I finally got a chance to watch the documentary “Do I sound Gay?”. As we all know, every gay man has some sort of insecurity. Clearly, one of the most common is their own voice. This documentary covers this subject in great detail with many personal stories from gay men… and straight men. One theory of how voices develop is based off the people that they are closest to when they are growing up. I was closest (and still am) to my mother… who just happens to have raspy voice from smoking (yuck). Ironically, I just took her, my sister and aunt to a concert Sunday night to see my childhood favorite Stevie Nicks who I’ve listened to since I was in my mother’s belly so I’m told. So, in theory, if I had to, I guess I can “blame” my voice sounding so rough on being around smokers that listened to a lot of Fleetwood Mac when I was growing up. LOL!
Growing up in Ohio where you needed to have that masculine voice (or get made fun of), I remember and now regret making fun of voices that were not considered masculine or whatever because I KNEW I was really no different than them. That changed over time as I traveled the world and later moved out of Ohio to Chicago. Great friendships have been made since then. I love that now when I hear “Girrrrl!” or “Oh Hey Mary” I smile lovingly instead of judging so harshly as I did back in my 20’s. I also now have NO problem wearing any of my Kylie Minogue or Madonna tour shirts in public.
(Except for the one she signed. I don’t want the ink to fade!) 😉
I wish this documentary would have been made about 20 years ago. I highly recommend it. Especially in a time where tolerance of others seems to be taking a step backwards.