Filmmaker David Thorpe asks the qutn, "Do I Sound Gay?" and the birth of the "gay voice" his new documentary.
Contents:
- IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
- WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
- WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
- THE GAY VOICE
- DAVID THORPE AND DAN SAVAGE HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THE “GAY VOICE”
- A LGUISTIC INVTIGATN OF "THE GAY VOICE"
- FILMMAKER DAVID THORPE DISCS HIS NEW DOCUMENTARY THAT EXPLOR THE ‘GAY VOICE’ PHENOMENON
- THE GAY LISP?
IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
Michael Schulman on “Do I Sound Gay?,” a documentary by David Thorpe that explor how vol nc are associated wh sexualy. * gay voice history *
Not long after Thorpe broke up wh his boyiend, he began thkg about the way he speaks, and the way other gay men speak, and why both sudnly bothered him so much.
WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
What the way we talk says about gay pri and lgerg prejudice * gay voice history *
”This is how he scrib the moment his documentary “Do I Sound Gay?, ” which opens this weekend at the IFC Center. He terviews gay public figur, cludg David Sedaris, Tim Gunn, Don Lemon, and Gee Takei, who have had to listen to themselv for a livg.
WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
Self-nsc about the way he speaks, David Thorpe has explored why some people his muny ‘sound gay’ and others don’t a new documentary. * gay voice history *
Gay adolcents, Thorpe pots out, often learn that the “tell” of their sexualy is their voic, even more so than physily—a limp wrist is easier to straighten out than an flectn.
Even wh the gay datg muny (and gay porn), hyper-masculy is habually prized, so self-disgt gets easily turned back outward.
”Of urse, not all gay men have the same voice, or any “gay” voice: is a stereotype, after all.
THE GAY VOICE
We terviewed director David Thorpe and wrer-podster, Dan Savage, about acceptg how you sound, and David's new film, Do I Sound Gay. * gay voice history *
Thorpe talks to a straight iend who sounds “gay” (he grew up on an ashram, surround by women), and a gay iend who sounds “straight” (he has jock brothers).
Obvly, the ncln—the film’s, and me—is to dissociate the “gay voice” om shame and reattach to pri, but isn’t so easy. “For many gay men, that’s the last vtige, that’s the last chunk of ternalized homophobia, is this hatred of how they sound, ” Dan Savage tells Thorpe. One of the ways gay people tend to pensate, the film suggts, is to adopt the supercil speech patterns of the leisure class, i.
DAVID THORPE AND DAN SAVAGE HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THE “GAY VOICE”
If you've ever wonred why some men "sound gay," take a few mut to watch this. * gay voice history *
The CNN anchor Don Lemon tells Thorpe that he worked harr to ntralize his Southern black accent than his “gay” accent. As gays and lbians ga cultural pal, helped along by equaly victori like the one jt hand down by the Supreme Court, “gay voice” will surely evolve, too. ” It’s a fascatg and nuanced film, which the filmmaker, David Thorpe, his feelgs about his voice to look at attus toward homosexualy.
A LGUISTIC INVTIGATN OF "THE GAY VOICE"
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.
FILMMAKER DAVID THORPE DISCS HIS NEW DOCUMENTARY THAT EXPLOR THE ‘GAY VOICE’ PHENOMENON
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. ” 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.
THE GAY LISP?
"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.