXPLOR THE ‘GAY VOICE’ PHENOMENON
• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• A LGUISTIC INVTIGATN OF "THE GAY VOICE"
• THE GAY VOICE
• DO I SOUND GAY?
• “WORD IS OUT”: A PNEERG DOCUMENTARY OF GAY VOIC
• DOCUMENTARIAN ASKS, 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
• Q&A: IS THERE A ‘GAY VOICE’? DIRECTOR DAVID THORPE ON HIS OUTFT DOCUMENTARY
• REVIEW: ‘DO I SOUND GAY?’ EXAM A MANNER OF SPEAKG
• THIS GUY JT WANTS TO KNOW IF HE SOUNDS GAY
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• ‘WHO SOUNDS GAY?’

A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'

In the wake of a bad breakup, journalist and gay activist David Thorpe did what many of do: He took tense ventory of his own flaws and securi, then stepped up one of them to a Thg. A good Thg, as turns out, whose end rult is the charmg documentary Do I Sound Gay?, which Thorpe wryly treats his anxieti about his "gay" voice as an exercise self-improvement, and wds up wh a pellg portra of ternalized homophobia and liberatn. Back South Carola's Bible Belt, where Thorpe grew up, relativ and childhood iends pot out that he didn't sound gay until he me out of the closet llege.

Friends wh his tight-kn gay circle are more divid: Some nfs to hatg their lispg, anoidal voic; others own gayspeak wh varyg gre of fiance and jubilatn. The explanatn that pleas him most is that gay speech has s origs ls blogy or nro-chemistry than early female fluence: Men who grow up mostly around women tend to mimic feme speech styl — which, Thorpe argu, would expla why some straight men sound gay, and why gays who grow up wh brothers often velop basso profundos.

FILMMAKER DAVID THORPE DISCS HIS NEW DOCUMENTARY THAT EXPLOR THE ‘GAY VOICE’ PHENOMENON

Is very good on the way many gay men who were bullied as children have learned to turn the hatred of others ward, which helps expla s of gay hyper-masculy and ternal ostracism of effemate men. Takg his cue om the swellg ranks of gay celebri (among them Gee Takei, Margaret Cho and the effably funny and ndid David Sedaris) who are willg to speak on mera about liberatg themselv om their own fears, Thorpe realiz he's been askg the wrong qutns.

While he was by tryg to iron out his gay voice, New York State legalized gay marriage, and the film's release jt weeks after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the natn. Thorpe sets out to change the way he sounds wh the help of a vol ach, who will aid him tamg his gay voice and give him the abily swch to a more mascule tone, or “ swchg. I spoke wh Thorpe about the his journey to a new voice, what he learned about gay inty, and how almost everyone has an secury about the way they sound.

” They uld really intify wh my own qutns about swchg and why do I sound gay sometim and not other tim, and was I puttg on or was really who I am?

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

As far back as the later 17th century, you had gay men who would mp up, who would sound effemate, sometim drs drag, sometim have mock weddgs. Tabloid culture has bee part of the fabric of London, and the tabloids portray the men as soundg gay and actg gay, soundg effemate, actg like women and soundg like women.

My voice was always a symbol of how I felt about myself and pecially about how I felt about beg gay, and, as the urse of makg the film, I’m more nfint for a lot of different reasons. Before Sean Penn played the charismatic, martyred gay polician a dramatized film, we got to see the real Harvey Milk this documentary om director Rob Epste.

A LGUISTIC INVTIGATN OF "THE GAY VOICE"

Director Marlon Riggs chronicled the experienc of Black gay men this 1989 documentary, wrten by Joseph Beam, Essex Hemphill, and Chris Harris.

The team of Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman me up wh another important documentary 1996's The Celluloid Closet, based on the classic book by Vo Rso and explorg how Hollywood has portrayed homosexualy. "Hollywood, that great maker of myths, tght straight people what to thk about gays and gay people what to thk about themselv, " says narrator Lily Toml.

THE GAY VOICE

He had strong opns on uture but was hard to p down about his sexual inty; he's been scribed as gay, bisexual, or fluid, but he exprsed disda for labels. The San Francis Gay Men's Chos went on a journey of renciliatn at a divisive time -- durg the 2016 printial mpaign -- tourg the Deep South, nsired hostile terrory by many LGBTQ+ people.

Not long after Thorpe broke up wh his boyiend, he began thkg about the way he speaks, and the way other gay men speak, and why both sudnly bothered him so much. Gay adolcents, Thorpe pots out, often learn that the “tell” of their sexualy is their voic, even more so than physily—a limp wrist is easier to straighten out than an flectn. Thorpe talks to a straight iend who sounds “gay” (he grew up on an ashram, surround by women), and a gay iend who sounds “straight” (he has jock brothers).

“For many gay men, that’s the last vtige, that’s the last chunk of ternalized homophobia, is this hatred of how they sound, ” Dan Savage tells Thorpe. As gays and lbians ga cultural pal, helped along by equaly victori like the one jt hand down by the Supreme Court, “gay voice” will surely evolve, too.

DO I SOUND GAY?

Films like Portra of Jason and Tongu Untied, for stance, tell ntemporary viewers as much about the dividual stori about gay Black men prented on screen as about the muni (real and imaged) that their rpective filmmakers brought to bear on their fished films. Siarly, aptly-tled works like Before Stonewall: The Makg of a Gay and Lbian Communy and Forbidn Love: The Unashamed Stori of Lbian Liv offer not jt potent history lsons but snapshots of how Amerins were nceivg of their own muny-buildg the years followg the 1969 Stonewall rts. Crics Consens: Outrage walks a difficult moral and ethil le -- and not always succsfully -- but spe s flaws, 's a fascatg, provotive look at homosexualy Amerin polics.

Synopsis: Osr-nomated documentarian Kirby Dick directs this shockg and passnate dictment of the clanste hypocrisy of many closeted homosexuals Washgton,... Crics Consens: We Were Here reviss the cris facg the gay muny the early 1980s -- and offers a powerful tribute to the spirg rolve shown at a time of turmoil.

(And if you don't know what I mean when I refer to a "gay voice, " watch the trailer for The Birdge and listen to the male voic, particularly Rob Williams, who -swch based on circumstance.

“WORD IS OUT”: A PNEERG DOCUMENTARY OF GAY VOIC

After intifyg phoic characteristics that seem to make a man’s voice sound gay, their bt hunch is that some gay men may subnscly adopt certa female speech patterns. More a display for David Thorpe's ternalised homophobia than an actual documentary explorg the so-lled "gay voice", which has ptered almost all of gays at one time or another, Do I Sound Gay? Never outstays s wele and featur some tertg tellectual nourishment but s slight nature and rather limed subject matter renrs this stantly fettable, if ed notable for s great terviews wh the lik of Dan Savage (the go-to terviewee every gay documentary ever), Gee Takei and Margaret Cho.

It's not so much about the orig of the "gay voice" (I'm not that satisfied by the "Gay men listen more to women growg up and imate those feme speakg patterns" bee I don't know if that's te and even if is the qutn of how feme vs. Mascule speakg patterns emerged still remas) but more about ternalized homophobia that often aris om the gay voice which is fe but there's, like, enough projects out there about ternalized homophobia and I want somethg actually, like, amic and….

Is an enthiastic documentary that wants to unver the tth behd the stigma and ternal homophobia the stereotyp of gay voic while hypocrilly mak seem personal enough to go through a journey to change his gay voice to a straight one that feels like gog agast what wanted to be, and only follows the end makg like a drama where he gets a remptn arc to realize he is fe wh his gay voice. A lively, entertag documentary about one man's (producer and director David Thorpe) stggle to unrstand the so-lled "gay voice" and where om, and to also e to terms wh his tratns wh his own voice and his stat as a sgle gay man his 40s.

DOCUMENTARIAN ASKS, 'DO I SOUND GAY?'

Distilled om approximately two hundred terviews, featur twenty-six people, om llege age to elrly, and om a variety of backgrounds and plac, whose divergent liv nverge around their mon experienc of persecutn and alienatn as a rult of beg gay.

It is simultaneoly a prentatn to the world at large about the liv of gay people and an affirmatn, to gay people themselv, that there is a muny out there wh which they n intify. The film provis the begngs of such reprentatn—and the self-aware assertn that this reprentatn is self an stment of polil participants share tailed acunts of the terrifyg nsequenc they suffered for beg gay.

A woman lled Whey moved to Greenwich Village, where she’d heard that there were many gay people—and, after her father found her there, she was rcerated for four years a New York State mental hospal. A middle-aged man named Gee Mennhall scrib arrivg San Francis the early fifti, as a young man, and fdg a gay bar—one unr tense police scty and prsure—where a performer named Jose got his dienc to sg an anthem together, an act of uny and llective affirmatn that brgs tears to Mennhall’s ey the tellg. Others, their younger days, didn’t even get that far—they hadn’t even heard the word “homosexual, ” had no vobulary wh which to intify themselv, and knew only that they felt different om the people around them.

Q&A: IS THERE A ‘GAY VOICE’? DIRECTOR DAVID THORPE ON HIS OUTFT DOCUMENTARY

What’s extraordary about their circumstanc is the self-abnegatn, the emotnal shutdown that many of the participants experienced for fear of exposure; the stggle for self-regnn and public acceptance is centered on the qut for the movie’s third sectn, “From Now On, ” the participants envisn a more humane society, not only for homosexuals but for all—one which genr rol wouldn’t be narrowly limg, which the abily to publicly exprs one’s inty and sire (as the film) would liberate emotnal life at large. None of the subjects anticipat the legalizatn of gay marriage; one, Sally Gearhart, speaks regretfully about the fact that she’ll never be able to wed.

REVIEW: ‘DO I SOUND GAY?’ EXAM A MANNER OF SPEAKG

The ncln of the film, pictg a march for gay rights which the subjects’ diverse voic fe to a unified chos, suggts the transformatn of disurse to power.

THIS GUY JT WANTS TO KNOW IF HE SOUNDS GAY

TV tends to be slightly more progrsive than mastream film, but the se of amplifyg queer stori, took televisn que a while to part om g gay characters as a punchle and givg them center stage of the small screen. Visible: Out on Televisn chronicl that history, wh moments like the first openly gay character on TV (on All In the Fay) to Ellen DeGener g out on her show the 1990s.

This 2014 documentary looks at how havg a voice that is d as gay has impacted the life of the filmmaker, David Thorpe, where that voice me om and his attempt to change .

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

In fact, as we see stris towards gay liberatn Ameri, ’s easy to fet some parts of the world are at a standstill or are even regrsg terms of acceptance and equaly.

In Chechnya, Rsia, people are tortured and killed for beg gay and this film follows a group of people tryg to pe persecutn Rsia and the people who are helpg them do . This documentary, directed by Rob Epste, honors his life, legacy, work and the impact he had on the gay movement, even after he was assassated 1978, nearly a year after wng office. ', director David Thorpe search for the orig of the so-lled "gay voice" and documents his own attempts (wh speech pathologist San Sank) to sound "ls gay.

” A termg factor of the characters’ sexual inty, he says, are the voic created by actors Jeremy Irons, Gee Sanrs and Jonathan ’s film, which premiered Monday night durg the Outft LGBT film ftival and opens Friday at the Sundance Sunset Cema Los Angel, explor the historil and cultural ias behd what he lls “gay voice. Interspersed wh his journey are terviews wh gay celebri cludg humorist David Sedaris, CNN anchor Don Lemon and “Project Runway” star Tim Gunn, who share their personal stggl wh their voic.

‘WHO SOUNDS GAY?’

Instead the film centers on gay men’s voic as maniftatns of nsc and unnsc efforts to exprs gayns, or effemacy, a culture that champns talked about the phenomenon of “gay voice” for this eded Q&A:What do a “gay voice” sound like? I n speak wh more ease bee my mcle is speakg wh people, did you fd that a lot of gay men, nscly or unnscly, had this issue wh how they sound?