Gay men, ternalized homophobia, and (re)fg the "gay voice"
Contents:
- JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR U.S. PRO LEAGUE TO E OUT AS GAY
- THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
- A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
- "DO I SOUND GAY?"
- DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR U.S. PRO LEAGUE TO E OUT AS GAY
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. * why don't i sound gay *
Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted when the then-St. Filmmaker David Thorpe (middle) explor whether there's such a thg as a "gay voice. In the wake of a bad breakup, journalist and gay activist David Thorpe did what many of do: He took tense ventory of his own flaws and securi, then stepped up one of them to a Thg.
THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
In a new documentary, a gay man tri to change the sound of his voice and wonrs why, exactly, he thks he should. * why don't i sound gay *
A good Thg, as turns out, whose end rult is the charmg documentary Do I Sound Gay?, which Thorpe wryly treats his anxieti about his "gay" voice as an exercise self-improvement, and wds up wh a pellg portra of ternalized homophobia and liberatn.
Thorpe adms that gog , he was "repelled" by a speech style that mak gay men sound like "brayg nni. Back South Carola's Bible Belt, where Thorpe grew up, relativ and childhood iends pot out that he didn't sound gay until he me out of the closet llege.
Friends wh his tight-kn gay circle are more divid: Some nfs to hatg their lispg, anoidal voic; others own gayspeak wh varyg gre of fiance and jubilatn. Thorpe brgs lguists to ttify that there's ltle evince to support the argument that gay speech is nate.
A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
* why don't i sound gay *
The explanatn that pleas him most is that gay speech has s origs ls blogy or nro-chemistry than early female fluence: Men who grow up mostly around women tend to mimic feme speech styl — which, Thorpe argu, would expla why some straight men sound gay, and why gays who grow up wh brothers often velop basso profundos. Do I Sound Gay? Is very good on the way many gay men who were bullied as children have learned to turn the hatred of others ward, which helps expla s of gay hyper-masculy and ternal ostracism of effemate men.
Takg his cue om the swellg ranks of gay celebri (among them Gee Takei, Margaret Cho and the effably funny and ndid David Sedaris) who are willg to speak on mera about liberatg themselv om their own fears, Thorpe realiz he's been askg the wrong qutns. While he was by tryg to iron out his gay voice, New York State legalized gay marriage, and the film's release jt weeks after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the natn.
Nadal, thor of "That’s So Gay! Microaggrsns and the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr Communy" and Dr. “Do I Sound Gay?
"DO I SOUND GAY?"
”—one of summer 2015’s mt see documentari acrdg to Entertament Weekly—is a new film by David Thorpe, a gay Whe Amerin wrer based Brooklyn, New York.
Through a seri of terviews and teractns wh Thorpe’s iends and relativ, a few celebri, and random strangers on the streets, we hear a spectm of perspectiv about what “sounds gay” and why soundg as such is perceived as bad.
Many of the gay men the film adm to beg que fortable wh the sounds of their voic, not fully unrstandg why Thorpe would feel so strongly about his voice that he would even vis a speech pathologist and a celebry vol traer to get rid of his “gay voice. ” However, most of the gay men the film were able to relate to the secury of havg a more feme voice and some even relled tim that their “gay soundg” voic (and general gay inti) had led to gettg bullied or worse.
DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
Overall, the film do a nice job of explorg a very real but largely unseen, unheard, and perhaps unspoken psychologil stggle that many gay men may have.
Internalized Homophobia: An Unseen and Unheard Psychologil Stggle. As psychology profsors and rearchers, the first thg that popped to our mds while watchg the film was the ncept of ternalized opprsn, particularly ternalized homophobia* (please see note below about the term “homophobia”), which may be fed as the negative attus that LGBTQ people have about themselv bee of their sexual orientatns. We believe ternalized homophobia is why a gay man would dislike soundg feme.