A sound study of the Gay voice and the impact has." class="jsx-2067809186
Contents:
- WHAT DO IT MEAN TO SOUND GAY?
- WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
- MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS
WHAT DO IT MEAN TO SOUND GAY?
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. * gay noise meaning *
Me was a voice everyone was faiar wh, and they knew what signified: That I was gay. Virtually every parody—malic or otherwise—of gay men clus a nasal, lispg, high-pched vol timbre.
Do I Sound Gay?, a documentary by filmmaker David Thorpe openg this week at IFC, prob the history, science, and cultural signifince of the gay male voice. The film is stctured around his personal qut to get rid of his “gay voice”—recently sgle and middle-aged, David Thorpe began to fd his voice a source of anxiety, worryg turned off potential lovers—which grounds what uld otherwise have been a disparate web of amic theori and talkg heads. That spurred him to look more systematilly at the gay voice self; eventually he realized he’d found somethg signifint to say about the subject, a talogue of people reflectg about the history, prevalence, signifince, and science of the voice ’s clear om his enthiasm and breadth of knowledge that Thorpe, a wrer wh an quisive personaly and a voice I found entirely pleasant, has enough material for a whole seri on the subject.
” In the film, Thorpe nsults a speech therapist, a voice ach, several lguists and anthropologists, a film historian, gay actors, and famo queer celebri cludg David Sedaris, Dan Savage, Tim Gunn, Don Lemon, Gee Takei, and Margaret Cho. In one sequence, he recreat a tra r full of boistero gay men bound for Fire Island: They wear lorful beach stum and talk non-stop about fashn, their mothers, chai tea, and what happened at the club last night. Later the film, actor Jeff Hiller reflects on the grim prospects for gay men like himself film and TV.
WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
* gay noise meaning *
“Well all the meaty gay rol go to straight actors, and I’m not buff so I n’t play the token hot gay guy, so really all that’s left is for me to play the bter queen, ” he says. Admtg that a roomful of gay voic n be annoyg giv space to pick apart anxieti—which parts are jt annoyance at other people’s nversatns, and which are tied to toxic the film velops, be apparent that much of what we intify as a gay voice is a characteristilly feme voice spoken by a man. The stereotypil affectatns we associate wh gay men (what lguists ll micro-variatns) are: clearer and longer vowels, long S’, clearer L’s and over-articulated P’s, T’s, and K’s.
But Thorpe is reful to distguish between a mon vol pattern that we associate wh beg gay, and a voice that beg gay . “There is no fundamentally gay voice, ” he clar.
MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS
“Soundg gay is available to everybody. ”The genred aspect of the gay voice, the film claims, om the toxicy of masculy. Bee masculy is so unacmodatg to difference, many of the gay men the film (cludg Thorpe) grew up closer to women than men.
To prove his pot, Thorpe shows a straight man who was raised on an ashram by a group of women, who talks a voice that would tonate most people’s gaydar; but he also troduc to a gay man raised the suburbs wh five macho brothers who has the sort of voice that porn actors strive for. (Speakg of porn: The gay voice is almost entirely absent om erotic films, which suggts that misogyny the genre persists many ways.
Do I Sound Gay? Knows this herage, plac the ntext of film history, and ti to the vol spiratn for well known early gay voic on TV such as Liberace and Pl what drew gay men om across the untry and enomic strata to adopt the vol signifiers? Puttg on the airs of wealth signifi that the speaker isn’t fensels, at least a urt of some pot, though, I wonred, if the gay voice was gog the way of the bathhoe and gay bar—pecially as queer culture be more mastream.