A Documentarian Wonrs: 'Do I Sound Gay?' : NPR

Contents:

• THE GAY VOICE
• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
• A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• WHY IS THAT SOME GAY MEN EMPLOY AN EFFEMATE VOICE?
• GAY GAY HOMOSEXUAL GAY / I CAN STILL HEAR HIS VOICE
• MY GAY VOICE
• FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'
• 'THE VOICE' HAS OPENLY GAY SGERS: WHERE ARE THEY ON 'AMERIN IDOL'?
• DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
• MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS
• GAY VOICE: STABLE MARKER OF SEXUAL ORIENTATN OR FLEXIBLE COMMUNITN DEVICE?
• WHAT DO IT MEAN TO SOUND GAY?
• SIE MCCABE: ‘THE WORST ADVICE I’VE HAD? DON’T BE TOO GAY YOUR MATERIAL – MEN WON’T LIKE ’

THE GAY VOICE

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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

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. 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.

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

” 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. 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.

A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'

On Thorpe's gay iends also stgglg to accept their voic Thorpe: One of the revelatns of makg this film was that this is somethg that had always bothered me and every time, basilly, I talk to a gay man I would fd out that he also had eher spent a lot of time thkg about his voice or ed to be self-nsc about his voice or still felt self-nsc about his voice. THE VOICE -- "Bld Audns" Episo 2303 -- Pictured: (l-r) Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Chance The Rapper, Niall Horan -- (Photo by: Evans Vtal Ward/NBC) NBC’s The Voice has only aired two episos, but already viewers have heard somethg that viewers have probably never heard on Fox’s Amerin Idol: “I’m gay.

In fact, out of hundreds of nttants that have appeared on TV’s biggt seri over 10 years, openly gay portrayals are eher nonexistent (nobody ntacted for this story uld remember one), or at bt, extremely rare, let alone numbers like The Voice has picted s first two weeks. ” It uld simply be a difference of productn style: That producers on Idol, as Fox’s statement suggts, don’t thk sexual orientatn is relevant to a sgg petn and so they don’t really see a reason to go there wh nttants (“I don’t re if a sger is gay!

Here’s a clip of Tyler Robson, one of the openly gay The Voice nttants om last week: Episo Reps THE VOICE -- "Bld Audns" Episo 2303 -- Pictured: Niall Horan -- (Photo by: Evans Vtal Ward/NBC) S23 E3 Rep The Voice nttant lands on Niall Horan's team thanks to a Harry Styl song By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Fale, Part 2” Episo 2220B -- Pictured: (l-r) John Legend, Gwen Stefani, Caa Cabello, Blake Shelton -- (Photo by: Nile Wegart/NBC) S22 E25 Rep The Voice fale rep: A new wner is crowned By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- Live Fale, Part 1 Episo 2220A -- Pictured: Omar Jose Cardona -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E24 Rep The Voice rep: The top five sg for the w By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- Live Semi-Fal Top 8 Elimatns Episo 2219B -- Pictured: John Legend -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E23 Rep The Voice rep: Meet your season 22 falists By Maggie Fremont Blake Shelton, John Legend, Gwen Stefani, and Caa Cabello on 'The Voice' S22 E22 Rep The Voice rep: The Top 8 pair up for Whney Hoton duets the semifals By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Top 10 Elimatns” Episo 2218AB -- Pictured: (l-r) Omar Jose Cardona, Kim Cise, John Legend, Parija Bastola -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E21 Rep The Voice rep: A Team Legend sger ws the Instant Save Round to make the Top 8 By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Top 10 Performanc” Episo 2218A -- Pictured: (l-r) John Legend, Gwen Stefani -- (Photo by: Casey Durk/NBC) S22 E20 Rep The Voice rep: Live top 10 performanc By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Top 13 Elimatns” Episo 2217B -- Pictured: (l-r) Bodie, Bryce Leatherwood, Rowan Grace, Brayn Lapen, Man Myl, Devix, Eric Who, Alyssa Wrado, Jt Aaron, Kique, Kim Cse, Omar Jose Cardona, Parija Bastola -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E19 Rep The Voice rep: Live Top 13 elimatns By Maggie Fremont The Voice S22 E18 Rep The Voice rep: Watch the top 13 perform songs that 'changed their liv' By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Top 16 Performanc” Episo 2216B -- Pictured: (l-r) John Legend, Gwen Stefani -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E17 Rep The Voice rep: The ach face a tough cisn to reach the top 13 By Maggie Fremont The Voice -- “Live Top 16 Performanc” Episo 2216A -- Pictured: Katie Kalvach -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E16 Rep The Voice rep: The top 16 go live for the first time By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- "Knockout Rounds" Episo 2214 -- Pictured: John Legend -- (Photo by: Tyler Goln/NBC) S22 E14 Rep The Voice rep: John Legend and Caa Cabello battle for a top Team Blake artist By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- "The Knockouts Premiere" Episo 2213 -- Pictured: (l-r) Gwen Stefani, Caa Cabello, John Legend, Blake Shelton -- (Photo by: Tyler Goln/NBC) S22 E13 Rep The Voice rep: Wele to the season of 3-way knockouts By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE S22 E12 Rep The Voice rep: The Battl e to a close By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- "The Battl Part 2" Episo 2209 -- Pictured: John Legend -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E10 Rep The Voice rep: John Legend has to e his 'save' tonight's battle By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- "Battle Rounds" Episo 2208 -- Pictured: (l-r) Caa Cabello, Blake Shelton -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) S22 E9 Rep The Voice rep: Blake Shelton steals one of Gwen Stefani's would-be sav By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- "The Bld Audns, Part 7" Episo 2207 -- Pictured: Steven McMorran -- (Photo by: Ta Thorpe/NBC)THE VOICE -- "Bld Audns" Episo TBD -- Pictured: Man Myl -- (Photo by: Ta Thorpe/NBC) S22 E8 Rep The Voice rep: The Battl are on — and one ach don't hate to e their 'save' By Maggie Fremont Gwen Stefani, Caa Cabello, and Blake Shelton on 'The Voice' S22 E6 Rep The Voice rep: The ach get picky as the Blds beg to wd down By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- “The Bld Audns Season Premiere” Episo 2201 -- Pictured: Gwen Stefani -- (Photo by: Tyler Goln/NBC) S22 E5 Rep The Voice rep: Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani put their marriage to the tt as bld dns ntue By Maggie Fremont THE VOICE -- “The Bld Audns, Part 3” Episo 2203 -- Pictured: John Legend -- (Photo by: Tyler Goln/NBC) S22 E4 Rep The Voice rep: Did John Legend jt pick up a rger for the fals?

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

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. As long as there is an unchecked cultural phobia of “gay voic, ” --by which we really jt mean effemate male voic--we are all nmned to a PTSD-like state of hypervigilance, too aaid to blur the l of genr, our voic or any other area of our liv. Wh this bate, Vasilovsky (2018) cricized gaydar rearch for nceptualizg sexual orientatn cu mostly as “static” and “nate” rather than as “dynamic” munitn addrs this cricism, we foc here on a cue that may have some relatively stable featur, but that is also known to be open to modulatn, namely voice.

WHY IS THAT SOME GAY MEN EMPLOY AN EFFEMATE VOICE?

When judged on the basis of voice alone, gay speakers are generally perceived as (relatively) ls heterosexual than straight speakers, but they still tend to be systematilly misclassified as heterosexual, suggtg that heterosexualy is the flt rponse (Smyth et al., 2003; Sulpiz et al., 2015, 2020; see Lick & Johnson, 2016, for this straight tegorizatn bias) lerature has also examed the actual atic cu that distguish gay and straight speech styl.

Overall, the lerature nfirms that some voice characteristics are stereotypilly associated wh homosexualy and/or femy/masculy (see Kachel, Simpson, & Steffens, 2017; Kachel et al., 2018b) and that listeners are not only fluenced by actual atic differenc but also rely on stereotypil cu when formg an imprsn of the speaker (Munson, Crocker, Pierrehumbert, Owen-Anrson, & Zucker, 2015) few exceptns, rearch on dory gaydar has nceptualized gay and straight voice as a relatively stable characteristic of the speaker and, hence, has foced on habual ways of speakg. Rearch on sexual orientatn modulatn (Ambady & Hallahan, 2002; Sylva, Rieger, Lsenmeier, & Bailey, 2010) has shown that gay dividuals are able to exaggerate and partially nceal their sexualy, pecially if they are not a gnively mandg suatn (Sylva et al., 2010). Th, prr rearch has foced on variatn between rather than wh speakers, although there are a few notable has been suggted that gay speakers may specifilly mimize or emphasize the stereotypil atic cu scribed above to nceal or signal their sexual orientatn (Kachel et al., 2018a; Zwicky, 1997; see also Zimman, 2013).

GAY GAY HOMOSEXUAL GAY / I CAN STILL HEAR HIS VOICE

Crist (1997) observed a systematic lengtheng of (some) onset nsonants when four gay and two straight speakers were asked to read a text a “queeny” (flamboyantly effemate), rather than an “ordary, ” voice, suggtg that both straight and gay men were able to modify their voic.

MY GAY VOICE

The only exceptn to this is reprented by a study showg that gay men dislikg the ia of soundg gay avoid engagg gay stereotypil speech and, th, were ually perceived as heterosexual (Mann, 2012) is some evince that gay dividuals may, to some gree, be able to nceal their sexual orientatn, but only when talkg about general topics (Sylva et al., 2010).

Th, remas to be seen whether gay speakers modulate their voic pendg on ntext and terlocutor and whether such voice modulatn is succsful exprsg or ncealg sexual and Overview of RearchIn le wh the ia that voice signals social tegory membership (Posva & Callier, 2015), our voice sexual orientatn modulatn hypothis poss that speakers flexibly adopt stereotypilly gay/lbian vs. As a nsequence, speech styl signalg a gay tegory membership should maly be adopted wh people who are aware of the speaker’s sexual orientatn and who had reacted posively to their g out (Lville, 1998; Munson & Babel, 2007), but gay speakers may mimic straight speech styl wh unaware or unacceptg teractn vtigate whether gay speakers spontaneoly modulate their voic to reveal or disguise their sexual orientatn, we nducted a simulated nversatn study which gay men imaged talkg to terlocutors wh whom they had e out easily, wh difficulty, or had not me out at all.

In le wh our voice modulatn hypothis, we hypothized that the voic of gay speakers will sound more gay when talkg to others wh whom they had easily e out than when talkg to people wh whom they had not e out or wh whom they have had a difficult disclosure experienc. Gay speakers were asked to image to talk to (1) a receiver wh whom they had not e out and wh whom they would not feel fortable to e out (no g out), (2) a receiver wh whom they had e out and who had reacted a posive way (easy g out), and (3) a receiver wh whom they had e out but who had reacted a negative way (difficult g out).

FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'

After listeng to each rerdg, participants were asked to rate the speaker’s voice by pletg a measure of voice genr typily (om 1 = pletely feme to 7 = pletely mascule) and of voice gayns (om 1 = pletely heterosexual to 7 = pletely homosexual), after havg listened to the three rerdgs, participants gused the speaker’s sexual orientatn (om 1 = pletely heterosexual to 7 = pletely homosexual, wh the sle midpot labeled “bisexual”). In le wh prev studi on dory gaydar (Sulpiz et al., 2015, 2020; Valentova & Havlíček, 2013) and on the straight tegorizatn bias (Lick & Johnson, 2016), sexual orientatn means were overall low and below the midpot of the sle for both gay and straight speakers (all ts < − 5. The gay speakers’ voic sound more gay and more genr atypil to the ears of our listeners when speakers simulated an teractn wh an terlocutor who had reacted posively to their g out than when the teractn volved someone who was unaware of their sexualy.

To le out this possibily, we nducted a send study that allowed to vtigate voice modulatn as a functn of g out, while holdg dience characteristics orr to exame whether voice modulatn gay men is a specific nsequence of g out, gay speakers Study 2 were teractg wh the same dience, namely the general public. G., sentenc read out loud), this method gave the possibily to exame listeners’ perceptn based on spontaneo expected that the voic of gay speakers would sound ls genr typil and more gay after than before g out, but no differenc over time were predicted for the straight speakers (Hypothis 1).

'THE VOICE' HAS OPENLY GAY SGERS: WHERE ARE THEY ON 'AMERIN IDOL'?

Th, this study allowed to further exame the ia that voice is not a stable marker of sexual orientatn, but a flexible inty management vice, ed by gay speakers to strategilly (although not necsarily liberately) disclose or disguise their sexual orientatn. After listeng to each d rerdg, participants pleted the voice genr typily and voice gayns measur and gused the speaker’s sexual orientatn on the same 7-pot sl of Study, participants gused how many different speakers they had listened to (om 1 to 10) and dited whether they had regnized any of them as someone they knew.

As shown Table 1, straight speakers’ voic were perceived as creasgly genr typil over time, whereas an oppose trend was observed for gay speakers, whose voic sound ls genr typil after than before g 1 Mean (SD) of voice genr atypily, voice gayns, and perceived sexual orientatn as a functn of speaker sexual orientatn and time (Study 2)Full size tableOverall, the voic of both gay and straight speakers across ndns were perceived as rather genr typil (ts > 13. 1 (top) and Table 1, and le wh Hypothis 1, the voic of gay speakers were perceived as more gay after than before g out, whereas the oppose pattern was found for straight 1Means of perceived voice gayns (top) and speaker sexual orientatn (bottom) as a functn of time (Study 2). Note Higher valu mean greater gayns of voice (middle) and greater gayns of speaker (bottom), all asssed on sl om 1 to 7Full size imageIntertgly, the three-way teractn between speaker sexual orientatn, time, and listener sexual orientatn was signifint, F(2, 602) = 4.

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

Regardls of time, straight speakers were always perceived as clearly straight (that is below the sle midpot), whereas gay speakers were perceived as clearly gay soundg and on the “gay” si of the ntuum (that is signifintly above the sle midpot) only after their g out. In eher se, the fact that the voic of gay speakers velop the oppose directn be even more also found that heterosexual listeners perceived a change over time how gay the speakers sound, whereas sexual mori perceived gay speakers nsistently as gay soundg. It also supports the ia that gaydar has an “adaptive” functn (Shelp, 2003), allowg gay dividuals to munite their sexual different voice and listeners sampl (English and Italian), settgs, and methodologi, our studi provi evince that gay speakers adjt their speech styl flexibly as a functn of their stage of g out, speakg more typilly “gay” wh teractn partners whom they have e out wh and who have reacted posively (Study 1a and 1b) or after a public g out (Study 2).

MY GAY VOICE AND YOURS

Our fdg that gay speakers flexibly adjt their speech styl pendg on their stage of g out nfirms Eckert’s (2012) claim that lguistic styl do not statilly reflect the speaker’s social inty, but that this inty is actively nstcted teractn wh others.

The fact that straight speakers also modulated their voic pendg on the terlocutor (Study 1) and over time (Study 2) suggts that they e voice as a tool to munite their heterosexualy prumably to avoid misclassifitn or to safeguard their heterosexual reputatn (Bosson et al., 2006; Fasoli et al., 2018) le wh the lerature (Smyth et al., 2003; Sulpiz et al., 2015), we also found that, although listeners distguish gay and straight speakers and their voic relative terms, they have a strong tenncy to misclassify gay speakers as straight.

The chang we observed our studi may reflect the importance for speakers to be perceived as both genr typil and heterosexual, possibly bee of ternalized homophobia gay men (see Hunt, Morandi, Dar-Nimrod, & Barlow, 2020) and stat ncerns straight men (Fasoli et al., 2018). The film is stctured around his personal qut to get rid of his “gay voice”—recently sgle and middle-aged, David Thorpe began to fd his voice a source of anxiety, worryg turned off potential lovers—which grounds what uld otherwise have been a disparate web of amic theori and talkg heads. That spurred him to look more systematilly at the gay voice self; eventually he realized he’d found somethg signifint to say about the subject, a talogue of people reflectg about the history, prevalence, signifince, and science of the voice ’s clear om his enthiasm and breadth of knowledge that Thorpe, a wrer wh an quisive personaly and a voice I found entirely pleasant, has enough material for a whole seri on the subject.

GAY VOICE: STABLE MARKER OF SEXUAL ORIENTATN OR FLEXIBLE COMMUNITN DEVICE?

Admtg that a roomful of gay voic n be annoyg giv space to pick apart anxieti—which parts are jt annoyance at other people’s nversatns, and which are tied to toxic the film velops, be apparent that much of what we intify as a gay voice is a characteristilly feme voice spoken by a man.

WHAT DO IT MEAN TO SOUND GAY?

To prove his pot, Thorpe shows a straight man who was raised on an ashram by a group of women, who talks a voice that would tonate most people’s gaydar; but he also troduc to a gay man raised the suburbs wh five macho brothers who has the sort of voice that porn actors strive for.

SIE MCCABE: ‘THE WORST ADVICE I’VE HAD? DON’T BE TOO GAY YOUR MATERIAL – MEN WON’T LIKE ’