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:
- THE GAY VOICE
- IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
- WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
- WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
- A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
- THIS GUY JT WANTS TO KNOW IF HE SOUNDS GAY
- IN EURYDICE, A BLACK GAY MAN'S VOICE MOV THE GODS AND OPERA WORLD
- DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
THE GAY VOICE
Michael Schulman on “Do I Sound Gay?,” a documentary by David Thorpe that explor how vol nc are associated wh sexualy. * gay man's voice *
Why do some gay men “sound” gay? 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. Rogers and Smyth are also explorg the stereotyp that gay men sound effemate and are regnized by the way they speak.
They asked people to listen to rerdgs of 25 men, 17 of them gay. Perhaps fewer than half of gay men sound gay, says Rogers. The straightt-soundg voice the study was fact a gay man, and the sixth gayt-soundg voice was a straight man.
IS THERE 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. * gay man's voice *
He sounds gay.
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.
WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
What the way we talk says about gay pri and lgerg prejudice * gay man's voice *
”This is how he scrib the moment his documentary “Do I Sound Gay?, ” which opens this weekend at the IFC Center. He terviews gay public figur, cludg David Sedaris, Tim Gunn, Don Lemon, and Gee Takei, who have had to listen to themselv for a livg. He even asks people on the street if they thk he sounds gay.
WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
In a new documentary, a gay man tri to change the sound of his voice and wonrs why, exactly, he thks he should. * gay man's voice *
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. The world’s homophobia be ternalized homophobia. Even wh the gay datg muny (and gay porn), hyper-masculy is habually prized, so self-disgt gets easily turned back outward.
A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
Filmmaker David Thorpe uldn't stand the sound of his own voice. So he set out to make a film about "gay voice" and the culture around . * gay man's voice *
”Of urse, not all gay men have the same voice, or any “gay” voice: is a stereotype, after all.
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). Did he choose to sound gay or did soundg gay choose him?
” (The gay “lisp” is a b of a misnomer, ually referrg to a sibilant “S. Obvly, the ncln—the film’s, and me—is to dissociate the “gay voice” om shame and reattach to pri, but isn’t so easy. “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.
THIS GUY JT WANTS TO KNOW IF HE SOUNDS GAY
One of the ways gay people tend to pensate, the film suggts, is to adopt the supercil speech patterns of the leisure class, i.
IN EURYDICE, A BLACK GAY MAN'S VOICE MOV THE GODS AND OPERA WORLD
The CNN anchor Don Lemon tells Thorpe that he worked harr to ntralize his Southern black accent than his “gay” accent.
DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
(The phenomenon of gay whe men imatg black women’s speech is s own thorny subtegory. 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.
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.