What means to ‘sound gay’ - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• WHAT DO IT MEAN TO SOUND GAY?
• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• THE GAY VOICE
• THE SOLUTN TO "GAY" INSULTS: FREEDOM OF SPEECH
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT A SEEMGLY FAKE DOCUMENT A GAY RIGHTS CASE
• SWARDSPEAK: THE COLORFUL LANGUAGE OF THE FILIPO GAY COMMUNY
• GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)
• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• WHAT DO ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ ACTUALLY SAY?
• FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY

WHAT DO IT MEAN TO SOUND GAY?

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.

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. 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. 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?

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

It rais a plited discsn about gay pri, lgerg homophobia, disguised misogyny, and the extent to which we all alter the image that we prent to the the film begs, Thorpe is disturbed bee he realiz he don’t like his voice any more.

But so dog, v everyone to thk about what their own voice says about who they are, where they me om, and where they want to science of “the gay voice”To start wh, the stereotypil “gay voice” isn’t necsarily a study published 2003, Ron Smyth, a lguist at the Universy of Toronto, found that participants readily separated rerdgs of 25 diverse voic to those who “sound gay” and those who “sound straight. In Smyth's study, people rrectly gused a man’s sexualy about 60 percent of the time, only a ltle better than another small study at the Universy of Hawaii, both gay and straight listeners were equally as likely to misclassify people as gay or straight. In fact, the straight men wh so-lled gay voic weren't aware that people thought they sound gay at turns out that what most people perceive as a stereotypil "gay voice" is jt a male voice that sounds more stereotypilly feme -- maly, higher pched and more melod.

And that often has more to do wh the voic that a person intified wh as they grew up, rather than and other rearchers say some men, both gay and straight, velop more feme voic bee they are fluenced by women when they are young.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

If you've ever found yourself talkg to someone wh a different accent and gradually emulatg them, you're faiar wh the gay men, adoptg what's lled "mp" -- a theatril gay accent, like an old-school starlet -- n be a way of embracg their inty. However, the difference wasn’t the stereotypil “gay voice, ” but a tenncy to e a more ntemporary, pan-Amerin accent, rather than the old-fashned Mnota accent (like  the movie “Fargo") says that the gay men he terviewed may have wanted to nvey an inty that is more stylish and cuttg edge.

” shows that even men who are out and proud may still rry wh them some shame about havg a stereotypil “gay voice, ” even if those feelgs are Savage, a gay activist and thor, argu  the film that this is a natural nsequence of boys beg bullied for walkg and talkg a certa way when they are young.

THE GAY VOICE

As Thorpe pots out the film, there have long been public entertaers or artists wh stereotypilly “gay voic” – Liberace or Tman Capote, for example -- but few people openly talked about their when characters wh “gay” mannerisms or voic appeared popular culture, they were sometim d wh negative or sid the 1940s on, Amerin film saw the rise of a sni, supercil, and vaguely gay villa, startg wh the manipulative Clifton Webb the tective noir film “Lra.

THE SOLUTN TO "GAY" INSULTS: FREEDOM OF SPEECH

” That tradn of the effete, aristocratic villa has lived example, film historian Richard Barrs argu  the film that many of the Disney villas have simperg voic or mannerisms that are subtly – or not so subtly – stereotypilly gay, cludg Prce John "Rob Hood, " Sr "The Ln Kg, " and many more, In an terview, Thorpe poted out what he viewed as one particularly egreg example – the bad guy the 2012 Disney animated film “Wreck-It Ralph.

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WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT A SEEMGLY FAKE DOCUMENT A GAY RIGHTS CASE

The basels claim that chemils – particularly tap water – uld turn people gay has gaed populary wh nspiracy theorists over the years, most memorably wh nservative rad host Alex Jon, who said chemils the water were “turng the igg’ ogs gay. It is the “gay lgo” or “gay speak” rived om English and Tagalog (one of the languag spoken the Republic of the Philipp) as well as other languag and dialects the Philipp, such as Cebuano, Waray, Bilano and Hiligaynon.

Until then homosexual actors, micians, athlet or anyone the public eye had two choic life: to keep their homosexualy a secret, pecially om the media, or adopt the mannerisms and a of drs which were very mp but at the same time (ironilly) never admtg their sexual preferenc publicly. Tom Robson released a very succsful song entled (Sg if you're) Glad to be Gay, was the mid-70s, and I was still at a Catholic primary school when I remember que distctly hearg gay beg ed for the first time to unteract the BrEng rogatory terms such as: poofter, poof, queer, not normal, fairy and queen that were rife at the time.

SWARDSPEAK: THE COLORFUL LANGUAGE OF THE FILIPO GAY COMMUNY

Ron DeSantis of Florida is expected to sign Hoe Bill 1557, a proposed law that supporters ll the “Parental Rights Edutn” bill and opponents refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” lleague Dana Goldste has done a close readg of the bill self, which is about much more than gay rights.

GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)

Sentence has earned the bill the “Don’t Say Gay” nickname:L 97-101: Classroom stctn by school personnel or third parti on sexual orientatn or genr inty may not occur krgarten through gra 3 or a manner that is not age appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state impact is clear enough: Instctn on genr and sexualy would be nstraed all gras. That uld disurage a teacher om speakg about gay fai wh the whole class, even if some stunts have gay bill also targets mental health and unselg servic — a place where stunts often have difficult nversatns about genr inty and sexualy, pecially if they stggle to talk about those nversatns at as Florida revis s school unselg standards, adopted 2010, which affirm genr and sexual diversy unselg.

Acrdg to Pl Baker, foremost lguistic expert Polari, this secret language, far om beg a lorful fad that jt fell out of fashn (before beg cryptilly revived by Bowie) was val to the many gay men who ed to munite wh each other unr the radar—at least until homosexualy stopped beg a crime the late sixti, renrg the secret language somewhat obsolete.

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

It’s a phenomenon that seems to replite across different cultur, such as Bahasa Gay, a gay speech style of Indonia, which has ma s way to mastream Indonian life whout the public beg particularly aware that gay people even exist.

WHAT DO ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ ACTUALLY SAY?

Ad libbed by the reputedly bisexual Cary Grant, mastream dienc would not have unrstood the slang term, and passed right unr the nose of the Hays Office, which strictly enforced the censorship of such unspeakable thgs as homosexual referenc film. This genr-nformg group, known as the homophile movement, directed their genr anxieti and anger toward more flamboyant members of the queer subculture who were out there the open, givg the rt of them a fabuloly bad name. At any rate, this near-universal lguistic practice of gay cultur everywhere, along wh other “swish” stereotyp, was strenuoly rejected by the mascule-intified homophile movement of the 50s and 60s as a perversn of language as well as social norms.

FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY

One of the few proment homophile magaz of the day, ONE, equently featured anti-swish sentiments om their gay rears, which largely ternalized public anxieti and prejudic about overt homosexual stereotyp: “The flamg faggot who swish up Lexgton Avenue New York Cy screamg and llg attentn to his eccentrici sets back homosexualy, ” “I thk that the people who ll each other ‘she, ’ etc., are sick, ” and fally “STAMP OUT QUEENS! Milant tout tant que ludique, ce langage se vt également le défensr d’un certa style vie, cherchant à exprimer, manière la pl visible, poliquement rrecte et effice qui so, la richse s portements et s cultur du mon gay.