Is There a “Gay Voice”? | The New Yorker

Contents:

• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• THE GAY WEDDG TOAST THAT BROUGHT STRAIGHT MEN TO TEARS
• GAY TOAST QUOT & SAYGS
• GAY AS TOAST
• GAY TOAST
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• THE SOLUTN TO "GAY" INSULTS: FREEDOM OF SPEECH

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

He sounds gay. 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.

THE GAY WEDDG TOAST THAT BROUGHT STRAIGHT MEN TO TEARS

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. 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.

GAY TOAST QUOT & SAYGS

”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.

GAY AS TOAST

“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.

GAY TOAST

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. Gay Men.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

I’m not sayg I was a gay Brizilla, but if weren’t for all the weddg photos, I’m sure I uldn’t tell you exactly who was part I will never fet, however, is how my hband’s speech at the receptn brought many of the men (as well as many of the women) the room to tears. I keep flashg back to my Into to Bs class om sophomore year of high school, or maybe was my En 101 class at the Florida College I went to, discsns of opportuny sts and makg the bt cisn.

Maybe I n, but was probably bee there was no other peer so siar to me, no other gay guys I would have really nsired sharg anythg wh. This past weekend was the Gay Pri Para Chigo. I didn't take off my shirt or grd to the boomg techno g om the float behd , apparently the vehicle for a gay swim team?

THE SOLUTN TO "GAY" INSULTS: FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"SO, first of all I'm out wh my male roommate (gay) and his bt iend, my other (female) roommate at some lame Lln Park bar (they go to DePl, they probably n't help ). So, gay roommate is talkg about jt how much sex he has wh his boyiend.

Most of are faiar wh the stereotype of a “gay voice. Do gay men actually sound different than straight men? The are the qutns a new documentary, “Do I Sound Gay?

” 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.