Michael Schulman on “Do I Sound Gay?,” a documentary by David Thorpe that explor how vol nc are associated wh sexualy.
Contents:
- A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
- IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
- THE GAY LISP?
- STUDY SE ROOTS OF 'GAY LISP' BOYHOOD
- OF LISPS AND LGUISTICS: THE POWER OF THE GAY VOICE
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. * gay lisp documentary *
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. 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.
IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
* gay lisp documentary *
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. He sounds gay.
THE GAY LISP?
When to the gay voice, Medil Daily not that “as a society we associate” a lisp wh beg gay, though the lisp is actually “no way lked to a child’s future sexual preference.“ Now prelimary data om a Universy of Mnota study may shed some light on where our belief the so-lled "gay lisp” om: The study found that boys ag 5 to 11 diagnosed wh genr dysphoria—they don’t intify as boys—are more likely to e “th” sounds when pronouncg the letter “s” than their peers. While all boys wh genr dysphoria certaly don’t bee gay men, they are “statistilly more likely” to do so, says rearcher Benjam Munson, who prented his fdgs at the biannual Meetg of the Atil Society of Ameri. “The thors speculate that stereotyp of gay adults may be rooted the speech of boys who go on to intify as gay,” wr Kelly Servick at Science. Based on the fdgs, one of Munson’s theori on the “gay lisp” stereotype is that when we were children we regnized the lisp as the speech of “ls mascule” boys, and so we assume adult gay men will speak the same way. * gay lisp documentary *
Not long after Thorpe broke up wh his boyiend, he began thkg about the way he speaks, and the way other gay men speak, and why both sudnly bothered him so much. ”This is how he scrib the moment his documentary “Do I Sound Gay?, ” which opens this weekend at the IFC Center.
He terviews gay public figur, cludg David Sedaris, Tim Gunn, Don Lemon, and Gee Takei, who have had to listen to themselv for a livg. He even asks people on the street if they thk he sounds gay. Gay adolcents, Thorpe pots out, often learn that the “tell” of their sexualy is their voic, even more so than physily—a limp wrist is easier to straighten out than an flectn.
STUDY SE ROOTS OF 'GAY LISP' BOYHOOD
The world’s homophobia be ternalized homophobia. Even wh the gay datg muny (and gay porn), hyper-masculy is habually prized, so self-disgt gets easily turned back outward. ”Of urse, not all gay men have the same voice, or any “gay” voice: is a stereotype, after all.
Thorpe talks to a straight iend who sounds “gay” (he grew up on an ashram, surround by women), and a gay iend who sounds “straight” (he has jock brothers).
Did he choose to sound gay or did soundg gay choose him? ” (The gay “lisp” is a b of a misnomer, ually referrg to a sibilant “S. Obvly, the ncln—the film’s, and me—is to dissociate the “gay voice” om shame and reattach to pri, but isn’t so easy.
OF LISPS AND LGUISTICS: THE POWER OF THE GAY VOICE
“For many gay men, that’s the last vtige, that’s the last chunk of ternalized homophobia, is this hatred of how they sound, ” Dan Savage tells Thorpe. One of the ways gay people tend to pensate, the film suggts, is to adopt the supercil speech patterns of the leisure class, i.
The CNN anchor Don Lemon tells Thorpe that he worked harr to ntralize his Southern black accent than his “gay” accent.
(The phenomenon of gay whe men imatg black women’s speech is s own thorny subtegory. As gays and lbians ga cultural pal, helped along by equaly victori like the one jt hand down by the Supreme Court, “gay voice” will surely evolve, too.