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

Contents:

• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• THE GAY VOICE
• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
• A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
• Q&A: IS THERE A ‘GAY VOICE’? DIRECTOR DAVID THORPE ON HIS OUTFT DOCUMENTARY
• IS THERE A 'GAY VOICE'? DIRECTOR DAVID THORPE ON HIS OUTFT DOCUMENTARY
• FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
• MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS
• 'THE VOICE' HAS OPENLY GAY SGERS: WHERE ARE THEY ON 'AMERIN IDOL'?
• GAY VOICE: STABLE MARKER OF SEXUAL ORIENTATN OR FLEXIBLE COMMUNITN DEVICE?
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY’ VOICE
• MY GAY VOICE

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

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.

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. ” A termg factor of the characters’ sexual inty, he says, are the voic created by actors Jeremy Irons, Gee Sanrs and Jonathan ’s film, which premiered Monday night durg the Outft LGBT film ftival and opens Friday at the Sundance Sunset Cema Los Angel, explor the historil and cultural ias behd what he lls “gay voice. At first when I learned about , I thought I’d be able to swch to sound ls gay when I feel vulnerable or want to, but I thk for most people swchg is very role has the media played the creatn of the stereotyp of what a “gay voice” is or, at the very least, the proliferatn of what gay men theoretilly sound like?

THE GAY VOICE

" A termg factor of the characters' sexual inty, he says, are the voic created by actors Jeremy Irons, Gee Sanrs and Jonathan 's film, which premiered Monday night durg the Outft LGBT film ftival and opens Friday at the Sundance Sunset Cema Los Angel, explor the historil and cultural ias behd what he lls "gay voice.

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

At first when I learned about , I thought I'd be able to swch to sound ls gay when I feel vulnerable or want to, but I thk for most people swchg is very role has the media played the creatn of the stereotyp of what a "gay voice" is or, at the very least, the proliferatn of what gay men theoretilly sound like? On Thorpe's gay iends also stgglg to accept their voic Thorpe: One of the revelatns of makg this film was that this is somethg that had always bothered me and every time, basilly, I talk to a gay man I would fd out that he also had eher spent a lot of time thkg about his voice or ed to be self-nsc about his voice or still felt self-nsc about his voice. 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.

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. 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.

A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'

” 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.

There are a few theori knockg around as to why this might be: Arnold Zwicky, his mply tled 1994 paper Two Lavenr Issu for Lguists, suggts that: “For many lbians, what is most important is intifitn wh the muny of women – while for many gay men, what is most important is distancg themselv om straight men. THE VOICE -- "Bld Audns" Episo 2303 -- Pictured: (l-r) Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Chance The Rapper, Niall Horan -- (Photo by: Evans Vtal Ward/NBC) NBC’s The Voice has only aired two episos, but already viewers have heard somethg that viewers have probably never heard on Fox’s Amerin Idol: “I’m gay.

In fact, out of hundreds of nttants that have appeared on TV’s biggt seri over 10 years, openly gay portrayals are eher nonexistent (nobody ntacted for this story uld remember one), or at bt, extremely rare, let alone numbers like The Voice has picted s first two weeks. Here’s a clip of Tyler Robson, one of the openly gay The Voice nttants om last week: Episo Reps THE VOICE -- "Bld Audns" Episo 2303 -- Pictured: Niall Horan -- (Photo by: Evans Vtal Ward/NBC) S23 E3 Rep The Voice nttant lands on Niall Horan's team thanks to a Harry Styl song By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Fale, Part 2” Episo 2220B -- Pictured: (l-r) John Legend, Gwen Stefani, Caa Cabello, Blake Shelton -- (Photo by: Nile Wegart/NBC) S22 E25 Rep The Voice fale rep: A new wner is crowned By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- Live Fale, Part 1 Episo 2220A -- Pictured: Omar Jose Cardona -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E24 Rep The Voice rep: The top five sg for the w By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- Live Semi-Fal Top 8 Elimatns Episo 2219B -- Pictured: John Legend -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E23 Rep The Voice rep: Meet your season 22 falists By Maggie Fremont Blake Shelton, John Legend, Gwen Stefani, and Caa Cabello on 'The Voice' S22 E22 Rep The Voice rep: The Top 8 pair up for Whney Hoton duets the semifals By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Top 10 Elimatns” Episo 2218AB -- Pictured: (l-r) Omar Jose Cardona, Kim Cise, John Legend, Parija Bastola -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E21 Rep The Voice rep: A Team Legend sger ws the Instant Save Round to make the Top 8 By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Top 10 Performanc” Episo 2218A -- Pictured: (l-r) John Legend, Gwen Stefani -- (Photo by: Casey Durk/NBC) S22 E20 Rep The Voice rep: Live top 10 performanc By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Top 13 Elimatns” Episo 2217B -- Pictured: (l-r) Bodie, Bryce Leatherwood, Rowan Grace, Brayn Lapen, Man Myl, Devix, Eric Who, Alyssa Wrado, Jt Aaron, Kique, Kim Cse, Omar Jose Cardona, Parija Bastola -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E19 Rep The Voice rep: Live Top 13 elimatns By Maggie Fremont The Voice S22 E18 Rep The Voice rep: Watch the top 13 perform songs that 'changed their liv' By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Top 16 Performanc” Episo 2216B -- Pictured: (l-r) John Legend, Gwen Stefani -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E17 Rep The Voice rep: The ach face a tough cisn to reach the top 13 By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Top 16 Performanc” Episo 2216A -- Pictured: Katie Kalvach -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E16 Rep The Voice rep: The top 16 go live for the first time By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- "Knockout Rounds" Episo 2214 -- Pictured: John Legend -- (Photo by: Tyler Goln/NBC) S22 E14 Rep The Voice rep: John Legend and Caa Cabello battle for a top Team Blake artist By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- "The Knockouts Premiere" Episo 2213 -- Pictured: (l-r) Gwen Stefani, Caa Cabello, John Legend, Blake Shelton -- (Photo by: Tyler Goln/NBC) S22 E13 Rep The Voice rep: Wele to the season of 3-way knockouts By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE S22 E12 Rep The Voice rep: The Battl e to a close By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- "The Battl Part 2" Episo 2209 -- Pictured: John Legend -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E10 Rep The Voice rep: John Legend has to e his 'save' tonight's battle By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- "Battle Rounds" Episo 2208 -- Pictured: (l-r) Caa Cabello, Blake Shelton -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E9 Rep The Voice rep: Blake Shelton steals one of Gwen Stefani's would-be sav By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- "The Bld Audns, Part 7" Episo 2207 -- Pictured: Steven McMorran -- (Photo by: Ta Thorpe/NBC)THE VOICE -- "Bld Audns" Episo TBD -- Pictured: Man Myl -- (Photo by: Ta Thorpe/NBC) S22 E8 Rep The Voice rep: The Battl are on — and one ach don't hate to e their 'save' By Maggie Fremont Gwen Stefani, Caa Cabello, and Blake Shelton on 'The Voice' S22 E6 Rep The Voice rep: The ach get picky as the Blds beg to wd down By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- “The Bld Audns Season Premiere” Episo 2201 -- Pictured: Gwen Stefani -- (Photo by: Tyler Goln/NBC) S22 E5 Rep The Voice rep: Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani put their marriage to the tt as bld dns ntue By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- “The Bld Audns, Part 3” Episo 2203 -- Pictured: John Legend -- (Photo by: Tyler Goln/NBC) S22 E4 Rep The Voice rep: Did John Legend jt pick up a rger for the fals? Stephen Pieters, HIV survivor and gay activist, di at 7003:35Married thors share spirg love story: ‘I feel so lucky’TODAY04:29LGBTQ+ llege athlet talk breakg barriers, beg embracedTODAY04:10Archer aims to make the sport accsible to LGBTQ+ munyTODAY05:50Unpackg Anti-LGBTQ+ Rhetoric Followg The Rpect for Marriage Act PassageSymone25:03Rebel Wilson opens up about same-sex relatnship, motherhood and takg on a dramatic roleTODAY00:32Lawmakers on both sis of the aisle vote to pass Marriage ActTODAY08:04Discsg Polil Vlence Agast the LGBTQ+ CommunySymone04:40How one woman’s g out helped her fay realize their tthTODAY04:10‘Bros’ stars talk ‘excg’ release of historic romTODAYMore storiMicMicDavid Archuleta on 15 years of ‘Csh’ and g out: ‘I am the happit I’ve been'The "Amerin Idol" nner-up tells how his life changed sce publicly g out 2021, startg wh the way he sgs his first h song.

Q&A: IS THERE A ‘GAY VOICE’? DIRECTOR DAVID THORPE ON HIS OUTFT DOCUMENTARY

Wh this bate, Vasilovsky (2018) cricized gaydar rearch for nceptualizg sexual orientatn cu mostly as “static” and “nate” rather than as “dynamic” munitn addrs this cricism, we foc here on a cue that may have some relatively stable featur, but that is also known to be open to modulatn, namely voice. When judged on the basis of voice alone, gay speakers are generally perceived as (relatively) ls heterosexual than straight speakers, but they still tend to be systematilly misclassified as heterosexual, suggtg that heterosexualy is the flt rponse (Smyth et al., 2003; Sulpiz et al., 2015, 2020; see Lick & Johnson, 2016, for this straight tegorizatn bias) lerature has also examed the actual atic cu that distguish gay and straight speech styl.

Overall, the lerature nfirms that some voice characteristics are stereotypilly associated wh homosexualy and/or femy/masculy (see Kachel, Simpson, & Steffens, 2017; Kachel et al., 2018b) and that listeners are not only fluenced by actual atic differenc but also rely on stereotypil cu when formg an imprsn of the speaker (Munson, Crocker, Pierrehumbert, Owen-Anrson, & Zucker, 2015) few exceptns, rearch on dory gaydar has nceptualized gay and straight voice as a relatively stable characteristic of the speaker and, hence, has foced on habual ways of speakg. Th, prr rearch has foced on variatn between rather than wh speakers, although there are a few notable has been suggted that gay speakers may specifilly mimize or emphasize the stereotypil atic cu scribed above to nceal or signal their sexual orientatn (Kachel et al., 2018a; Zwicky, 1997; see also Zimman, 2013). Crist (1997) observed a systematic lengtheng of (some) onset nsonants when four gay and two straight speakers were asked to read a text a “queeny” (flamboyantly effemate), rather than an “ordary, ” voice, suggtg that both straight and gay men were able to modify their voic.

The only exceptn to this is reprented by a study showg that gay men dislikg the ia of soundg gay avoid engagg gay stereotypil speech and, th, were ually perceived as heterosexual (Mann, 2012) is some evince that gay dividuals may, to some gree, be able to nceal their sexual orientatn, but only when talkg about general topics (Sylva et al., 2010). Th, remas to be seen whether gay speakers modulate their voic pendg on ntext and terlocutor and whether such voice modulatn is succsful exprsg or ncealg sexual and Overview of RearchIn le wh the ia that voice signals social tegory membership (Posva & Callier, 2015), our voice sexual orientatn modulatn hypothis poss that speakers flexibly adopt stereotypilly gay/lbian vs.

IS THERE A 'GAY VOICE'? DIRECTOR DAVID THORPE ON HIS OUTFT DOCUMENTARY

As a nsequence, speech styl signalg a gay tegory membership should maly be adopted wh people who are aware of the speaker’s sexual orientatn and who had reacted posively to their g out (Lville, 1998; Munson & Babel, 2007), but gay speakers may mimic straight speech styl wh unaware or unacceptg teractn vtigate whether gay speakers spontaneoly modulate their voic to reveal or disguise their sexual orientatn, we nducted a simulated nversatn study which gay men imaged talkg to terlocutors wh whom they had e out easily, wh difficulty, or had not me out at all.

FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'

In le wh our voice modulatn hypothis, we hypothized that the voic of gay speakers will sound more gay when talkg to others wh whom they had easily e out than when talkg to people wh whom they had not e out or wh whom they have had a difficult disclosure experienc. Gay speakers were asked to image to talk to (1) a receiver wh whom they had not e out and wh whom they would not feel fortable to e out (no g out), (2) a receiver wh whom they had e out and who had reacted a posive way (easy g out), and (3) a receiver wh whom they had e out but who had reacted a negative way (difficult g out). After listeng to each rerdg, participants were asked to rate the speaker’s voice by pletg a measure of voice genr typily (om 1 = pletely feme to 7 = pletely mascule) and of voice gayns (om 1 = pletely heterosexual to 7 = pletely homosexual), after havg listened to the three rerdgs, participants gused the speaker’s sexual orientatn (om 1 = pletely heterosexual to 7 = pletely homosexual, wh the sle midpot labeled “bisexual”).

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

In le wh prev studi on dory gaydar (Sulpiz et al., 2015, 2020; Valentova & Havlíček, 2013) and on the straight tegorizatn bias (Lick & Johnson, 2016), sexual orientatn means were overall low and below the midpot of the sle for both gay and straight speakers (all ts < − 5. To le out this possibily, we nducted a send study that allowed to vtigate voice modulatn as a functn of g out, while holdg dience characteristics orr to exame whether voice modulatn gay men is a specific nsequence of g out, gay speakers Study 2 were teractg wh the same dience, namely the general public. G., sentenc read out loud), this method gave the possibily to exame listeners’ perceptn based on spontaneo expected that the voic of gay speakers would sound ls genr typil and more gay after than before g out, but no differenc over time were predicted for the straight speakers (Hypothis 1).

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

After listeng to each d rerdg, participants pleted the voice genr typily and voice gayns measur and gused the speaker’s sexual orientatn on the same 7-pot sl of Study, participants gused how many different speakers they had listened to (om 1 to 10) and dited whether they had regnized any of them as someone they knew.

MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS

As shown Table 1, straight speakers’ voic were perceived as creasgly genr typil over time, whereas an oppose trend was observed for gay speakers, whose voic sound ls genr typil after than before g 1 Mean (SD) of voice genr atypily, voice gayns, and perceived sexual orientatn as a functn of speaker sexual orientatn and time (Study 2)Full size tableOverall, the voic of both gay and straight speakers across ndns were perceived as rather genr typil (ts > 13. 1 (top) and Table 1, and le wh Hypothis 1, the voic of gay speakers were perceived as more gay after than before g out, whereas the oppose pattern was found for straight 1Means of perceived voice gayns (top) and speaker sexual orientatn (bottom) as a functn of time (Study 2).

'THE VOICE' HAS OPENLY GAY SGERS: WHERE ARE THEY ON 'AMERIN IDOL'?

Note Higher valu mean greater gayns of voice (middle) and greater gayns of speaker (bottom), all asssed on sl om 1 to 7Full size imageIntertgly, the three-way teractn between speaker sexual orientatn, time, and listener sexual orientatn was signifint, F(2, 602) = 4. Regardls of time, straight speakers were always perceived as clearly straight (that is below the sle midpot), whereas gay speakers were perceived as clearly gay soundg and on the “gay” si of the ntuum (that is signifintly above the sle midpot) only after their g out.

It also supports the ia that gaydar has an “adaptive” functn (Shelp, 2003), allowg gay dividuals to munite their sexual different voice and listeners sampl (English and Italian), settgs, and methodologi, our studi provi evince that gay speakers adjt their speech styl flexibly as a functn of their stage of g out, speakg more typilly “gay” wh teractn partners whom they have e out wh and who have reacted posively (Study 1a and 1b) or after a public g out (Study 2).

GAY VOICE: STABLE MARKER OF SEXUAL ORIENTATN OR FLEXIBLE COMMUNITN DEVICE?

The fact that straight speakers also modulated their voic pendg on the terlocutor (Study 1) and over time (Study 2) suggts that they e voice as a tool to munite their heterosexualy prumably to avoid misclassifitn or to safeguard their heterosexual reputatn (Bosson et al., 2006; Fasoli et al., 2018) le wh the lerature (Smyth et al., 2003; Sulpiz et al., 2015), we also found that, although listeners distguish gay and straight speakers and their voic relative terms, they have a strong tenncy to misclassify gay speakers as straight. The chang we observed our studi may reflect the importance for speakers to be perceived as both genr typil and heterosexual, possibly bee of ternalized homophobia gay men (see Hunt, Morandi, Dar-Nimrod, & Barlow, 2020) and stat ncerns straight men (Fasoli et al., 2018). In between, you've got stars like Tman Capote, Liberace, and Pl Lyn, for whom an effete-soundg voice was a subtle sign of homosexualy a more guard for Ron Smyth, a lguist at the Universy of Toronto who appears Thorpe's film, media fluence is jt part of what mak certa voic sound gay.

"People often assume gay voic are high-pched — perhaps, Smyth said, a rult of stereotyp stemmg om "excciatgly paful" versns like the 1970 film "The Boys the Band" — but the men didn't have higher voic on the whole, the variabl looked a lot like some of the differenc between male and female speech.

This is backed up by a 2003 study by Peter Renn, then an unrgraduate at the Universy of Texas at At, fdg that while gay men sound, on average, more "gay" than straight men, the strongt rult for soundg that way was gay or straight men who didn't necsarily nform to genr stereotyp as boys. Bee of this, many scholars feel a special urgency to unrstand why for some people — perhaps not always the most sympathetic — a certa voice n jt sound William Leap, an anthropologist at Amerin Universy who has been studyg the language of gays and lbians sce the 1980s, puts : "In the real world the are fightg terms, and people get victimized; and we need to ask what people are listeng for.

THERE IS NO ‘GAY’ VOICE

“I feel like that’s the burn a lot of gay people live wh — tryg to be perfect for straight people, ” he job requir equent teractn wh the players and the achg staff — addn to his duti as play-by-play announcer, Bach also is the ma public relatns ntact for the team — and he said he hadn’t fully relaxed any of them.

Mrer/Frericksburg NatnalsThat feelg is somewhat “self-flicted, ” Bach said, but he believ the solutn is to brg more openly gay people to sports and create a safe environment for those who are already there but have felt necsary to hi their League Baseball has touted self as a place of clivy.

MY GAY VOICE