Do I Sound Gay? review – highly personal documentary | Documentary films | The Guardian

Contents:

• A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
• DO I SOUND GAY? REVIEW – HIGHLY PERSONAL DOCUMENTARY
• DO I SOUND GAY?
• DO I SOUND GAY?

A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'

Homosexualy is a crime Mlim-majory Malaysia.

Rights groups have warned of growg tolerance agast lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr vios posted on social media late on Friday, Healy was seen kissg bassist Ross MacDonald after cricizg Malaysia’s stance agast homosexualy a profany-lan speech to the ftival dience. Not as easy as looks” was cricised for kissg a male fan at a 2019 ncert the Uned Arab Emirat, which also has laws agast homosexual acts, media reported. 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.

DO I SOUND GAY? REVIEW – HIGHLY PERSONAL DOCUMENTARY

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.

DO I SOUND GAY?

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. A cheerful, highly personal vtigatn to queer cultural inty, Do I Sound Gay?

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). 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? 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.