![]() ![]() Thus, young women may be unconsciously signalling their own sense of personal power using this voice quality. Vocal fry has the effect of perceptually lowering pitch, even though it is not clear sounding. The only problem is that when women are in their twenties and thirties, their pitch is still relatively high due to the anatomy and physiology of the voice (pitch naturally lowers in women over time due to changes in cartilage, muscle tone and hormones). There are three likely hypothesis for the increase in vocal fry in young women in modern, western society:ġ) A lower pitch is a sign of empowerment, and we know young women are generically feeling more empowered in these societies therefore, they may be unconsciously signalling this empowerment by lowering the pitch. It has been reported that vocal fry as a vocal phenomenon is occurring more frequently in young women (in their 20s and 30s) in the US, the UK and Australia.Īnecdotally, it is also being observed by speech pathologists more commonly in young women in Brazil, but is not reported as a phenomenon in Europe. ![]() It also coincides with the empowerment of the younger generation relative to the older generation. This fact coincides with a greater participation in the workforce and overall empowerment of women in modern societies in the same timeframe. We know that the average pitch of women in Australia has dropped since the 1950s. Traditionally, older people are attributed more power than younger people and men are attributed more power than women.Ī lower pitch is perceived almost universally as the speaker (male or female) having more authority and/ or greater status. The relationship between power, gender and the voice This parallels the findings in other research that women are judged on their physical attributes more than men. That suggests croakiness in women’s voices has a stronger effect in attribution of neuroticism by others than men, and that voice quality is judged more in women than men. Women who had clear voices were perceived as being less neurotic than men with clear voices. In my (unpublished) PhD, undertaken at the University of Sydney, women with croaky voices were perceived as being more neurotic than men with croaky voices. They found that people attribute meaning to the sound of the voice, specifically: solidarity (is this person like me or like-able are they one of my tribe?) or status (are they more or less powerful than me). The meaning or attribution given to voice quality has been investigated in many studies – the most rigorous research was conducted by Jeffry Pittam and Cindy Gallois in Queensland in the 1980s. It is a descriptor of the lowest part of the vocal range, a symptom of a voice disorder, and currently, a cultural phenomenon related to gender, age and geography.īut what does it mean and what attributions do people make when they hear it? The semiotics of voice quality So, fry occurs normally in many languages, cultures and contexts. Vocal fry is a commonly occurring symptom of a voice disorder (when it is present in a person’s voice a lot of the time). This increase in force during vibration of the vocal folds can be traumatic and cause injury to the vocal folds if it occurs a lot – injuries such as laryngitis, vocal fold swelling, and vocal nodules, to name just a few. This type of vocal cord vibration results in increased collision force of the true vocal folds (remember the true vocal folds are the only muscles in the body that hit each other). ![]()
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