Epidemic of strangulated, gargling, monotone female voices

[omega minimo]

Why?

It started appearing in the 90's-- this croaky/whiny, back-of-the-throat style of speaking favored by young women. Spread via the TV nationwide so that now it is EVERYWHERE and affects even very young girls. These girls are imitating older sisters and young women who have copycatted this repressive, depressive habit-- from where? Why? Who started this and WHY DO YOUNG (and some older) WOMEN (and now even some men) DO THIS?

Women! We need your voices! Clear! Strong! Confident! Unafraid! Unembarrassed to voice your opinion, voice your heart, voice your SELF!

Break the cycle! Break the habit. Don't enable and influence the next generation of croaking, garlging girls, choking on their own speech, choking back their own spirits.

:bounce: :smoke: :bounce:

[applegrove]

1. Oh I think it is unfortunately documented that many teen girls have

a hard time in highschool where they deal with adolescents who will ignore or be cruel. Don't you think that is where the lack of confidence comes from? For sure if you lived in a small town - you might grow up more secure.

[omega minimo]

3. Not "lack of confidence" -- What is That Voice? Why is it everywhere?

[applegrove]

16. Then I misunderstand. Sorry.

[Warpy]

18. I know the voice you mean

and it seems to have arisen from conformity at some of the "better" universities and then spread throughout every college in the country. You won't hear working class women choking their words back, only the best and brightest (or the worst and dimmest, who invariably end up on Pox News).

I started noticing it in Boston in the late 70s. Now I hear it even at the local university here in NM.

It's only marginally better than that breathy female the GOP uses in their attack ads, "Call Congresman Soandso and ask him why he eats live kittens for a bedtime snack."

Both are styles that need to be laughed at heartily until they die ignominious deaths.

[omega minimo]

19. OK Late 70's hmmmmm? "Better" universities' conformity?

Hmmmm the theory thickens. We have the Valley Girl influence, fer sure, fer sure. And before we laugh heartily and ignominiously (your ad gave me a chuckle) let's ask the question:

Why would young women, the "best and brightest" at the "better" universities be choking their words back (at college!!!)

And once it spread to colleges nationwide and entered the public bloodstream via TV-- why are so many of the nation's best and brightest young women choking their words back?

[Warpy]

20. Why do you think?

You let fly in one of those places, you're instantly a ballbreaker, a shrew, or the supreme insult, a dyke. They learned to choke on their words because they knew the type of male who hurled epithets at them in college would likely be their superiors afterward, as cock privilege took over where competence left off.

I'm just telling you where I saw the whole thing start in Boston in the 70s. I missed the whole Valley Girl thing.

Again, if you want a woman who is willing to tell it like it is in her own words, look to the working class. It got beaten out of all the women you'll see in the media or the croporate rat race.

[omega minimo]

21. At the height of the women's movement?

So we're talking Backlash.

And two decades later this vocal affectation is an epidemic that affects many women under the age of say, 35-ish. You may be right about the working class distinction. God, is it a college thing? At this point, it is everywhere-- on TV, in the ads, in the reporters for gawds sake, in the bank, in the store, in the office-- everywhere.

The question is HOW does an entire generation (or two) of women get infected with this bizarre mannerism? How are they convinced to make themselves sound like that?

The other thing is-- don't any of them notice how absolutely hideously ugly that croaking gurgling noise is?

I mean REALLY!!!!!!!! :rofl: :evilfrown: :scared:

[KoKo]

2. I know what you are talking about! It's incredible...that even "regional

accents" aren't overcoming this garbled, back throat speech. Sounds like gibberish.

It's really bizarre! :eyes: Like some kind of "cloned virus speak."

[omega minimo]

4. It's replacing regional accents?

Really?

Where do you think it came from?

[Moochy]

7. I Blame Rita Crosby!

:hide:

We need to pick our teen girls role models more carefully! :)

Seriously thoygh,I don't know if I've heard what you are describing. Is there a TV show character that might talk like this as a reference?

[omega minimo]

8. Probably but I turn them off

:evilgrin:

[MuseRider]

5. I don't know

what you are talking about. Maybe it hasn't reached the midwest yet? Can you tell me more? All I can think about is the lot of them walking around talking like little girls. That is enough to make me want to shake them.

[omega minimo]

6. The spore is spread thru the TV

It's on the shows and in the ads. Whiny/croaky is the best I can do. Someone on DU I think once referred to it as "phlegm bubble." Kinda gross, but the sound is kinda gross. The voice is buried in the throat, barely croaking out, not clear and projecting.

[Moochy]

9. The Dell Chick

I think I know now what you are talking about.

It's infuriating, and it's what I used to call "dudespeak"

It's an advertising affectation that professional voiceover people use, and it's supposedly more "hip" than a standard voiceover. I guess some focus study polled a bunch of teens who prolly checked the "14-19" demographic box, when they heard the voice.

Thus, in the mind of the advertiser they are attracting the "14-19" year old demographic.

[MuseRider]

11. Thanks.

I can't seem to place it so perhaps I am not as TV addicted as I thought I was. :)

Remember a few years ago there was the vocal style where the voice was really shaky, sounded like they were about to cry. Almost like Robert Kennedy Jr. sounds but probably an affectation while his is not.

Is that it?

I will just have to pay more attention to the tube! NOT!

[put out]

30. Got two words for you:

"It's Watson's!!!". That's what it sounds like. You definitely need a lot more teevee in your life. My description: about 2 tablespoons of breath, tighten the back of your throat and let your voice come out through the very front of your mouth with a lot of nasal; shrill it up and cute it up and make it sound like a little girl, and throw in a touch of whine and some desperation. Act eager to please. Raise your eyebrows and don't sound declarative. It helps if you make most of what you say sound like a question? You know? Right? O.K.? It makes you sound rilly rilly young? Giggle, don't ever laugh.

Hey, friend, don't shake those women. That'll get the law on you.

We need you, and we don't need you facing assault charges ;-) .

[atommom]

31. I think we have at least two subsets of annoying strangled voices here:

the "aren't I a sexy little thang" Watson's voice, and the "aren't I more hip and ladylike and sophisticated than YOU" voice. Is there anyone left who talks like a regular human being? :crazy:

[peacetalksforall]

10. I recognize it and find it hard to take. I thought it originated with the

Valley girls? It's a natural when they say "It's soooo xxxx". The soooo xxx is pushed to the back of the throat and soon all the sentences or a portion of a sentence gets shoved back down. In those I've observed - it is often associated with being in the spotlight by being the speaker with people listening. It is less noticeable in one-on-one conversations.

It's like nails on a blackboard.

On another note - I hear a lot of men with strong sing-song deliveries on Washington Journal. The sing-song aspect doesn't match their message. It's quite distracting.

Here's hoping they all grow out of it.

[omega minimo]

12. That's it. The Valley Girl thing taken too far and it is SOOooo not funny

:evilgrin:

The people that I have worked with that do it talk like that when they're nicey nice-- and then when they get MAD their REAL voice comes through.

The spotlight thing is interesting-- the TV connection may be the girls are imitating this televised "accent" and preparing for their moment On Camera, all the time.

It's distracting now that it is so prevalent (California) in life and in media.

Repression incarnate.

[Lorax]

13. It's like they can't move their lips

around the words and the words kind of stay behind their teeth. I don't know what it is either. For a while I thought maybe it was an speech pattern that developed after wearing braces or something. Now I think it's just a bad habit they are spreading around like the clap.

[freeplessinseattle]

14. is it like how ann coulter talks?

that monotone-in-a-bubble sound? like the sound is pushed up through the back of the throat and out the nose?

[omega minimo]

15. Excellent description doctor. What is the cause and IS THERE A CURE?

[peacetalksforall]

17. No - not like Coulter - she is unique - she doesn't want to show her

teeth and she has to keep from spitting her words out - with spittle.

Did you like that - old English -

Spit; saliva.
The frothy liquid secreted by spittlebugs.

I have succeeded in posting nothing about Coulter for several months. I nearly made it to the end of the year.

[Captain Hilts]

22. Question intonation at all times and swallowing final syllables. Awful!

Speak up, speak clearly and speak in a declarative tone!

You talk baby talk and people are less likely to take you seriously. What would Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn, Capt. Janeway, Condi Rice sound like speaking like that???

[omega minimo]

23. Hey, I'm hearing it right now on JL NewsHour in Supreme Court

abortion case. The ACLU lawyer and the NH pundit are both doing it......

I worked with a trendy 20-something with a gargly act that disappeared when her hair trigger temper flared. She spoke VERY CLEARLY when she was mad.

I'd still like to know how people decide to copycat this hideous noise-- aside from TV and peer pressure..... how can girls/women give up their voices?

[atommom]

24. Martha Stewart has something similar going on. It took me a long

time to figure out why she grated on my nerves so much ... it's that strangled voice!

[omega minimo]

25. It's NOT a Good Thing!

:rofl: :hi:

It's Really Weird how many professional women and reporters on TeeVee do it.

:sarcasm:
I'm looking forward to the NEXT trend.......

[atommom]

26. I'm sure they'll come up with something even more regressive and

annoying for the next one! I decided to sit out all annoying female trends a long time ago. :hi:

[omega minimo]

27. Swallowing the voice any further will leave only

:bounce:

croaking

[atommom]

28. "Today we will make an elegant centerpiece out of rrribbit ribbit..."

:bounce:

[omega minimo]

29. LOL

[Marie26]

32. I have it.

I think. Kinda breathy & low & ending on an upswing like you're asking a question? Because that way you won't annoy anybody? Don't know where I picked it up either - must be in college. I remember reading an article about how women are often the "silent majority" in classes; & while girls speak up often in elementary school, by high school they've mostly stopped raising their hand or commenting when they know the answer. Meanwhile, boys get even more vocal & assertive w/their opinions. This is a real problem - cause even if women are getting better grades, results, etc. we won't be listened to as much as someone who speaks forcefully & loudly. I'll try to speak in declarative sentences from now on!

[UncleSepp]

33. That, and the shrill and tearful voice, bug me

I cringe when I hear a woman get up to speak before a demonstration, and out comes this tearful, shrill voice that sounds like "Save the puppies! Won't someone think of the puppies!" What should be a voice showing anger and resolve instead comes out sounding petulant, and whatever it is the speaker's trying to say just comes out as a foot-stamping tantrum.

Reading aloud is one of the best things to train a speaking voice. Pick a book, pick an article, pick anything and read it out loud like you mean it. Practice modulating the voice to be soft at times and hard at times, and to travel over its natural range. Know where your voice can go so that you can hear it in your mind several words ahead of where your mouth is. Find a recording of a good speech, and practice that speech. If you go to a religious service where there is group praying out loud, try saying the prayers as if the words were your own them instead of just shuffling through what you've memorized - it feels less weird than talking to yourself. In the car, try speaking the lyrics to a song that's playing instead of singing them. Get used to the sound of your own voice. It is your instrument.

[bloom]

34. What bugs me

is the super fake super happy voices - that they must teach people in advertising school or something.


I automatically think "manipulation" and try to tune it out - if I'm out in public and can't turn it off.

[omega minimo]

35. "It is your instrument" Very well put

Interesting that tonight this OP title bumped up against:

"guys want to be... with women they don't have to talk to."


A reason to gargle one's instrument away.........................?

[Odin2005]

36. It's the God-damned California accent

It's about as annoying as our upper-Midwestern accent is funny.

[omega minimo]

38. Not quite. Someone here said the Ivy League coed syndrome

[DawgHouse]

37. I know exactly the sound you describe.

I heard it plainly at work today when my new 28 year old coworker exclaimed, "OHHh my gawd! Have you ever had pot roast? It is sooooooo good!"

[omega minimo]

39. West Wing's "Zoey" migraine commercial induces migraine

Have you seen that? It's classic. The whole swallow-your-own-tongue whiny gargle to the max.

Different (but related) to the Valley Girl thing.

It's the tortured cry for help of a voice: "I'm trapped in this throat and I can't get out!!!" :hide:

Painful to listen to.
:yoiks:

[DawgHouse]

40. I've been describing it to friends as sort of "valley-girlish".

It sounds very similar to me but not quite exactly the same. There is a kind of lilt at the end of every sentence. It sounds very odd and seems contagious to others. :)

[omega minimo]

41. Contagious? Epidemic! Spread by TV

If you remember the Moon Unit Zappa and SNL parodies of the VG accent................yer right, it's like that only there, at least the voice made it out of the face!!!!! This thing is like trying to whisper, talk baby talk and gargle all at once. :puke:

[Love Bug]

42. Actually, this has been around for a long time

I recall being told by my choir teacher back in highschool (1972!) that this kind of speaking from the back of the throat is pretty typical for female teens on up through the twenties. He would work with us to try and get us to open up our throats to let the sound resonate better.

Nowadays this seems more exaggerated to me, what with the "valley-girl" speak and all. To me a true sign of a professional actress or news reader is the lack of that "choked speech."

Now, I suppose we can look at this metaphorically in that this type of speech suggests that women do not "find their voice" until their late 20s but I'm sure there are exceptions to that.

[tigereye]

43. huh - fascinating!

I have never heard of this, unless it's the breathless valley girl thing....I have never done anything like that, I was always one of the girls with my hand up all the time in grade school, and the one pontificating in classes in high school and college and to men in various discussions.

That's pretty disturbing, I'll have to listen to see if I can figure out what you are talking about. It's odd that at a time when young women have more options for power and career than ever before, that there could be that lack of confidence and fear of being "strident."

You can bet Barbara Boxer, Hillary, etc. and Condi don't talk like that.

[omega minimo]

44. Katie Couric used the froggy voice while announcing her move to CBS today!

If you see the tape, she starts by saying (clearly) 'I know it's the worst kept secret in America........(lean forward, bashful, hair flipped down) "but I'm going to (gurgle gurlge gurgle gurgle) the Nightly News."

:bounce:

If you watch TeeVee, it's the O.C. voice, "all" the women under 25 on TV do it, I heard a young female State official gurgling a floodwatch announcement today.....


:yoiks: It's everywhere!!!! (on TeeVee), Good on ya if ya don't have to suffer through it B-) in the real world.

The really sad part is that the repression it reflects in trendy young women has a flip-side of total freakout. These women speak quite clearly when they are angry and I have witnessed one go completely hysterical screaming at work. It has to come out SOMETIME!

:hi: