Victoria
Baird
Capstone
4980
Professor
Eric Young
Dixie
State University
Introduction
For
the very first assignment in my Communication Research Methods 4450 class last
fall, I had to tell what my topic would be for the research (capstone)
project. I decided that the media’s
influence on female body image would be a good topic. As I worked my way through the class, I
realized that lots of research had already been done on the topic.
In
talking with Professor Young about the topic, he suggested that I change my
topic to reflect something that I was currently involved with. I work at a local radio station as a disc
jockey and I am in my second semester of the radio production class here at
Dixie State University. I decided to
focus my capstone project upon the issue of vocal fry. Vocal fry is a complex and controversial
communication issue among both men and women. Not a whole lot of research studies have been
conducted on it. It is an issue which,
in the last few years, has entered into the broadcasting arena. I am interested in it because I desire to
gain employment as a broadcaster and much of the criticism about it is aimed
toward females.
Literature Review
Experts believe that, due to additional access to new
kinds of entertainment like reality television and podcasts over the last few
years, there has been an increased awareness and interest concerning vocal
fry. Recent research shows that a large
number of adult females, as well as some males in the United States are using
vocal fry. The use of it has ignited
passionate opinions about whether this vocal technique enhances or damages the
perceptions of women. On the one hand,
there is feminist writer Naomi Wolf (2015) arguing that women should refrain
from using it because it degrades them and prevents them from being taken
seriously. On the other, Oxford
professor and feminist linguist Deborah Cameron (2015) believes that constantly policing the ways women talk will
eventually lead them to silence. Laura
Purcell Verdun (2015), a speech language pathologist who takes medical and
professional caseloads of voice disorders commented, “There’s definitely
increased interest with overwhelming trend toward criticism. It’s really coming from a place of judgment
and questionable prejudice.”
Upper-class
Englishmen have been using vocal fry for centuries. Some singers, certain foreign languages, and
celebrities employ the use of the speech pattern. More and more people are beginning to speak
with it. Although vocal fry is found to
be prevalent in both male and female speakers, and looked upon negatively for
both, women who use it are looked upon more negatively. They get the worst criticism and the most
backlash regarding it.
Ira
Glass, who talks on National Public Radio to a large audience each week as host
of This American
Life radio and podcast show, uses vocal fry. Female producer Chana Jofffe-walt, also with This American Life
radio and podcast show, speaks with it.
Mr. Glass revealed that, of the many complaints or hate mail which This American Life show had received
throughout the years in regard to voice quality, none of it had been directed
at his use of vocal fry. Women who
worked on the show were the targets of all complaints made (Anderson and
Klofstad, 2012). Chana Joffe-walt received
a letter from a listener that did not like her voice. There wasn’t an issue with her reporting,
writing, or interviewing skills. Even
the media-trained, highly professional women journalists of This American Life do not meet with
approval when it comes to the use of vocal fry (Gray and Fallon, 2015).
Radio
hosts, producers, and podcasters receive emails, blog comments, tweets, and
phone calls angrily making comments which say that the voices of women who use
the fry are appalling, distractingly disgusting, unbearable, cause discomfort
and pain, degrades the value of the reportage, and very unprofessional (Gray
and Fallon, 2015). Tweets and emails
are sent to them suggesting that they need to enunciate, cut down on saying the
word ‘like,’ and avoid using vocal fry. Men
with the same speech patterns escape the complaints, judgments, and
suggestions.
Linguists
tell us that our voices are our identity.
We create and design them to achieve different social meanings. We all change our voice and use it
differently with different people. It’s
personal.
Women
have been using vocal fry for a while now and research literature reflects that
it is a trend for college-aged females. The
literature also reflects that males have been using vocal fry for years.
Literature
reveals that young women are linguistic innovators (Quenqua, 2012). They pioneer trends and slang. As the new trend and slang are spoken within
their social groups, it becomes a way to bond, build relationships, and
understand each other. As the young
women mature, relationships are built with others including their spouse and
children. As time passes, the speech
trends and slang becomes more acceptable and evolves into the norm. Males adopt and use it within their own
speech patterns.
Even
though women are innovative linguists, they are being told to cut out the very
speech that connects listeners and creates understanding and cohesion. They are told to speak with authority, but
when they do they are called aggressive.
If they do not speak with authority they are called submissive. Either way, it is said to be women’s fault
that people react negatively to the way that they speak.
There
are some solid reasons to employ the vocal fry technique. Adopting it into speech allows a woman to
lower her voice in order to sound more authoritative, educated, and
successful. It is also used to
communicate disinterest in something.
Some women employ its use to be taken more seriously by their male
counterparts, while others use it as a way of differentiating their voices from
the masses of others in order to be heard (Dunn, 2015).
In a
2012 research project done by Rindy Anderson and Casey Klofstad (2012), it was
revealed that, “Voice pitch influences the selection of leaders.” It was found that the influence of voice pitch
on perceptions of leadership capacity was consistent across the various domains
of leadership. Male and female leaders
with lower-pitched voices were generally preferred by both men and women. Both favored male leaders who had
lower-pitched voices and connected the lower-pitch to the positive traits of
strength, competence, and integrity. Men
and women also preferred female leaders who had the lower-pitched masculine
voices and associated them with the positive traits of trustworthiness and
competence (Anderson & Klofstad, 2012).
Contrary
to this research, vocal fry has been attributed to negatively affecting females
trying to obtain employment. In a 2013
research project conducted by Duke University and the University of Miami, 800
men and women from 3 different age groups took an online survey to listen to
samples with and without vocal fry and select which speakers they found to be
more educated, competent, trustworthy, attractive, and appealing as a job
candidate (Anderson, Klofstad, Mayew,
&Venkatachalam, 2014). The
results revealed that while vocal fry was perceived negatively, regardless of
the age of the listener, older listeners perceived it more negatively when
asked to judge competence. The study also revealed that the young adult female voices
exhibiting vocal fry were perceived as less competent, less educated, less
trustworthy, less attractive, and less hirable.
Men were also seen as less favorable when they had vocal fry, but were
punished less severely for it. Over 80%
of the time, and in every category, participants preferred the normal voice and
tended to rate women who used vocal fry lower than men who did (Anderson,
Klofstad, Mayew, &Venkatachalam,
2014). Ironically, the negative
perceptions of women who used vocal fry were even stronger when the listener
was also a woman. The results suggested
that, “Young American women should avoid using vocal fry in order to maximize
labor market perceptions, especially when being interviewed by another woman” (Anderson,
Klofstad, Mayew, &Venkatachalam, 2014).
Project Proposal
My capstone project proposal was to find
out as much information as I could on the issue of vocal fry. I wanted to do this so that I could learn more
about it, find out why people are making such a big issue over it, try to
figure out why it seems to be directed particularly at females, establish
whether or not it is a double standard, and educate others about the issue. I decided that I could gain the needed
information by researching articles and previous studies already done on the
issue, interviewing key people, and running my own survey on vocal fry. I would then present my findings in a radio
show.
Carrying out this proposal helped me
meet several program learning objectives.
I was able to apply communication concepts as I dealt with the people
involved in my capstone. In the
interviews, I applied communication concepts in a small group setting. I was also able to apply and explain
communication concepts in the radio show I produced. Creating the Facebook survey, using
SurveyMonkey, enabled me to analyze and interpret important data relevant to
the vocal fry issue. I was then able to
take that data and create an effective message informing my radio audience about
people’s perceptions of vocal fry. Through
my research, interviews, and survey, I was able to obtain accurate information
which I used to write the radio show script.
Project
Plan
1. Research articles and previous studies about
vocal fry to gain accurate information about the issue.
2. Run a survey to collect data about whether or
not vocal fry is a double standard.
3. Interview people who have knowledge about
vocal fry or knowledge about matters that have to do with it.
4. Analyze and interpret the information gained
from the research, survey, and interviews.
5. Use that information to produce a radio show.
Plan
Execution
The first thing that I did was
listen to some you tube videos that had people singing and speaking with vocal
fry. Next, I started copying, reading,
and taking notes on articles and studies done that pertained to the vocal fry
issue. As I learned about the issue, I
was able to formulate questions for my survey.
I then invented a twenty second broadcast statement and recorded a male
and a female speaking it using vocal fry.
I placed the sound bites, using SoundCloud, on a link directly above the
survey link which contained my vocal fry survey questions. I had previously created the survey using
SurveyMonkey. I then posted the two
links on my Facebook page, along with a request for people to listen to the
sound bites and take the survey. The
survey ran for 5 weeks.
In the meantime, I set up and
conducted interviews with an audiologist, speech language pathologist, and
co-hosts of a radio talk show. Then, I
gathered together all the information that I had collected from the research,
survey, and interviews and analyzed it.
Using the analyses and interviews, I created a radio script which
informed my listeners about vocal fry and explained how it is a double
standard. I then recorded the radio show
and it will air two times the week of April 18th.
Analysis
I think
that my plan was effective. From the research,
interviews, and survey, I was able to obtain accurate information about the
issue of vocal fry. This evidence led me
to believe that vocal fry is another double standard. I was then able to take that information and
use it to educate others about the controversial issue.
A
total of 62 people took the survey which I posted for five weeks on
Facebook. The survey included listening
to two 20 second sound bites: one of a
male using vocal fry and one of a female using vocal fry. Both were done in a broadcast setting. The
listener was then directed to SurveyMonkey to answer five questions and, if
desire, add comments.
Question
one had to do with the sex of the respondent. Of the 62 people who participated
in the survey, 77.4% were female. Question
two placed the survey respondents into one of three age categories. 72.6% of the people who took the survey were
young people ages 18 to 33. Nine people (14.5%) were ages 34 to 50 and eight
(12.9%) were 51 or older.
The
third question asked the respondents to rate six statements based upon the
sound bites which they had listened to.
Three of the statements corresponded to the male vocal fry voice and
three corresponded to the female vocal fry voice. The statements were rated using a Likert-type
scale in which five responses were offered.
The response set included: Strongly
agree, Agree, Undecided, Disagree, and Strongly disagree.
The
first two statements had to do with whether or not the listener found the
announcer to be believable. In regard to
the female announcer, 21/62 (33.9%) did not consider her to be believable. Interestingly, 13/62 (21%) strongly agreed
that she was believable and the same amount of respondents, 13/62 (21%) were
undecided. Overall, 26/62 (41.9%) did
not think that she was believable and 23/62 (37.1%) did. For the male announcer, 36/60 (60%) agreed
that he was believable. Out of the 60
respondents, another 15 (25%) strongly agreed that he was believable and 6/60
(10%) were undecided. Largely, by a count of 51/60 (85%), the male announcer
was found to be believable and only 3/60 (5%) disagreed. In the final analysis for being believable,
the male announcer was found to be more believable (at 85%) than the female
announcer (at 37.1%).
The
next two statements dealt with whether or not the listener thought that the
announcer was competent. For the female
announcer, 18/61 (29.5%) agreed that she was competent and 15/61 (24.6%)
strongly agreed. Undecided were 16/61 or
26.2%. Overall, 33/61 (51%) concurred
that she was competent and 12/61 (19.7%) believed that she was not. In the case of the male announcer, 30/60
(50%) agreed that he was competent and 18 more (30%) strongly agreed. Only 6/60 (10%) were undecided and 6/60 (10%)
believed he was not competent. Based upon
this data, the majority of the respondents found the male announcer (at 80%) to
be more competent than the female (at 54.1%).
The
last two statements asked the listener if he/she found the announcer to be
annoying.
In relation to the female announcer, 21/62 (33.9%)
strongly agreed that she was annoying and another 16 (25.8%) agreed, combining
for a total of 59.7% being annoyed by the announcer. In contrast, 17/62 (27.4%) did not find her
to be annoying. Relative to the male
announcer, 24/61 (39.3%) disagreed that he was annoying and another 16 (26.2%)
strongly disagreed for a total of 65.5%. Only 9/61 (14.8%) believed him to be
annoying. This data suggests that
respondents overwhelmingly (59.7%) found the female announcer to be annoying
versus the male at 14.8%.
The results, based upon the data of these six
statements, reveal that respondents found the female announcer to be less
believable, less competent, and more annoying than the male announcer.
The
fourth question asked the listener if he/she preferred the male voice over the
female voice. 41/62 (66.1%) answered
that they did prefer the male voice over the female voice. 11/62 (17.7%) said
it did not matter. The fifth question
basically asked the same thing as question four, but just changed the wording
by asking the listener whether he/she preferred the female voice over the male
voice. Interestingly, one respondent
changed their answer revealing this time that 40/62 (64.5%) preferred the male
voice over the female voice.
Twenty-six survey respondents made comments. There were 11 positive comments and 3
negative comments directed at the male announcer, whereas there was 1 positive
and 20 negative comments directed at the female announcer.
Self-evaluation
This capstone project has been a
great experience for me. I have put many
hours into it and have learned a whole lot by completing it. Initially, I had a hard time figuring out
exactly how to turn the issue of vocal fry into a project because I did not
think that I would be able to present my findings on the radio. Once I found out that I could, it became easy
to plan what I needed to do.
I had a hard time finding a female
who could speak with vocal fry in a natural way for the twenty second female sound
bite. I recorded three different females,
and finally settled on the last one. I
really did not think that her voice was very good for broadcasting. She sounded monotone. However, I was running out of time and she did
produce the best vocal fry. I was worried
that her voice might skew the results of my survey, but actually the results
matched pretty well with the results of previous research studies.
Once I got my Facebook survey up and
running, it was difficult getting people to take it. I felt like I was constantly having to beg
people to take it. I set a goal to get a
hundred people to take it, but I had to settle for sixty-two.
My first two interviews went pretty
smoothly, but then I interviewed two co-hosts that I work with at the B92 radio
station. They seemed to feed off of each
other and then it turned into the male co-host pretty much taking over the
interview. I think it would have been
better to interview each one of them individually. I ended up having to do a lot of editing to
the interview and it proved to be quite a task.
Overall, I am very pleased with the
things which I learned from my research, interviews, survey, and radio show production. I believe that I did an excellent job on the
radio show script. It presented the
listener with a lot of information about vocal fry and I feel that it proved
vocal fry to be another double standard.
It was hard gauging exactly how much commentary I needed to make the
show thirty minutes long. I tried to
place the interviews between my comments so that the listeners would be able to
stay engaged and interested in the show.
Supporting
Documents
Source
URLs – listed on my blog
Survey
Links – listed on my blog
SurveyMonkey
Results – screen shots on my blog
References
Anderson, R. C.,
& Klofstad, C. A. (2012). Preference for leaders with masculine voices
holds in the case of feminine leadership
roles. PLOS ONE. Retrieved from
Anderson, R. C., Klofstad, C. A., Mayew,
W. J., Venkatachalam, M. (2014). Vocal fry may undermine the success of young women in the labor
market. PLOS ONE, 1(5), 1-7.
Blum, H. (2016, February). Totally fried. The
ASHA Leader, 50-56.
Cameron, D. (2015, July 27). An open letter to Naomi Wolf: Let women speak how they please in these times. Retrieved from
Cameron, D. (2015, July 5). Just don’t do it [Web log post]. Retrieved from
Dunn, T. (2015, July 28). What is ‘vocal fry,’ and why doesn’t anyone
care when men talk like that? Up
Worthy. Retrieved from
talk-like-that
Friedman, A. (2015, July 9). Can we just, like, get over the way women
talk? The Cut. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/07/can-we-just-get-over-the-way-women-
talk.html
Glass, I. (Host). (2015, January 23). If you don’t have anything nice to say, say
it in all caps. This American Life.
[Audio file]. Retrieved from http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio- archives/episodes/545/if-you-don’t-have-anything-nice-to-say-say-it-in-all-caps
Gray, E. &
Fallon, C. (2015, July 13). Want a lesson in how people judge women’s
voices? Start a podcast. The
Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
entry/how-people-judge-womens-voices-podcasts_us_55a01ae9e4b0a47ac15c893c
Meisner, L. (2015, August 1). Female uptalk and vocal fry: A response to
Naomi Wolf.
Twenty
Something Living. Retrieved from http://twentysomethingliving.com/female- uptalk-and-vocal-fry-a-response-to-naomi-wolf/
Quenqua, D. (2012, February 27). They’re, like, way ahead of the linguistic
currrrve. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/science/young-women-
often-trendsetters-in-vocal-patterns.html?_r=2
Wolf, N. (2015, July 24). Young women, give up the vocal fry and
reclaim your strong female voice. The
Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/
2015/jul/24/vocal-fry-stong-female-voice
Interview
Transcripts -
AUDIOLOGIST INTERVIEW – March 8, 2016
Flagstaff, Arizona
Total
interview time: 2 minutes and 6 seconds
T
– My name is Victoria Baird and today I have a very
special guest and she’s going to introduce herself.
A
– Hello, my name is Andrea Murphy. I am an audiologist that works for Connect
Hearing.
T
– Could you please tell what the normal pitch for a speaking range for a female
is?
A
– It is 250 Hertz to 8000 Hertz.
T
– What is the normal pitch for a male?
A
– There is no significant difference between the two. It roughly lies along the same range 250
Hertz to 8000 Hertz.
T
– Is there a difference in hearing ranges for female or males?
A
– There is no difference in these hearing ranges between females and males.
T
– What is the normal hearing range for a female?
A
– Both for male and female if I lump them both together (T – perfect) there is
a umm aa normal calculation that we do
when we test hearing and as long as your hearing across 250 to 8000 Hertz
measured at 25 decibels or lower you are classified as having normal hearing.
T
– Can you tell me what happens to the communication when a person’s voice drops
out of a person’s hearing range?
A
– The speech would probably sound clipped or mumbled or not clear. Umm if it’s just certain segments of the
speech range then it might not make that much difference but if you miss a note
detail of what’s being spoken then it just becomes a mumble.
T
– You’ve heard examples of the vocal fry, correct?
A
– Correct.
T
– (T – laughs) Would you say that it drops outside the person’s hearing range
with the vocal fry?
A
– I would not.
T – Well, there we go. You’ve heard it straight from I guess the
hearing doctor (laughs)
A – I would say the horse’s mouth but (she laughs)
T – Thank you so much for your time and expertise and answering my
questions.
A – You’re welcome.
Anytime. No problem.
SPEECH
LANGUAGE PATHOLOGIST – March 10, 2016
Joseph
City High School
Total
interview time: 4 minutes and 41 seconds
T
– My name is Victoria Baird and Today I have a
very special guest, speech language pathologist, Kim Brennan. Kim it’s good to have you here today.
K
– It’s good to be here (T laughs)
T
– Thank you for being here (K and T laugh). Could you please explain to me what
vocal fry is?
K
– Yes, vocal fry is the lowest vocal registry. Umm you actually have 3 vocal
registries: the falsetto, which is the highest, and your modal which is your
normal speaking, umm and then the fry which is the lowest. And that’s usually caused by a loose glottal
closure which will permit air to bubble through slowly with, with a popping or
a rattling sound of a very low frequency.
T
– Besides the pathological disorder of the vocal fry, do you know of anyone
that might use it on purpose?
K
– Yes. Umm you might see singers using a vocal fry or a glottal fry which is
another term. Umm aa you might see it in
country music stars, they might use it to start out their phrases. Umm also
people of other languages might use it just normally. Umm creak which is another term kind of for
glottal fry is part of a tone used in Mandarin Chinese which hundreds of
millions of people use that umm or speak that language. And also I think that you know you had all
these celebrities come out that are using it like the Kardashians and Katy Perry
who use glottal fry just normally in their speech. And I think that maybe some
people in the media might use it and try to gain that younger population of
kids who are who think it’s cool you know who are emulating umm the Kardashians
or whoever their celebrities crushes (K laughs).
T
– Are there any disadvantage for a person using the vocal fry?
K
– Umm yes there was a study done by Duke University in 2014 that found that
women who use vocal fry were less likely to appear hireable. Umm also,
excessive use of vocal fry may cause vocal abuse. However that is not supported
as research so its kind of controversial in the speech world. Huh huh.
T
- Does vocal fry affect males or females
differently?
K-
Umm yes NO. No it doesn’t. Physically it does not affect males or females
differently. But socially there might be a difference. Umm women might catch
more flack umm because of when they use glottal fry. Aa men because they have a
naturally lower voice aa it’s it’s just more natural for them to use it so I
don’t think there’s as much of a it’s not as much noticeable as it is for women
when they use it because they they can really hear that change in pitch.
T
– Perfect. Is vocal fry a new trend or of talking and if so do you know who
uses it the most?
K
– Well I think everyone uses it at some point. Umm you know when you’re tired
you might use it or just if you some people just might naturally have more of
that glottal fry tone to their voice but there are there was a study done in
2011 by Leslie Wolk who found that two-thirds of female college students ages
18-25 use vocal fry usually at the end of sentences is where you hear it
(clears her throat). And then in a 2014 follow-up study she found that umm male
college students also use the vocal fry at the end of their sentences though it
was significantly lower than that of females. Umm I think that the trend now is
for you know college age women or women you know 30 years or younger umm or umm
professionals to use the glottal fry.
T
– Thank you Kim for your time. Appreciate your expertise on the vocal fry (he
he). Umm thank you for this interview.
K – No problem.
T – Until next time.
RADIO
DJ’S DEZ & MIKEY – April 4, 2016
B92
Radio Station
Total
interview time: 9 minutes and 52 seconds
M – Do you want both of us to talk about it or do you just one at a
time?
T – You can both just go at it. So, we’re good. I am here today with
Dez and Mikey from B92 on the morning show.
Everyone – Whoooo, yeah.
T – It’s good to interview you two, working on my senior capstone
and everything so we’ll just go through my questions.
M – Alright, let’s do this.
T
– So how long have you both been radio announcers?
D
– Umm me? Ten years.
T
– Wow.
M
– And for me, coming up on three?
D
– Yes
T
– Wow
M
– I think, yeah
T
– That’s a lot of difference
M
– Yeah
D
– A lot of difference
M
– Yeah
D
– (laughing) Ha ha ha ha.
T
– Have you ever seen speech patterns change within your profession?
D
– Yes.
T
– Is there a difference with radio if you’re a big kick in country or
here at B921 or is there a difference?
D
– Yes Yes Yes and Yes
M
– Yes, yeah yeah because you you well like you know like I do B921 which is
just myself I get to be as as weird and crazy as I want. But then I also do a
show in Montana that’s a soft rock station which means that I have to be a
little more professional and I talk kind of like this (talking slower and
softer).
D – Yeah, if youuu
M – Do you know what I mean?
Both talking at the same time – M – It’s it’s a soothing thing. D –
If, if it weren’t for Mikey and I both for our hours to just be ourselves whereas,
after I’m done here I do a shift on Kickin Country and I have to just like
country music it up because that’s just how it is. I mean
M – Well see, I was on the country station for a little while and
they kicked me off because I was tooo obnoxious (D – ha ha ha ha) for country
folk. Like country folk just hated me and and so they they got rid of me
because I was just I was just being myself. You know.
T – Interesting. So did you ever receive feedback then from your
listeners? Obviously they didn’t like you. Did you ever like, did they email
you, did they call you, was it more of your boss saying like “hey”?
M – It went to the boss and then the boss just kind of quietly got
rid of me. (M & D laughing) But, but I’m guessing but no, the feedback that
I did get was that I was tooo out there. I was too over the top for them cause
there’s just certain personality types that likes certain kind of things and
country is just very conservative in that way.
D – Mikey’s just not like that at all.
M – They don’t like that I’m not country at all. I’m pretty nasally
and kind of high pitched to a little bit and I I, especially when I’m excited,
so I don’t really do this kind of thing (drawl) all of the time. You know (D laughs)
T – That’s wierd
M – I can’t, I can’t.
T
– Do you guys receive a lot of feedback here at the B for your voices or have
you ever received (Interrupted)
D
– No it’s more about what we’ve said.
M
– Yeah. It’s what we say, never how we say it.
T- _I get your point, I am not offended.
M – When we sing over tones???
_________________________________????
T
– Okay, drop it. Are you both aware of the vocal
fry?
M
– I am now.
D
– Yes now.
T
– Do you or have you ever noticed yourself using the vocal fry while you’re on
air?
D
– No.
M
– No
D
– Uh uh
T
– You wouldn’t dare use it.
M
– No. Uh uh
D
– I would not.
T
– So you wouldn’t intentionally use it? At all.
M
– Why would you? Because it sounds so stupid. It just sounds awful.
D
– I wouldn’t say stupid.
M
– I’m keepin it real. It sounds terrible.
D
– Okay, fine. It sounds stupid.
M
– Yeah, yeah, yeah.
T
– So could you tell me why people might want to use it then or why it’s
becoming a trend?
D
– Why would they would want to use vocal fry?
T
– Yes why would you want to use it?
D
– Oooo umm.
M
– To sound stupid? Like maybe that’s like attractive to some people. Like if you’re trying to get a B hole to date you. To sound
as stupid as possible. I don’t know.
D
– No. I don’t think it does sound stupid, I think it just to try to see if
actually if people would pick up on whatever you’re talking about without the
influctuation of your voice.
T
– Do you think it just comes naturally? Or, in a situation?
D
– Umm
M
– Maybe, maybe for certain personalities. Be because I think maybe somebody
just is naturally unenthused with life and so they just talk way down here
(drops his voice) all the time. Cuz maybe you’re on pain killers, I don’t know.
D
– Well I don’t know, when we were lectured on this. When I started in radio,
the number one thing that I was always taught was influctuation. You always
have to have fluctuation in moderation we call it influctuation. Fluctuate your
voice but in moderation goes auauau all the time but you got of have some kind
of emotion in your voice or it’s not believable.
M-
Yeah, well like if you said “oh I really like this song,” (monotone and
gravelly) versus “oh I really like this song (higher pitched and inflecting
it’s good). See how I did those two things but I naturally talk like that. I’m
naturally a gregarious guy. And so I naturally kind of go up and down but I
have run into people that are just naturally like this and they’re kind of a
pain to hang out with.
D – We call them pitas.
M – They’re kind of a pain in the butt. Yeah
T – With families, though have you noticed with your own kids like
“okay I’ll get the chores done, alright Mom, I’ll go do laundry” have you
noticed that in their tone when they don’t want to do something.
M – Yes
D – Yes but then they get the open hand both good. Ha ha ha Only
joking, only joking.
M
– No, yeah, but it’s it’s the kind of voice that you use when you’re so
unenthused that you don’t even bother putting in the effort to say anything.
D
– Uh huh
M – So so of course you’re going to associate that mentally with
somebody who does not care about anything. You know, is just kind of like
uuuuuuuuuu you know, I just want to walk away from someone like that.
D – Is this startup from ? about twitter okay?
M
– Yeah, it sounds like a in men it sounds like a jock and women it just sounds
horrible, like an idiot. You know.
D
– Okay, thank you for that.
M
– I’m keepin it real this is research, I’m keepin it real.
T – So have you as radio announcers ever gave feedback to other
radio announcers on their speech or tone (M laughs) or have you ever heard
someone with the vocal fry.
M - I’ve given you feedback before.
T – Yes, yes you have.
M – I’ve told you to calm down.
D – I’ve heard of you two crying cups though???. So there’s that. I don’t know I I’ve never
had to give anybody advice like that. Umm like gol, I’m with Mikey, I keep it
real umm if your voice sucks I’ll tell you your voice sucks but I’ll you the
criticism on how to fix it.
M – Sure, yeah. I won’t just flat out go “you suck.” I’ll just go
“try doing this, try doing that, try being a little more enthused about stuff”
you know that that kind of a thing.
T
– So you would agree that there is no reason why a radio announcer should ever
use the vocal fry on the air.
D
– No, no reason at all unless they want to lose their job.
M
– Well.
T
– Is it different with a celebrity being able to use it versus just a
normal (Interrupted)
M
– No cuz I’ll lose respect for that celebrity.
D
– Absolutely.
M
- It really, it’s it’s kind of like and
it’s sad but it’s true if you are going in for surgery, and the last thing you hear
your surgeon say is (western drawl) “alright we’re about to cut ya’ll open
now.”
D
– Is that not just like you???
M
- You’d be like, oh crap. That scares
you because we associate a southern accent with a dumb person the same way that
you associate that fry with a dumb person or or with somebody who’s unenthused
or doesn’t know what they’re doing or a would rather be in bed. You know that
kind of thing.
D
– Are you sure you just don’t want to do this whole interview with Lady T cuz
I’m just, I’m just totally blown away right now.
M-
Ha ha just sayin.
T – He sure is aggressive ??? guess what you want to tell her
you last ________vocal fry
D – No Mikey’s got more balls ?? umm I’m just gonna go
M
– Maybe I’m a cranky old man or something
D
– Are you cantankerous this morning?
M
– I guess but when I just hear that it just it just rattles me.
T
– If you heard it from a man would you judge it differently than a woman?
M
- Aww I would just assume that he was dumb but I I would just but you played
the two sounds, yes you did, I hardly registered it on the guy.
D
- Are you serious? I said it sounded like the dude I
could hear him reading.
M – Yeah, he sounded like he was reading, for one thing, it sounded
like he wasn’t very enthused to be there. He sounded like he’s got a long way
to go if he wants to be in radio.
D – Yes
M – He sounded like a student, basically.
D – But there’s a there’s a female
M
– But when I hear a female it’s a totally different ball of wax. I it is just
it rattles me. Like I can hear every little bit of it. I didn’t hear it hardly
at all with the guy. I just thought “oh this is a jock trying to get credit”
but when I hear the girl do it, I was just like “get off my radio.” Like it it
it was just knock it off because maybe it’s the higher pitch that accentuates
it or something, I don’t know. Maybe it hides in the lower register. I have no
idea what it is but that’s the gut reaction.
T – Perfect.
D – Done, done, and done. Can I have another doughnut?
T – Thank you two for your time. I really appreciate it.
D – No problem.
T – This has been Victoria with Dez and Mikey.
M – Have fun editing.
Radio Show Script -
Good
afternoon. This is Victoria Baird and I
am presenting this show on a speech pattern that is currently drawing a lot of
attention in the media. I’ll be talking
about how vocal fry is another double standard.
Vocal
fry is a complex and controversial topic among both men and women. Experts believe that due to additional access
to new kinds of entertainment like reality television and podcasts over the
last few years, there has been an increased awareness and interest concerning
vocal fry. Recent research claims that a
large number of adult females in the United States are using vocal fry. The use of it has ignited passionate opinions
about whether this vocal technique enhances or damages the perceptions of
women. On the one hand, there is
feminist writer Naomi Wolf arguing that women should refrain from using it
because it degrades them and prevents them from being taken seriously. On the
other hand, Oxford professor and feminist linguist Deborah Cameron says that
constantly policing the ways women talk will eventually lead them to
silence. Laura Purcell Verdun, a speech
language pathologist who takes medical and professional caseloads of voice
disorders states, Quote There’s definitely increased interest with overwhelming
trend toward criticism. It’s really
coming from a place of judgment and questionable prejudice. End quote.
I
have interviewed four people including a speech language pathologist, an
audiologist, and two popular St. George radio co-hosts and I will be playing
parts of those interviews later in the show.
But, before I do that, let’s start off with what vocal fry is and an
example of it.
Vocal
fry is the low vibratory sound that comes in some people’s speech, particularly
at the end of sentences. Speech language
pathologists usually call vocal fry glottal fry and linguists sometimes call it
creaky voice. Here’s an example of a
male speaking with it.
Play
the male example of vocal fry.
Play
the Speech Language Pathologist interview.
Upper-class
Englishmen have used vocal fry for centuries.
Speech language pathologist Kim Brennan mentioned that some singers,
certain foreign languages, and some celebrities utilize it. However, more and more people are speaking
with the fry. American linguist, noted
historian, philosopher, social critic, and political activist Noam Chomsky
speaks with it. I have a male professor
who uses it in the classroom. Ira Glass,
who speaks on National Public Radio to a large audience each week as host of This American Life radio and podcast
show, uses vocal fry. Female producer
Chana Jofffe-walt of the same show also uses it.
In
the area of speech, as in other areas, women can’t seem to win for losing. When they raise their voices, like in Valley
Girl talk, they are interpreted as being submissive and air heads. When they lower their voices, such as in
Vocal Fry, they are perceived as being too masculine. Although vocal fry is
found to be prevalent in both male and female speakers and looked upon
negatively for both, women who use it are looked upon more negatively and they
get the worst criticism and most backlash regarding it.
Ira
Glass says that of the many complaints or hate mail which This American Life show has received throughout the years in regard
to voice quality, none of it was directed at his use of vocal fry. Women who worked on the show were the targets
of all of the complaints. Chana
Joffe-walt received a letter from a listener that did not like her voice. There wasn’t an issue with her reporting,
writing, or interviewing skills. She
couldn’t believe that her voice would bother someone. It has made her so aware of vocal fry that it
annoys her and she is bothered whenever she hears herself and others use
it. So even the media-trained, highly
professional women journalists of This
American Life don’t meet with approval.
While men with the same speech patterns escape the complaints and
judgments.
Podcast
co-host Ann Friedman talked about her and her co-host receiving tweets and
emails giving suggestions to enunciate, cut down on saying ‘like’, and to avoid
vocal fry. She believed that if they
used the suggestions, their podcast would sound totally different. It would not
be friendly, casual, or intimate. Ann
stated Quote If I’m saying something intelligent and all a listener can hear is
the way I’m saying it, whose problem is that?
End quote.
Radio
hosts, producers, and podcasters receive emails, blog comments, tweets, and
phone calls angrily making comments which say that the voices of women who use
the fry are appalling, distractingly disgusting, unbearable, cause discomfort
and pain, degrades the value of the reportage, and very unprofessional. These comments directly correlate with the
data I gained from conducting a Facebook survey which used both a male and a
female announcer using vocal fry in their broadcast. From the comment section of my survey, there
were 20 negative comments posted about the female announcer’s voice and only 3
about the male’s. Some of the comments
directed at the female announcer’s voice were:
boring, uninteresting, annoying, depressing, grating.
Linguist
and emerita professor at the University of California Berkeley Robin Lakoff
says Quote It makes women self-conscious and makes women feel incompetent and
unable to figure out the right way to talk.
There is no right way. End quote.
Our
voices are our identity. We create and
design them to achieve different social meanings. We all change our voice and use it
differently with different people. It’s
personal.
So
why is vocal fry in women perceived so much more negatively than that of
men? Does it have to do with our
speaking range or the range of our hearing?
Play
the Audiologist interview.
The
audiologist just told us that vocal fry is within the normal hearing range of
both males and females. Both the
audiologist and the speech language pathologist agree that healthy speaking
range pitches are the same for males and females alike. The speech language
pathologist informed us that vocal fry falls within the lowest vocal
registry. So, when a person hears vocal
fry it really isn’t something that actually hurts the ears. For the listener it is a personal choice to
become annoyed and stop listening versus staying in the moment and hearing the
words which are actually being said.
What it boils down to is that these people are choosing to use vocal fry
as an excuse not to listen to women.
Our
older generation tends to cling to the traditions, music, and speech patterns
they grew up with. They have a difficult
time with change whether it is technology, music, terminology, or speech
patterns. Many times, older people even
demand those around them to conform. The
older generation also holds the places of authority in the work place. They not only view upspeak and vocal fry
negatively, but also view the user as being incompetent. Again, most of this fallout is attached to
females and not the males, even though both use it.
Women
have been using vocal fry for a while now and it is said to be a trend for
college-aged females of a certain social standing. However, it’s been recently recognized that
males have been using vocal fry for years as well. This follows the same
behavior as that which has taken place with the speech patterns of Valley Girl
lingo and uptalk.
Dr.
Mark Liberman, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania, did an analysis in
2011 of almost twelve thousand phone conversations which were recorded in
2003. He found that Quote While young
people tend to use ‘like’ more often than older people, men used it more
frequently than women. End quote. The
1995 movie Clueless helped circulate
Valley Girl lingo and uptalk among females.
On the TV today we hear males using uptalk in the popular comedy The Big Bang Theory.
Many
linguists tell us that young women are linguistic innovators. They pioneer trends and slang. As the new trend and slang are spoken within
their social groups, it becomes a way to bond, build relationships, and
understand each other. As the young
women mature, they build relationships with others including their spouse and
children. Also when they age, their
speech trends and slang grows older, more acceptable, and becomes the norm,
with males then adopting and using it within their own speech patterns.
Yet
women are still being asked to cut out the very speech that connects listeners,
and creates understanding and cohesion.
We are told to speak with authority, but when we do we are called
aggressive. However, if we don’t we are
called submissive and either way it is our fault that people react negatively
to the way that we speak. Linguist Ann
Friedman says Quote Language is not always about making an argument or
conveying information in the cleanest, simplest way possible. It’s often about building relationships. It’s about making yourself understood and
trying to understand someone else. End
quote.
While
it may be true that some people will alter their words and voice patterns
because it is the trend and they want to fit in, there are many who have solid
reasons to employ the vocal techniques.
Adopting vocal fry into speech allows a woman to lower her voice in
order to sound more authoritative, educated, and successful. It is also used to communicate disinterest in
something. Some women employ its use to
be taken more seriously by their male counterparts while others use it as a way
of differentiating their voices from the masses of others in order to be heard.
It is
sad and unfortunate that if females raise their pitch they are labeled
airheads. If they lower their pitch,
they are called incompetent. And if they
use their middle range, the words are often lost entirely.
Let’s
talk with Dez and Mikey from B92 on the morning show to see what their
perceptions of the vocal fry might be.
Play
the Radio co-host interview.
So,
you just heard it. Our radio co-hosts don’t believe that there is ever a time
that vocal fry should be used on the air.
For that matter, they can’t figure out why anyone would even want to use
it for any reason. Our male co-host said
he didn’t hardly recognize it in the male’s voice but when it came to the
female voice he stated that it sounded terrible, stupid, rattled him, and made
her sound like she was unenthused and not saying anything. Our female co-host could hardly believe that
her partner didn’t recognize it in the male’s voice. She didn’t feel that it sounded stupid, but
thought that it would probably make it hard for a listener to understand what
was being said. It’s interesting to note
that our male co-host used the word ‘like’ several times within his
interview. This is an excellent example
of how speech patterns evolve and become what people consider to be normal.
In a
2012 research project done by Rindy Anderson and Casey Klofstad, it was
revealed that Quote voice pitch influences the selection of leaders. End quote.
It was found that the influence of voice pitch on perceptions of
leadership capacity was consistent across the various domains of
leadership. Male and female leaders with
lower-pitched voices were generally preferred by both men and women. Both favored male leaders who had lower-pitched
voices and connected the lower-pitch to the positive traits of strength, competence,
and integrity. Men and women also
preferred female leaders who had the lower-pitched masculine voices and
associated them with the positive traits of trustworthiness and competence.
Contrary
to this research, vocal fry has been attributed to negatively affecting females
trying to obtain employment. In a 2013
research project conducted by Duke University and the University of Miami, 800
men and women from 3 different age groups took an online survey to listen to
samples with and without vocal fry and select which speakers they found to be
more educated, competent, trustworthy, attractive, and appealing as a job
candidate. The results revealed that,
while vocal fry was perceived negatively regardless of the age of the listener,
older listeners perceived it more negatively when asked to judge competence.
The study also revealed that the young adult female voices, exhibiting vocal
fry were perceived as less competent, less educated, less trustworthy, less
attractive, and less hirable. Men were
also seen as less favorable when they had vocal fry, but were punished less
severely for it. Over 80% of the time,
and in every category, participants preferred the normal voice and they tended
to rate women who had it lower than men who did. Ironically, the negative perceptions of women
who used vocal fry were stronger when the listener was also a woman. These results suggest that young American
women should avoid using vocal fry in order to maximize labor market perceptions,
especially when being interviewed by another woman.
These
findings are closely related to the results of the Facebook survey which I
ran. The survey included listening to
two 20 second sound bites: one of a male
using vocal fry and one of a female using it.
Both were done in a broadcast setting with the announcers saying the
exact same words. The listener was then
directed to Survey Monkey to answer six statements regarding the sound
bites. The results revealed hands down
that the listeners found the female announcer to be less believable, less
competent, and more annoying than the male announcer.
Is
this not a double standard?
For
those of you just tuning in, today we have been talking about the complex and
controversial topic called vocal fry. We
have learned that it is a low vibratory sound usually used at the end of a
sentence. We have listened to a sample
of it and discovered that males, as well as females, use this technique.
Males
have not received the criticism that females have for using vocal fry. In fact, females have been verbally attacked
and called stupid and incompetent. Women
have used the vocal fry technique to sound authoritative, educated, and
successful.
Our
voices are a part of us, they are our identity.
We already have altered our diets, exercise, and our bodies to meet the
demands of society. Can we take one more
criticism or demand?
We
have listened to an audiologist tell us that vocal fry is within everyone’s
normal hearing range, so we know that whatever word is used with vocal fry, can
be heard and understood. Does that make
it the listener’s choice to become annoyed and stop listening? Or is it the female’s fault for using it
because someone might find it offensive, even though they don’t find it
offensive when a male uses it?
Can
we just accept that it is a trend and let it take its own course? When our grandparents were kids they used the
slang term ‘jeepers.’ That term is
unheard of today except in old family stories.
We know that some trends last longer.
Use of the word ‘like’ became popular in the 1990s by females. We still hear it today. In fact, you just did in the interview with
the local DJs and it was used several times by the male DJ.
This
also shows a pattern that has been noted as young women being linguistic
innovators. As time passed their slang
and techniques have become the norm for society. Meanwhile, until vocal fry becomes the norm
we spend our time criticizing and attacking the innovative young women who use
it.
We
females are caught between a rock and a hard spot. It is darned if we do and darned if we don’t. Or wrong if we raise our voice and wrong if
we lower it. For us females, vocal fry
is a double standard!
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