Did anybody ever tell you you have kind of a childlike voice
Oh God your voice is so annoying. It's so squeaky. It's so high
frantic, grating
obnoxious
take a shot of whiskey that may help your voice like sound more rich
a woman's voice is not
Authoritative, people will not believe her
I got this letter in the mail. It's written on a note card and
It basically tells me that I sound like a Kardashian sister
Talking while female part of NPR's look at image and the changing lives of women
okay, so why do women sound like they do?
a lot of the pitch of a woman's voice is going to be driven by how
Tall you are and how much hormones you have women are smaller on average and we have smaller voice boxes
You know if you can imagine a big bass drum
or a small drum and
Studies have shown that lower pitched voices are perceived as more competent
Wait, what?
we did a study looking at voting behavior
We simply said here's voice A I urge you to vote for me this November and here's voice B
I urge you to vote for me this November. Unvaryingly, people chose the lower pitched voice
So the lesson is talk lower?
so there have been many female candidates who have been coached up that way, right?
There's the famous story of Margaret Thatcher. "enough is enough."
"Enough is enough." It's a lowering, not a raising. But there's really a limit to the degree you can do that
And if I were to try to speak in my lowest register in a sustained way
I would sound ridiculous and that
actually leads to vocal fry'. "so what is vocal fry' exactly?" that's what happens when anyone
drops their voice to its lowest register. It tends to fry or crackler pop
Our own studies have shown that both men and women tend to define the vocal fry' voice as untrustworthy
And what is the deal with up talk?
Basically, this is ending a statement as if it were a question
You're gonna go down the street and you're gonna make a left, right?
So the up talk is a way of saying I'm continuing follow along with me. How do people in studies perceive up talkers?
They say things like "well, this person has no confidence. They're timid. They're deferential"
So people don't like our voices or how we use them?
we seem to have this
biologically driven
judgement that lower pitched voices
connotates stronger more trustworthy more competent people
Maybe we can keep that in our minds when we're listening to someone speak in a high squeaky up
talkie voice and our brain goes "this is an idiot. This is in person who is not very smart,"
"This is a person who doesn't believe what she's saying and has no confidence"
In fact, those qualities have nothing to do with this person that we're listening to.
so what do you do?
If you think about it, it just will make you crazy. I don't have vocal fry'
Well, maybe I did just there. I don't know
I did try to use a lower register of my voice,
you know for business. I try to sound more official. "Hello
This is, you know-"
I don't think that I should have to change my voice
I would like to think that people are capable of listening to the content of what I'm saying
I have to find other ways to get people to take me seriously and maybe I won't wear bows in my hair anymore
I'm gonna up talk. There's gonna be some vocal fry' everyone can deal
a lot of the attributes that
We admire in men assertive power decisive are things that we don't respect necessarily are welcomed in women