bah!

[insaneneko]

I listened to a segment on Fresh Air called From Upspeak To Vocal Fry: Are We 'Policing' Young Women's Voices? that featured a journalist, a linguist, and a speech pathologist. It was interesting and also very frustrating. I don't know of any statistics specifically on the phenomenon, but every time I hear about issues on vocal fry and/or upspeak, it's always in relation to women. I remember This American Life's segment on it, and I just learned of 99% Invisible's auto-response to complains about women's voices in the Fresh Air segment (screenshot of text here). Apparently it's never about how men speak, it's always about how women speak. The comments to the Fresh Air interview just pissed me off. They talk about how these verbal tics irritate them in both men AND women. Soo....how come these radio programs/podcasts never seem to get any complaints about the men? I mean, if the men doing these things are just as irritating, shouldn't there be complaints about them as well? In particular, Ira Glass points out that he does it and has never gotten a complaint about it. The speech pathologist didn't give any ground either (of course, she was all set to defend her stance, being the "enemy" and all). The linguist cited some data to back her up, but the speech pathologist had anecdotes and...her personal opinion that it was "irritating." Really? Is that all you got?

I find certain voices annoying, but I know it's me and I choose not to listen to them or I get over it. I don't send insulting emails complaining about them.

Belatedly discovered Vance Joy's hit from last year, "Riptide." Being me, I looked for covers and found some good ones.

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