Do you sound gay? What our voic tell – and what they don’t | David Shariatmadari | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE GAY VOICE
• WHY IS THAT SOME GAY MEN EMPLOY AN EFFEMATE VOICE?
• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
• THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• WHY DO GAY MEN SOUND LIKE ~THAT~?
• DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T

THE GAY 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.

WHY IS THAT SOME GAY MEN EMPLOY AN EFFEMATE VOICE?

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.

WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'

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.

Why do some gay men velop a feme voice? I don't want to offend anyone wh this qutn but seems like gay people (pecially men) some tim have a certa tonaly to their voice that is siar to other gay guys. I know that that's by far not every gay person ever but seems like 's que a good portn.

Sorry if I sound homophobic or some sh, I am really not, but that's jt a qutn that crossed my md and I n't thk of a reasonable explanatn. This also appli to gay women and their employment of the mascule ton. Why do some gay men have very effemate voic?

THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT

I don't unrstand why male homosexuals have an "accent". The way that male gays talk don't even really bother me unls 's overtly flamboyant, I fd myself sensive to loud talkg no matter who is.

I know a few gay men who don't talk this way at all. 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.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

On the Friday-night tra journey he found himself surround by loud chatterg gay men.

“I knew then that I had to get to the bottom of that feelg and to the importance of the voice as part of gay inty.

”It was the start of a four-year journey of self-disvery durg which Thorpe tried to figure out his so-lled “gay voice”: when did he start talkg that way, what ed , how exactly did sound, and, fally, what was so wrong wh anyway?

WHY DO GAY MEN SOUND LIKE ~THAT~?

The rults n be seen his new documentary, Do I Sound Gay?, which featur terviews wh lguists, amics, fay and iends, as well as a number of high-profile personali, cludg David Sedaris and Dan Savage. A high-pched, lispg voice that go up at the end has been part of the gay male stereotype for years.

Another expert that he terviews for the film is a Canadian lguist who studi vol microvariatns between gay and straight men and speculat that many gay men more readily pick up speech s om women.

Intertgly, a straight iend of Thorpe’s has what is nsired to be an archetypal “gay voice” and turns that out he was raised entirely by women at an ashram. A iend suggts that he was “advertisg” his homosexualy, havg kept a secret for so long.

DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T

When he was younger, Thorpe not, the only “gay voic” on televisn were those belongg to figur such as Liberace and Charl Nelson Reilly, the host of The Match Game.