yellowroom

thank you thank you thank you. I have been dealing with a woman whose voice is exactly "running-on, softspoken, vocally frying and uptalking" and it has been bugging the hell out of me because she is actually very competent at her job but the croaking is just so distracting.

Although it is extremely depressing if this is a cultural thing rather than a one-off with that colleague.

mikelincs

Don't forget that Maggie had a lot of help in voice training and in fashion styling, her early speaking voice WAS quite high and classed as shrill, so she had a lot of training to lower her voice, which worked very well, and, of course there have been men who have done the same, especially those with a stutter.

Pulaski

Yeah, I remembered that after posting on this thread yesterday and came back to add that this morning.

steveq

Not sure I've experienced "Running-on", but the other three are endemic. Its interesting listing to PBR, their older female presenters speak normally, their BBC female presenters speak normally, but god protect me from the young local reporters, they are incomprehensible....

robin1234

In terms of NPR nationally known reporters, an example is Neda Ulaby, who has been described as "the most pretentious, annoying voice on the radio." I think her actual reports are fairly intelligent and interesting, but the voice...
It may just be a generational thing.

Hiro11

Ah yes, vocal fry. Once you're aware of the concept, you start to hear it everywhere and it will drive you crazy. Worst offenders: most of the commentators on "The American Life".

Vocal fry commonly appears in concert with that other intensely irritating vocal tic: upspeak. Note: lots of men are equally guilty of vocal fry.

steveq

....and upspeak, while we're at it. ...

Hiro11

Agreed: great reporter but that voice... Gah! Can a voice be infuriating in and of itself? It took me a few years to pick up on who exactly it was that had that horrific voice. Once I'd identified her, every time she came on I couldn't help but loudly and mockingly imitate her "particularly irritating grad student" vocal quality. Ulaby's voice is almost a parody of the stereotypical "NPR reporter voice" as seen on SNL a decade ago.

Rete

Thank you Nutmegger and Leslie for this topic. I spent part of last night and this morning remembering one of my elective college classes ... speech. Females tend to speak very softly and you almost have to lean in close to hear them. For some reason they equate being soft spoken with being feminine. I find this very untrue.

In the class we had to prepare a 15 minute speech to be given at the front of a large room and the listeners were to be seated at the very back. The subject matter was of your own choosing but had to be one where you were to persuade listeners to join you in your 'cause'. There was no microphone on the podium so many women in the class failed to reach the ears of the listeners in the back of the room. I have a deeper voice than most women and with the use of inflection, a louder but non-shrill voice, was able to persuade 5 members of my class to my 'cause'.

Women who are not only in politics, but who have risen up the corporate ladder, need to learn to speak clearly and distinctly in a firm voice using inflection (without using an emotional voice). They need to learn to project their voices without a microphone and learn to temper their voices when sound systems make their voices shrill. Nothing beats a good class in acting and speech training.

scrubbedexpat099

I can think of lots of non softly spoken ladies....

Gordon Barlow

Oh dear. Am I the only one who doesn't shrink from this girl's voice? Every day I hear (while desperately flicking to the next channels) dozens - both male and female - that are more irritating than this one! In my minority opinion, that is!

Leslie

All the love to Rete, we go way back.

Incidentally, I took drama classes all through high school. However, I didn't take a college level speech class until I was 40 years old. It was very interesting and I did fairly well but I suffered with MAJOR stage fright. The class was mostly people half my age (or less) with a couple of older students but mostly young people. I think that I benefitted from having been exposed to so much life and having worked for decades in demanding situations, I knew how to speak.

Leslie

First time ever but I agree with Gordon.

Ya'll quit hatin'. I actually like listening to her.

Gordon Barlow

Forced to say something nice about Leslie, I must congratulate her on spelling ya'll correctly; very few do.

Pulaski

I agree with both of you. I clicked the link in trepidation expecting to hear a woman who sounded like a cross between a corncrake and a hyena, but her voice sounds remarkably neutral to me, and there are many people on radio and TV who have a voice a whole lot more annoying.