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

Contents:

• DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
• PEOPLE N INTIFY WHETHER A MAN IS GAY OR STRAIGHT BY THEIR VOICE. BISEXUALS? NOT SO MUCH
• THE GAY VOICE
• A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
• BRAS OF GAY PEOPLE REMBLE THOSE OF STRAIGHT PEOPLE OF OPPOSE SEX
• DO I SOUND GAY, AND DO MATTER ANYWAY?
• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS
• GAY OR STRAIGHT? HIS SPEECH MAY GIVE A HT

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

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.

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. 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. If there are any lsons to be learned here, vol or otherwise, ’s surely that dis was ol, mp is fe and “soundg gay” is jt however gay people happen to sound.

PEOPLE N INTIFY WHETHER A MAN IS GAY OR STRAIGHT BY THEIR VOICE. BISEXUALS? NOT SO MUCH

(Picture Getty)People wh stereotypilly high-pched or ‘mp’ voic n fd people assumg that they’re gay, acrdg to one Amerin film-maker – even if they aren’t. Film-maker David Thorpe terviewed experts for his New York Tim documentary vio – and ntrasts the experienc of a straight man wh a high voice he adms sounds ‘gay’, and a gay man wh a ep voice. Scientists hypothized that bisexual men’s voic might be nsired more feme-soundg than straight men’s and more mascule-soundg than gay men’s when me to self-reported and observer-reported masculy and femy.

One hundred sixty participants, divid evenly between men and women, were asked to listen to voice sampl om 60 men (divid evenly between gay, bisexual, and straight men). After intifyg phoic characteristics that seem to make a man’s voice sound gay, their bt hunch is that some gay men may subnscly adopt certa female speech patterns.

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. 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.

THE GAY VOICE

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. 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. 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.

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.

A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'

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. ScienceNot Exactly Rocket ScienceThe differenc between heterosexual and homosexual people are as much the subject of fascatg science as they are a source of social bate.

Their imag show that the bras of gay people, certa featur cludg symmetry and nnectns to the bra’s emotnal centre are more closely matched to the bras of straight people om the oppose sex.

BRAS OF GAY PEOPLE REMBLE THOSE OF STRAIGHT PEOPLE OF OPPOSE SEX

For example, parts of the bra volved reward and emotn are more strongly activated when straight men and lbian women look at female fac, and when straight women and gay men see male fac. But attractive fac and enticg pheromon are both related to sex, and rpons to them uld be learned over Savic’s and Ldstrom’s new study shows that the differenc extend to fundamental aspects of the bra that aren’t directly lked to sex or behavur, and that are probably fixed om ia that straight men have more asymmetril bras than gay men fs wh prev rearch. They also tend to outperform gay men and straight women tts of spatial awarens, where succs pends on a part of the bra – the parietal rtex – which is ually larger men than women.

DO I SOUND GAY, AND DO MATTER ANYWAY?

From prev studi, we know that the nnectns ually lk to different areas the bras of men and women, and sprout om different hemispher -the right men, and the left was the pattern that Savic and Ldstrom saw the straight volunteers om their study, but the homosexuals showed the reverse pattern. For example, the amygdalas of gay men had more mon wh those of straight women – the two halv were well-nnected, they had more nrons projectg om the left half (as opposed to the right straight men) and the nrons nnected to the same parts of the bra that those of straight women nnectns provi some tantalisg hts about how gay and straight people differ their behavur. Certaly, gay men, social stigma is an equally likely explanatn for higher rat of ’s very likely that the relative size of the bra’s two halv are set very early velopment.

In animals, homosexualy femal is often attributed to an overabundance of male hormon – androgens – the womb, while male homosexualy rults om a lack of the.

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

Whilst some have scribed the way I talk as “well spoken” others have scribed my voice as “mp” or “effemate”; the most mon scriptn is that I “sound gay”. In his documentary, Do I Sound Gay?, released this month, New York-based journalist David Thorpe tackl why men speak the way they do and how they feel about , focg pecially on the notn of the stereotypil gay male voice. Featurg terviews wh Gee Takei (Star Trek's Mr Sulu), gay activist Dan Savage and edian Margaret Cho, Thorpe also seeks the help of lguist Ron Smyth for an amic perspective as to why gay men may speak a certa way.

One theory posed the film is that gay men grow up payg more attentn to women, and therefore her some of their speech patterns, although the tth would appear to be much more plex. On top of the observatns that I had a so-lled gay voice, people would also light tellg me that I "don't sound black", or that I "speak like a whe person".

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

In his film, Thorpe dit a fair amount of screen time towards the ia of "ternalised homophobia", and why so many gay men effectively persecute themselv, and others, for appearg to exhib feme tras. The gay actor Rsell Tovey advertently, and somewhat ckhandly, tackled the subject back March, when referrg to his childhood, he told The Observer, “If I’d have been able to relax, prance around, sg the street, I might be a different person now.

However, there are still so many gay men who haven’t been able to accept their voice; due to reasons such as growg up homophobic environments or feelg nflicted about their sexual preference. 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.

”It was the start of a four-year journey of self-disvery durg which Thorpe tried to figure out his so-lled “gay voice”: when did he start talkg that way, what ed , how exactly did sound, and, fally, what was so wrong wh anyway? The rults n be seen his new documentary, Do I Sound Gay?, which featur terviews wh lguists, amics, fay and iends, as well as a number of high-profile personali, cludg David Sedaris and Dan Savage.

MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS

Another expert that he terviews for the film is a Canadian lguist who studi vol microvariatns between gay and straight men and speculat that many gay men more readily pick up speech s om women. Intertgly, a straight iend of Thorpe’s has what is nsired to be an archetypal “gay voice” and turns that out he was raised entirely by women at an ashram. When he was younger, Thorpe not, the only “gay voic” on televisn were those belongg to figur such as Liberace and Charl Nelson Reilly, the host of The Match Game.

GAY OR STRAIGHT? HIS SPEECH MAY GIVE A HT

He also wonrs if Disney villas such as Aladd’s Jafar and The Ln Kg’s Sr, wh their soft, threateng voic, have ma young people associate soundg gay wh beg evil. “Growg up, I was always told that what was wrong wh me was that I was gay, so ’s not hard to unrstand that a moment of vulnerabily I might also feel secure about my sexualy. 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. 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.