What the way we talk says about gay pri and lgerg prejudice
Contents:
- THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
- WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
- THIS GUY JT WANTS TO KNOW IF HE SOUNDS GAY
- ‘WHO SOUNDS GAY?’
- A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
- FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'
- IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
- THE GAY VOICE
- WHAT DO IT MEAN TO SOUND GAY?
- BE YOUR OWN SELF: THE LSONS OF 'DO I SOUND GAY?' AND 'TANGERE'
THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
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. * he sounds gay *
” It’s a fascatg and nuanced film, which the filmmaker, David Thorpe, his feelgs about his voice to look at attus toward homosexualy.
WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
* he sounds 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.
He rri out thoughtful nversatns wh his iends and proment gay and lbian figur – cludg Gee Takei, David Sedaris, Dan Savage, Margaret Cho and Don Lemon – about what means to “sound gay. 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. ” People picked up on featur of the gay stereotype – voic that were higher and more melod were more often labeled "gay.
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.
THIS GUY JT WANTS TO KNOW IF HE SOUNDS 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 . * he sounds gay *
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.
‘WHO SOUNDS GAY?’
This short documentary explor the reasons that some men sound stereotypilly gay, whether they are or not. * he sounds gay *
"Some men wh 'gay voic' are straight, and some men wh 'straight voic' are gay, " says Smyth. "There are butch and fem gay men, there are butch and fem straight men, there are butch and fem straight women.
A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I 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. * he sounds 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.
“As a hly mted gay man, I learned how mpg up uld be liberatg, ” Thorpe says the there may be more subtle ways that sexualy and our sense of self fluence our voic. Benjam Munson, who studi language and speech at the Universy of Mnota, found one study that gay men did e a slightly different pronunciatn than straight men. 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.
“As speakers of a language, we have lots of eedom how we pronounce sounds … People explo that variatn to create different social meangs, " he those who are proud n still feel stigma“Do I Sound Gay?
FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'
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." * he sounds gay *
” 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.
IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
Michael Schulman on “Do I Sound Gay?,” a documentary by David Thorpe that explor how vol nc are associated wh sexualy. * he sounds gay *
Misogyny and homophobia are “evil tws, ” which both have a root sexism and valug thgs that are female, says Thorpe.
“[B]ee we do still live a misogynist and sexist culture, people cricize men who are effemate, whether or not they are gay, " says Thorpse. "“This is really an issue of genr that then be an issue of sexual orientatn that then be an issue of homophobia, " Thorpe said.
THE GAY VOICE
He says he’s bisexual, but I’m worried he’s actually gay. * he sounds gay *
He grew up the Bible Belt the 1980s, when homosexualy was often nsired evil and the e of a new plague lled AIDS, Thorpe says.
WHAT DO IT MEAN TO SOUND GAY?
A sound study of the Gay voice and the impact has." class="jsx-2067809186 * he sounds gay *
He didn’t know anyone who was openly the time, there were also almost no posive gay characters the media.
BE YOUR OWN SELF: THE LSONS OF 'DO I SOUND GAY?' AND 'TANGERE'
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. ” 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.
” (This is a play on a “Nilla wafer” – a kd of okie -- and the word “nelly, ” a rogatory term for gay men, says Thorpe. He pots to Hollywood's proment “gaylebri, ” like Jse Tyler Fergon and Neil Patrick Harris, and young gay YouTube stars like Tyler Oakley, Kgsley and Lohanthony.
"We are pneers our time changg societal perceptn of what means to be gay, ” Gee Takei, who played Sulu "Star Trek, " says the homophobia still affects Hollywood. Many actors work to make their voic sound mascule: In the film, Bob Corff, a Hollywood voice ach who Thorpe viss, says 20 to 50 people a year e to him to sound "ls gay. Don Lemon, the gay, Ain-Amerin news anchor, talks about how he tentnally lost his black, Southern accent.