Michael Schulman on “Do I Sound Gay?,” a documentary by David Thorpe that explor how vol nc are associated wh sexualy.
Contents:
IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
He sounds gay. 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. He even asks people on the street if they thk he sounds gay.
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. The world’s homophobia be ternalized homophobia.
THE GAY VOICE
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.
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). Did he choose to sound gay or did soundg gay choose him? ” (The gay “lisp” is a b of a misnomer, ually referrg to a sibilant “S.
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.