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.
Contents:
- THE GAY VOICE
- WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
- DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
- WHY DO (SOME) GAY MEN HAVE HIGHER VOIC?
- IS ALLAN OM 'BARBIE' GAY? 5 REASONS TO THK HE MIGHT BE
- WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
THE GAY VOICE
* gay voice reason *
Why do some gay men “sound” gay?
After intifyg phoic characteristics that seem to make a man’s voice sound gay, their bt hunch is that some gay men may subnscly adopt certa female speech patterns.
They want to know how men acquire this manner of speakg, and why – pecially when society so often stigmatiz those wh gay-soundg voic. Rogers and Smyth are also explorg the stereotyp that gay men sound effemate and are regnized by the way they speak.
WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
We might thk we know what a gay person sounds like. But there are veats to the cliche — and ‘voice-shamg’ tells a lot more about our culture than do about the person speakg * gay voice reason *
They asked people to listen to rerdgs of 25 men, 17 of them gay. Perhaps fewer than half of gay men sound gay, says Rogers. The straightt-soundg voice the study was fact a gay man, and the sixth gayt-soundg voice was a straight man.
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. On the Friday-night tra journey he found himself surround by loud chatterg gay men. “I knew then that I had to get to the bottom of that feelg and to the importance of the voice as part of gay inty.
”It was the start of a four-year journey of self-disvery durg which Thorpe tried to figure out his so-lled “gay voice”: when did he start talkg that way, what ed , how exactly did sound, and, fally, what was so wrong wh anyway? The rults n be seen his new documentary, Do I Sound Gay?, which featur terviews wh lguists, amics, fay and iends, as well as a number of high-profile personali, cludg David Sedaris and Dan Savage.
DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
A high-pched, lispg voice that go up at the end has been part of the gay male stereotype for years. Another expert that he terviews for the film is a Canadian lguist who studi vol microvariatns between gay and straight men and speculat that many gay men more readily pick up speech s om women. Intertgly, a straight iend of Thorpe’s has what is nsired to be an archetypal “gay voice” and turns that out he was raised entirely by women at an ashram.
WHY DO (SOME) GAY MEN HAVE HIGHER VOIC?
A iend suggts that he was “advertisg” his homosexualy, havg kept a secret for so long.
When he was younger, Thorpe not, the only “gay voic” on televisn were those belongg to figur such as Liberace and Charl Nelson Reilly, the host of The Match Game. He also wonrs if Disney villas such as Aladd’s Jafar and The Ln Kg’s Sr, wh their soft, threateng voic, have ma young people associate soundg gay wh beg evil. It pleas him to hear so many more “gay voic” reprented today, pecially young vloggers such as Lohanthony and Tyler Oakley.
IS ALLAN OM 'BARBIE' GAY? 5 REASONS TO THK HE MIGHT BE
“Growg up, I was always told that what was wrong wh me was that I was gay, so ’s not hard to unrstand that a moment of vulnerabily I might also feel secure about my sexualy.
As Dan Savage, the activist who found the It Gets Better mpaign, says the film: “What’s wrong wh soundg like you are who you are – a gay man?
“You don’t seem gay. I n’t easily pute what means to be gay if ’s not havg jt intified yourself wh that label. You haven’t – at least that moment, at that party – exhibed the mannerisms lked many people’s mds wh male homosexualy.
WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
The notn you would be pleased to fd this out reveals an unthkg prejudice: how rehg is to meet a gay who don’t make a meal of . Maybe I’m more “gay”. Y, seemg gay – broadly speakg, beg mp – is a way of holdg onelf, a way of drsg, but ’s large part a way of speakg.
His qut to unrstand why he talks the way he do is the subject of a new documentary, Do I Sound Gay? Apart om anythg else, ’s not the prerve of gay men or even human begs. They’re then asked to rate each one by perceived “gayns”.
And y, the stretchg out of “sibilant” nsonants such as s and z (image Kenh Williams sayg “She sells sea shells on the sea shore” and you’re sort of there) what about gay women? 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. First: there is a style of speakg that people associate wh gay men.