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
Contents:
- THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
- WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
- WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
- WHO SOUNDS GAY?
- GAY MEN WHO ‘SOUND GAY’ ENUNTER MORE STIGMA AND DISCRIMATN OM HETEROSEXUAL PEERS
- DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
People wh stereotypilly high-pched or ‘mp’ voic n fd people assumg that they’re gay, acrdg to one Amerin film-maker - even if they aren’t. Likewise, men wh ep voic n fd themselv wrongly assumed to be beg straight. * straight man sounds gay *
Most of are faiar wh the stereotype of a “gay voice. Do gay men actually sound different than straight men?
WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
What the way we talk says about gay pri and lgerg prejudice * straight man sounds gay *
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 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.
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. * straight man sounds 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. ” People picked up on featur of the gay stereotype – voic that were higher and more melod were more often labeled "gay.
WHO SOUNDS GAY?
This short documentary explor the reasons that some men sound stereotypilly gay, whether they are or not. * straight man sounds 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.
GAY MEN WHO ‘SOUND GAY’ ENUNTER MORE STIGMA AND DISCRIMATN OM HETEROSEXUAL PEERS
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.
DO YOU SOUND GAY? WHAT OUR VOIC TELL – AND WHAT THEY DON’T
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. 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.