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

Contents:

• DO I SOUND GAY? REVIEW – HIGHLY PERSONAL DOCUMENTARY
• A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
• DO I SOUND GAY?
• DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
• EXCLIVE POSTER FOR ‘DO I SOUND GAY?’ WILL LEAVE YOU TONGUE-TIED
• WATCH: ‘DO I SOUND GAY?’ TRAILER EXPLOR MEANG VOICE
• DAVID SEDARIS, DAN SAVAGE NEW DOCUMENTARY ‘DO I SOUND GAY?’
• HOW CAN I GET RID OF MY GAY VOICE?

DO I SOUND GAY? REVIEW – HIGHLY PERSONAL DOCUMENTARY

Homosexual acts are illegal Malaysia and punishable by f and up to 20 years prison. You are young people, and I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progrsive, ” he said addrsg the dience. Bisexual men are perceived to sound more mascule than men who are straight, acrdg to a study of Atralian subjects.Amics at the Universy of Sydney pared the voic of gay, straight and bisexual men a study volvg 160 people.In the rearch led by clil psychologist Jam Morandi, people were reced to analyse the voic of 60 men, 20 of whom were gay, 20 straight and 20 bisexual.

They were then asked to rate the men on their sexual orientatn g a sle om zero (exclively heterosexual) to 10 (exclively homosexual).Listeners were also asked to rate each man’s perceived level of femy or masculy the voic on a siar sle.The men volved the study were asked to rerd themselv on a smartphone recg the first two l of the Atralian natnal anthem.Voice sampl were then modified to remove any background noise while volume levels were ma the same to ensure nsistency.Rults om the study showed listeners uld distguish between gay and straight men’s voic wh an accuracy of 62 per cent, apparently nsistent wh prev rearch.However, the study participants uld not terme any differenc between bisexual and straight men’s voic wh any gree of accuracy. The thors said their rearch showed bisexual men’s voic were perceived as beg more exclively attracted to women pared wh both gay and straight men’s voic.Bisexual men’s voic were rated as more mascule than both gay and straight men’s voic.Rearchers claimed the abily to intify a man’s bisexual inty om his voice alone uld have cril social implitns such as helpg to rce feelgs of alienatn.‘Voice may unter visibily many bisexuals feel’An abstract of the study, tled Can listeners tect if a man is bisexual om his voice alone, reads: “The prent study examed whether bisexual men n be intified om their voic ak to how gay men n be intified on their voice alone.“If this is the se, voice may be an important target of discrimatn on the one hand but may also unter the visibily many bisexuals feel (if their bisexual inti n be apprehend by their voice alone, whout explic disclosure required).“The fdgs may also she light on whether bisexual male voic, like gay male voic, differ om straight voic terms of their genr non-nformy – a qutn that to date has not been examed.”But amics noted the rearch was limed on the grounds all men who participated the study are Atralian, which may not be reflected among wir cultur.And the thors nced the study did not ntrol for the rerdg environment or microphone-to-mouth distance, which uld have affected the qualy of the voice sampl.The thors said the fdgs suggted that while the voic of bisexual men the sample were perceived as more mascule and attracted to femal, listeners did not associate this imprsn wh bisexualy.As a rult, while bisexual men may appear to be at lower risk of facg voice-based intifitn and discrimatn than gay men, they may often be mistaken as beg straight.The study was published the Journal of Sex Rearch. A cheerful, highly personal vtigatn to queer cultural inty, Do I Sound Gay?

He asks assorted iends, experts and entertaers for their take on the meang and origs of what we thk of as the morn “gay voice”, while warily takg a urse of speech trag to learn to “-swch, but volnally” (I’m not sure what means, but volv him walkg around New York mutterg “tilapia, tilapia”) the terviewe are the imably voiced humorist David Sedaris (“Do I really sound like a woman? Thorpe’s exploratn ultimately sh as much light on US homophobia as do on gay inty self, and he ends up, as you might expect, strikg a very Amerin note of self-affirmatn (“Maybe I was jt tryg to rennect, ” he nclus). "Charmg, wry, a pellg portra of ternalized homophobia and liberatn" — NPR.

A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'

Catch the acclaimed documentary DO I SOUND GAY?

About the film: Is there such a thg as a "gay voice"? Why do some people "sound gay" but not others?

Why is the "gay voice" a trigger for bullyg, even vlence? 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.

DO 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. 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. 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.

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

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.

EXCLIVE POSTER FOR ‘DO I SOUND GAY?’ WILL LEAVE YOU TONGUE-TIED

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. Fdg himself sudnly sgle and his 40s, filmmaker David Thorpe cis to take a ep dive to his psyche, tryg to figure out what means to be a morn gay man.

Specifilly, DO I SOUND GAY?

WATCH: ‘DO I SOUND GAY?’ TRAILER EXPLOR MEANG VOICE

He wants to fd out more about his speech patterns and whether he has what some might scribe as a "gay accent"... From there, he expands his foc to social norms the larger gay muny, cludg vol habs, and how certa tras have e to be seen as stereotypil homosexual tras.

Fai n talk about the premise of Do I Sound Gay? Is there such a thg as a "gay accent"? What do Thorpe's examatn of his speech patterns reveal about the broar gay muny?

I n’t easily pute what means to be gay if ’s not havg jt intified yourself wh that label.

DAVID SEDARIS, DAN SAVAGE NEW DOCUMENTARY ‘DO I SOUND GAY?’

You haven’t – at least that moment, at that party – exhibed the mannerisms lked many people’s mds wh male homosexualy. The notn you would be pleased to fd this out reveals an unthkg prejudice: how rehg is to meet a gay who don’t make a meal of . Maybe I’m more “gay”.

Y, seemg gay – broadly speakg, beg mp – is a way of holdg onelf, a way of drsg, but ’s large part a way of speakg. His qut to unrstand why he talks the way he do is the subject of a new documentary, Do I Sound Gay? Apart om anythg else, ’s not the prerve of gay men or even human begs.

They’re then asked to rate each one by perceived “gayns”.

HOW CAN I GET RID OF MY GAY VOICE?

And y, the stretchg out of “sibilant” nsonants such as s and z (image Kenh Williams sayg “She sells sea shells on the sea shore” and you’re sort of there) what about gay women? 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. First: there is a style of speakg that people associate wh gay men.

Send: not all gay men e , and some straight men do. Third: this style of speakg isn’t simply an importatn of “feme” quali to male speech, although that appears to be what a lot of people, we’re still left wh the qutn of why a gay male voice might emerge. But, lguistilly speakg, soundg gay is really no different om soundg street, soundg posh or soundg like a bro.

Bee gay men have long been stigmatised, the voice is often a source of shame. After a bad breakup, “I started to fd myself repelled by gay voic... By the chatterg gay voic around me”.

And here she is teachg David to sound ls gay. “The tertg thg, though, was that David was the first person who me to me and was upont about beg gay. When dis, a subversive dance movement that spoke to black people and women and gays, broke through, was vilified by mastream rock lovers for beg ksch and plastic.