Is There a “Gay Voice”? | The New Yorker

Contents:

• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
• THE GAY VOICE
• A LGUISTIC INVTIGATN OF "THE GAY VOICE"
• GAY VOICE: STABLE MARKER OF SEXUAL ORIENTATN OR FLEXIBLE COMMUNITN DEVICE?
• OF LISPS AND LGUISTICS: THE POWER OF THE GAY VOICE
• FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'
• WHAT DO IT MEAN TO SOUND GAY?

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

Most of are faiar wh the stereotype of a “gay voice.” A man speaks at a higher pch, and a more melod fashn. And if so, why?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 world.As 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.” And though the people are all proud of their sexualy, he fds many of them have surprisgly plex feelgs about their voic.The film asks more qutns than answers. 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 go.The science of “the gay voice”To start wh, the stereotypil “gay voice” isn’t necsarily gay.In 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."The trouble was that the labels had ltle relatnship wh sexualy.

In Smyth's study, people rrectly gused a man’s sexualy about 60 percent of the time, only a ltle better than random.In another small study at the Universy of Hawaii, both gay and straight listeners were equally as likely to misclassify people as gay or straight.

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

In fact, the straight men wh so-lled gay voic weren't aware that people thought they sound gay at all.It 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.

THE GAY VOICE

And that often has more to do wh the voic that a person intified wh as they grew up, rather than sexualy.Smyth 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." And so on.Beyond the environment that a person is raised , one's peers and self-inty n also fluence their voice.Lguists have long observed that people -swch – slip to a different accent or way of speakg when they’re talkg to different groups of people, sometim whout even realizg . If you've ever found yourself talkg to someone wh a different accent and gradually emulatg them, you're faiar wh the ia.For 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 film.And 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.

A LGUISTIC INVTIGATN OF "THE GAY VOICE"

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").Munson 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 says.Even 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 subnsc.Dan 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.

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

They grow up "policg" themselv for evince that might betray them, like their voice, Savage says.Unr-nng the negative feelgs is also a strong current of misogyny, an graed prejudice agast women, say Thorpe, Savage and others.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. "So women and men who exprs themselv like women both suffer om misogyny and sexism."“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 gay.At the time, there were also almost no posive gay characters  the media.

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 homosexualy.And when characters wh “gay” mannerisms or voic appeared popular culture, they were sometim d wh negative or sid meangs.From 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 on.For 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.”“The villa that film is lled Kg Candy, and he is very nspicuoly effemate,” says Thorpe. “And at one pot the film the hero even refers to him as “nelly wafer.” (This is a play on a “Nilla wafer” – a kd of okie -- and the word “nelly,” a rogatory term for gay men, says Thorpe.)“It seems nocent and fun, but when you unrstand the tradn om which that stereotype and those villas e om, ’s not nocent, and ’s not harmls... He pots to Hollywood's proment “gaylebri,” like Jse Tyler Fergon and Neil Patrick Harris, and young gay YouTube stars like Tyler Oakley, Kgsley and Lohanthony."We are pneers our time changg societal perceptn of what means to be gay,” Gee Takei, who played Sulu "Star Trek," says the film.But homophobia still affects Hollywood.

OF LISPS AND LGUISTICS: THE POWER OF THE GAY VOICE

Many actors work to make their voic sound mascule: In the film, Bob Corff, a Hollywood voice ach who Thorpe viss, says 20 to 50 people a year e to him to sound "ls gay."The tyranny of a voiceThe voice achg the film follows the self-help narrative of actualizatn and improvement, but has an unsettlg unrcurrent.

Don Lemon, the gay, Ain-Amerin news anchor, talks about how he tentnally lost his black, Southern accent. 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. ”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. 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.

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

Even wh the gay datg muny (and gay porn), hyper-masculy is habually prized, so self-disgt gets easily turned back outward. 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.

WHAT DO IT MEAN TO SOUND GAY?

One of the ways gay people tend to pensate, the film suggts, is to adopt the supercil speech patterns of the leisure class, i.

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. 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.