"Do I Sound Gay?" | Psychology Today

gay man accent

Gay men, ternalized homophobia, and (re)fg the "gay voice"

Contents:

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

What the way we talk says about gay pri and lgerg prejudice * gay man accent *

Why is there a "gay" accent? Accents are generally a regnal thg, but seems like there is a stereotypil, standard effemate-soundg gay accent, no matter where the US you go. Is this an effect of the media sterotypg of gays, or is the stereotype based on realy.

Ed: Never meant to imply that all gay mal had an accent. I don't unrstand why male homosexuals have an "accent". I am not homophobic.

The way that male gays talk don't even really bother me unls 's overtly flamboyant, I fd myself sensive to loud talkg no matter who is.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay. * gay man accent *

I know a few gay men who don't talk this way at all. Why do gay guys have an accent?

Before anythg, I am not homophobic, we live a ee world wh ee choic. As far as I am aware beg a gay guy means that you feel like a man and you like men, and beg trans means that you are the wrong body and you feel like youre the oppose genr.

So why do gay guys have a girlish accent when talkg? (Please rrect me if im wrong on anythg im open to learng, also i mean some gay people not all). Most of are faiar wh the stereotype of a “gay voice.

JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR MEN'S PRO SPORTS TO INTIFY AS GAY

Jacksonville Jaguars ach Kev Maxen, who joed the team last year, me out publicly as gay an terview wh Outsports published on Thursday, beg the first ach a U.S. men’s profsnal league to do so" emprop="scriptn * gay man accent *

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.

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.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE COACH TO COME OUT AS GAY MAJOR U.S. SPORTS

* gay man accent *

” People picked up on featur of the gay stereotype – voic that were higher and more melod were more often labeled "gay. 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. But that don't mean that they are gay.

"Some men wh 'gay voic' are straight, and some men wh 'straight voic' are gay, " says Smyth. "There are butch and fem gay men, there are butch and fem straight men, there are butch and fem straight women. If you've ever found yourself talkg to someone wh a different accent and gradually emulatg them, you're faiar wh the gay men, adoptg what's lled "mp" -- a theatril gay accent, like an old-school starlet -- n be a way of embracg their inty.

THE GAY VOICE

“As a hly mted gay man, I learned how mpg up uld be liberatg, ” Thorpe says the there may be more subtle ways that sexualy and our sense of self fluence our voic. Benjam Munson, who studi language and speech at the Universy of Mnota, found one study that gay men did e a slightly different pronunciatn than straight men. However, the difference wasn’t the stereotypil “gay voice, ” but a tenncy to e a more ntemporary, pan-Amerin accent, rather than the old-fashned Mnota accent (like  the movie “Fargo") says that the gay men he terviewed may have wanted to nvey an inty that is more stylish and cuttg edge.

“As speakers of a language, we have lots of eedom how we pronounce sounds … People explo that variatn to create different social meangs, " he those who are proud n still feel stigma“Do I Sound Gay?

” shows that even men who are out and proud may still rry wh them some shame about havg a stereotypil “gay voice, ” even if those feelgs are Savage, a gay activist and thor, argu  the film that this is a natural nsequence of boys beg bullied for walkg and talkg a certa way when they are young.

"DO I SOUND GAY?"

Misogyny and homophobia are “evil tws, ” which both have a root sexism and valug thgs that are female, says Thorpe. “[B]ee we do still live a misogynist and sexist culture, people cricize men who are effemate, whether or not they are gay, " says Thorpse.

"“This is really an issue of genr that then be an issue of sexual orientatn that then be an issue of homophobia, " Thorpe said. He grew up the Bible Belt the 1980s, when homosexualy was often nsired evil and the e of a new plague lled AIDS, Thorpe says. He didn’t know anyone who was openly the time, there were also almost no posive gay characters  the media.

GAY ACCENT. GEIC, OR AFFECTATN?

As Thorpe pots out the film, there have long been public entertaers or artists wh stereotypilly “gay voic” – Liberace or Tman Capote, for example -- but few people openly talked about their when characters wh “gay” mannerisms or voic appeared popular culture, they were sometim d wh negative or sid the 1940s on, Amerin film saw the rise of a sni, supercil, and vaguely gay villa, startg wh the manipulative Clifton Webb the tective noir film “Lra. ” That tradn of the effete, aristocratic villa has lived example, film historian Richard Barrs argu  the film that many of the Disney villas have simperg voic or mannerisms that are subtly – or not so subtly – stereotypilly gay, cludg Prce John "Rob Hood, " Sr "The Ln Kg, " and many more, In an terview, Thorpe poted out what he viewed as one particularly egreg example – the bad guy the 2012 Disney animated film “Wreck-It Ralph. ” (This is a play on a “Nilla wafer” – a kd of okie -- and the word “nelly, ” a rogatory term for gay men, says Thorpe.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY MAN ACCENT

Kev Maxen be first male ach a US men’s pro sports league to publicly e out as gay | CNN .

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