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

Contents:

• A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• GAY MEN AND BODY PERFECTN
• THE TONE-GAY EFFECT
• 'GLAD TO BE GAY': THE STGGLE FOR GAY LIBERATN BEYOND LEGAL RIGHTS
• DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
• WHAT DO "GAY" MEAN?
• THE GAY VOICE
• NBA RUMORS: JAM HARN TRA TALKS, JOEL EMBIID, PJ TUCKER, RUDY GAY, LAKERS, WARRRS, BUCKS, MORE
• IS TONY GAY ’13 REASONS WHY’? — SEASON 1 SPOILERS

A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN

Here they like the world at large may stereotype gays as mcg wrist flippers wh great taste bent on givg everyone they meet a make over. That said, when the gays see a fellow homosexual the public sphere, we try to plug them to the nvenient taxonomy the muny has ma for self. They may not be very faiar to the world at large, but they are certaly faiar to the brothers butt say that each gay person belongs to one of the typ is a b ceptive.

Dcriptn: This young breed of gays is never over 30 and tends to be on the queeny si and hews closely to the nventnal stereotyp of gay man.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

Wild, ornery, and still gettg over their g out issu, the twk is the gay gone wild, and is ba to olr men who are to tryg to suck off their youthful energy.

Celebry Example: This is such a specific type don't really exists the world at large, but the Platonic ial of a circu boy is DJ Brett HenrichsenGay-Listers. They ually work advertisg, PR, marketg, or the entertament dtry and make a ton of sh which they e to have perfect apartments, fantastic wardrob, and summer hom near all the other gay-listers. He drs eher the most current prissy fashns or like a homo versn of Terry Richardson, big glass, flannels, and jeans that looks so thrown together that took him hours to put together.

You're more likely to fd them at a gallery openg or mol party, but every so often they'll be at a gay bar to b elbows, and other parts, wh the other homos. The drag queens are not only the urt jters of the gay muny, drsg up like clowns for our entertament, but they are also a bridge to the straight world. As much as gay men appreciate the queens for their looks, w, and sha, straight people love a drag show even more than the queers do.

GAY MEN AND BODY PERFECTN

” 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.

THE TONE-GAY EFFECT

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. 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. 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.

'GLAD TO BE GAY': THE STGGLE FOR GAY LIBERATN BEYOND LEGAL RIGHTS

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. 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. “[B]ee we do still live a misogynist and sexist culture, people cricize men who are effemate, whether or not they are gay, " says Thorpse.

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

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. ” 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.

He pots to Hollywood's proment “gaylebri, ” like Jse Tyler Fergon and Neil Patrick Harris, and young gay YouTube stars like Tyler Oakley, Kgsley and Lohanthony. "We are pneers our time changg societal perceptn of what means to be gay, ” Gee Takei, who played Sulu "Star Trek, " says the homophobia still affects Hollywood.

WHAT DO "GAY" MEAN?

Many actors work to make their voic sound mascule: In the film, Bob Corff, a Hollywood voice ach who Thorpe viss, says 20 to 50 people a year e to him to sound "ls gay. The gay media reprents bety and sirabily the form of youth and gym-toned bodi, makg the gay scene a harsh place for people who do not nform to such ials.

Whilst the gay media perpetuat body perfectn and helps mata the distrs, the unrlyg disturbance that mak so many gay men predisposed to the stggl is homophobia. In my practice, I see many gay men whose real stggle is the fear of rejectn, the hypervigilance of threats makg vulnerabily tolerable for them. Gay men may not be able to intify the unrlyg pa by themselv but gay-affirmative therapy, they n have a space to unpack the var layers of their disturbanc.

A study by the Universy of Waterloo has found that Grdr, the most popular datg app for gay, bisexual, two-spir and queer men, is negatively affectg men’s body image, and more so when is about weight.

THE GAY VOICE

Many of our participants see Grdr as a necsary evil, as ter-mediated munitn has served a unique historil role for gay men circumventg social, cultural and legal barriers to makg nnectns public spac. Doctor: He is showg signs of what is known as the Tone-Gay effect, I'm sorry madam, is very rare, is curable and there is ltle we n do to treat.

NBA RUMORS: JAM HARN TRA TALKS, JOEL EMBIID, PJ TUCKER, RUDY GAY, LAKERS, WARRRS, BUCKS, MORE

This is reflectg the extremely recent history of the stggle for gay liberatn; equal legal rights were reluctantly granted to gay people, yet whout acpanyg methods of rercement or tn, such legislative chang the UK did not immediately lead to equaly for gay people. Contrary to the school curriculum’s prcriptive narrativ that wh legal gay rights me equaly, the stggle for gay rights, an end to rampant homophobia, or the btal police treatment of gay people, did not end wh legal chang.

Growg up wh gay parents, I know this to be te om my personal memori, and whilst I nnot attempt to entirely unrstand the experience of growg up gay ten, twenty, or thirty years ago, I n touch upon my recent experienc as the dghter of a gay uple to give some sight to the suatn. ‘Glad To Be Gay’My spiratn for this article was origally Tom Robson Band’s song, first released 1978, lled ‘Glad To Be Gay’ which, after listeng to first several months ago, ntued to echo my md for some time.

The song pairs a misleadgly upbeat melody, wh btally ironic lyrics scribg the realy of homophobia Bra the 1970s - after the troductn of legal rights. Inially misguid by the happy notatn and tone of the mic, the lyrics h me hard; still, when I listen to this song I feel emotnal, and grieve for everyone who grew up durg a time – not so long ago – when beg gay was not socially accepted by most. The song opens wh a thls illtratn of the state of Bra regards to homophobia and the treatment of gay people, spe the legalizatn of homosexualy the Sexual Offenc Act of 1967, (albe wh an unequal age of nsent pared to heterosexualy).

IS TONY GAY ’13 REASONS WHY’? — SEASON 1 SPOILERS

The openg l offer a sarstic nial of the homophobic police btaly that was rife Bra; police equently raidg gay bars, physilly assltg, and verbally harassg gay people. This led me to thk about the experienc of my own parents such s, and realize what a urageo thg was to be openly gay a time when homophobia was not only socially accepted, by actively perpetrated by the police, stutns, and employe. Yet the chos, wh the eponymo lyrics, ‘Sg if you’re glad to be gay, sg if you’re happy that way’ remds of the empowerg value beg open and standg proud, the face of jtice–every person who openly intified as homosexual or who volly supported this ntributed to the materializatn of progrs.