We might thk we know what a gay person sounds like. But there are veats to the cliche — and ‘voice-shamg’ tells a lot more about our culture than do about the person speakg
Contents:
- DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
- THE NFLATN OF 'MP' AND 'GAY'
- CAN PEOPLE STOP BEG GAY?
DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
* can you be camp but not gay *
“You don’t seem gay. I n’t easily pute what means to be gay if ’s not havg jt intified yourself wh that label. 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?
THE NFLATN OF 'MP' AND '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”.
CAN PEOPLE STOP BEG GAY?
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...