What means to ‘sound gay’ - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• TONEX: FIRST OPENLY GAY GOSPEL SINGER HAS NEW NAME AND NEW SOUND
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• HOW DID GOSPEL ARTIST TONEX BEE GAY ACTIVIST B-SLA?
• IS THE LEAD SGER OF TONY TONI TONE GAY?IS THE LEAD SGER OF TONY TONI TONE GAY?
• THE GAY VOICE
• ‘TONE DOWN YOUR GAYNS’: POLICE SERGEANT IS AWARD $20 MILLN DISCRIMATN CASE

TONEX: FIRST OPENLY GAY GOSPEL SINGER HAS NEW NAME AND NEW SOUND

You’ll have more luck fdg him as B Sla, wavg a rabow striped flag at a Gay Pri para than ttifyg church circl. In so dog perhaps he beme the first well-known openly gay gospel artist and like Gaga believ homosexuals are “born this way. Most of are faiar wh the stereotype of a “gay voice.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

Do gay men actually sound different than straight men?

The are the qutns a new documentary, “Do I Sound Gay?

HOW DID GOSPEL ARTIST TONEX BEE GAY ACTIVIST B-SLA?

” It’s a fascatg and nuanced film, which the filmmaker, David Thorpe,  his feelgs about his voice to look at attus toward homosexualy.

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.

IS THE LEAD SGER OF TONY TONI TONE GAY?IS THE LEAD SGER OF TONY TONI TONE GAY?

” 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. 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.

THE GAY VOICE

But that don't mean that they are 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.

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.

‘TONE DOWN YOUR GAYNS’: POLICE SERGEANT IS AWARD $20 MILLN DISCRIMATN CASE

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? ” 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.

Misogyny and homophobia are “evil tws, ” which both have a root sexism and valug thgs that are female, says Thorpe.