Michael Schulman on “Do I Sound Gay?,” a documentary by David Thorpe that explor how vol nc are associated wh sexualy.
Contents:
- WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
- “HUMID” OR “GAY”?: HOW ONE LTLE ‘ü’ N PLETELY CHANGE THE MEANG OF A WORD
- GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
- IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
- WHY DO GAY MEN SOUND LIKE ~THAT~?
- CALIFORNIA ENGLISH AND THE “GAY ACCENT”
WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
What the way we talk says about gay pri and lgerg prejudice * gay german accent *
I was speakg to someone I’m iends wh onle and both of grew up wh a fair amount of German our liv; both of are cur (and me as a gay man) if there is any mon lgbt slang the German language like there is English? 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.
“HUMID” OR “GAY”?: HOW ONE LTLE ‘ü’ N PLETELY CHANGE THE MEANG OF A WORD
The Nazi regime rried out a mpaign agast male homosexualy and persecuted gay men between 1933 and 1945. * gay german accent *
” It’s a fascatg and nuanced film, which the filmmaker, David Thorpe, his feelgs about his voice to look at attus toward homosexualy.
GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
Explore our gay travel gui to Germany featurg LGBTQ+ safety tips, gay rights , top ci & attractns, where to stay and more! * gay german accent *
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.
IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
” 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.
WHY DO GAY MEN SOUND LIKE ~THAT~?
"Some men wh 'gay voic' are straight, and some men wh 'straight voic' are gay, " says Smyth.
CALIFORNIA ENGLISH AND THE “GAY ACCENT”
"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. “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.