1/31/2024 0 Comments Why do gay men sound differentVirtually every parody-malicious or otherwise-of gay men includes a nasal, lisping, high-pitched vocal timbre. I suspect many queer people will identify with being bullied not only for what they say, but how they say it. Mine was a voice everyone was familiar with, and they knew what it signified: That I was gay. In high school, when I was mocked for speaking the way I did it had nothing to do with sounding outlandish. I always uptalked, and my friends said I always sounded “nice”. But something residual, something non-geographical, continued to haunt me. I made a concerted effort to sound American in response. This wasn’t motivated by patriotic disdain for the UK, so much as a kid’s ability to isolate anything peculiar and mock it. The first time I remember being teased for it was when I moved to Colorado. Now, watching home videos, I find it hilarious. Because I was incredibly small, had buckteeth, and couldn’t pronounce the letter “r,” I sounded like a small, shrill hybrid of Elmer Fudd and Julie Andrews. I was born in England to American parents, and lived there long enough to have an English accent for much of my adolescence. But when you let your guard down-and who can keep it up forever?-your real voice waits patiently to slip out. If you’re meticulous, you can choose what you say and how you say it. Of all the injustices of childhood, being mocked for your voice has a particular sting.
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