Want to Get Rid of Your 'Gay Accent'? There's an App for That

what makes a gay voice

Why are people gay? Are they gay by choice or is beg gay geic? Are they born gay? Learn about the and reasons for beg gay.

Contents:

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

Self-nsc about the way he speaks, David Thorpe has explored why some people his muny ‘sound gay’ and others don’t a new documentary. * what makes 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. On the Friday-night tra journey he found himself surround by loud chatterg gay men. “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.

A high-pched, lispg voice that go up at the end has been part of the gay male stereotype for years. 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.

THE GAY VOICE

In Do I Sound Gay?, 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." * what makes a gay voice *

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. A iend suggts that he was “advertisg” his homosexualy, havg kept a secret for so long.

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

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. * what makes a gay voice *

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. 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? 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. They want to know how men acquire this manner of speakg, and why – pecially when society so often stigmatiz those wh gay-soundg voic.

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

Well, not an app app, but there is a voice teacher! 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 Voice. * what makes a gay voice *

Rogers and Smyth are also explorg the stereotyp that gay men sound effemate and are regnized by the way they speak. The straightt-soundg voice the study was fact a gay man, and the sixth gayt-soundg voice was a straight man. In Do I Sound Gay?, Thorpe search for the orig of the "gay voice" stereotype.

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

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 * what makes a gay voice *

For gay filmmaker David Thorpe, the answer to that qutn is plited. "There is no such thg as a fundamentally gay voice, " Thorpe tells Frh Air's Terry Gross. " 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. " Thorpe scrib the gay voice as one characterized by a sibilant S and a high pch.

"When I terview people, " Thorpe says, "they always say that to them the gay voice... Interview Highlights On beg self-nsc about soundg gay Thorpe: I grew up the '80s, which was a ls acceptg time for LGBT people.

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

The film "Do I Sound Gay" unpacks the hatred that blocks all of our voic * what makes a gay voice *

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. I always had a lot of female iends growg up and I don't thk that's atypil for some gay men.

JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY

I believe the Goln State Warrrs, Los Angel Lakers or Boston Celtics should sign Rudy Gay. * what makes a gay voice *

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.

And I learn that the other one has [not only] stggled wh his voice but jt wh beg gay general. 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? ) All we know is that right now, unfortch, the Gay Voice is gonna block actors om gettg lots of jobs.

CMV: Many straight men would sound like the stereotypil "gay voice" if they didn't force their voice the be eper.

MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS

This also appli to gay women and their employment of the mascule ton. * what makes a gay voice *

Now pretty much everyone says I have a "gay voice" which I agree, I do thk I sound "gay" bee stereotypilly the pch of my voice sounds like the other gay people (<average). However I do feel like some straight men purposely make their voice eper jt to NOT sound "gay" even though naturally their pch wouldn't be as low. Obvly some straight people and gay people have ep voic, voic e high and lows, but how many of the ep voiced men actually would sound like that whout purposely "puttg some bass their voice"?

In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer. The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny.

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* what makes a gay voice *

“Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh. He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry. The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail.

Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water. “Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”. For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch.

WHY IS THAT SOME GAY MEN EMPLOY AN EFFEMATE VOICE?

Listeners rely on vol featur when gusg others' sexual orientatn. What is ls clear is whether speakers modulate their voice to emphasize or to nceal their sexual orientatn. We hypothized that gay dividuals adapt their voic to the social ntext, eher emphasizg or disguisg … * what makes a gay voice *

Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN. “There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said.

Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

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 .

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.

GAY VOICE: STABLE MARKER OF SEXUAL ORIENTATN OR FLEXIBLE COMMUNITN DEVICE?

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. 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.

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

First: there is a style of speakg that people associate wh gay men.

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.

Bee gay men have long been stigmatised, the voice is often a source of shame.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* WHAT MAKES A GAY VOICE

Gay Voice: Stable Marker of Sexual Orientatn or Flexible Communitn Device? - PubMed.

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