Women with fake little girl voices

One of my pet peeves, OP. I’ve read that Ivanka Trump has a little girl voice.

I agree with PP it is NOT about high pitched voices being supposedly irritating, I don't think they are actually - when that is the woman's permanent voice.
it's the altered simpering girly voice that is put on when they are talking to men that makes my skin crawl

I have a naturally soft voice and I don’t like it It sounds almost childlike when I send audio messages or if I’m on the phone to someone say abroad or with a poor connection and somehow my voice echoes back, I have to deepen my voice on purpose to sound much more maturer when speaking and try to project my voice more when teaching or presenting etc. That’s why I like smaller class numbers and meetings with less people because projecting your voice whilst deepening it, can be very tiring. So I suppose not everyone does it on purpose but I feel like I have no choice but to change my voice when speaking across the room etc. but it just means that I have a sore throat by the end of the day and just feel generally exhausted.

My MIL used to speak in a little girls voice and it sounded quite put on.
She did it when speaking to both males and females. However she was a very selfish woman who had everyone at her beck and call. Once in a blue moon we'd hear her real voice when we upset her by refusing to run round after her!

My mum does it and it drives me crackers (she is in her 60's). Also along with the pigeon toed girly stance.
Usually when shes actually being an underhand evil witch and wants to hide beneath the cute innocent exterior she (thinks) she is presenting.
I have no issue with high voices (when I hear myself on call recordings I sound like a child) but there is a HUGE difference between a high voice and an affected girly put-on one.

• I think it is becoming more prevalent. I see it as part of the growth in gender stereotyping promoted by social media. To be a girl/woman you have to have long hair, wear floaty dresses, paint your nails and talk in a „feminine“ way while fluttering your eyelashes. If you conform to that model you are a woman regardless of sex/chromosomes. And obviously, if you do not conform to that model you must be a bloke.*

@Lemonmeringue33

100% agree

I also have a family member whose voice is so tiny i suspect she might have an issue with her vocal chords. It's like the way your voice gets when you're very scared but it's all the time.

I had a naturally high girly voice until i was about 26. Listening to myself i thought it sounded affected but it definitely wasn't and it didn't sound that way from inside my head. Not australian tho.

I have a low voice, but you can hear her vocal chords vibrating at some stages, 4.27 for instance. It just sounds strained. Maybe it's when she's upset?

I think this is an important discussion too, worth having. I worked alongside a woman who was really strong and decisive, no nonsense. Loved her approach to things. Until she met my dh for the first time and my head almost swung off in shock at the voice she came out with - simpering, sickly sweet and five decibels higher in pitch. She clearly was doing it to appeal to him in some way but why I'll never know. Lost a lot of respect for her.

I've noticed American girls/women with voices so low that my throat aches in sympathy. It doesn't sound natural, more that it's 'a thing'. The most recent time I've heard it was in this video

The fast show did skits on this year's ago.

Yes! My brother calls them HFBS - Hurty front bottome syndrome - the sketch where she has thrush and says she wants a real doctor (male) and then says she has a hurty front bottom - if he hears any female talking baby talk or with a babyish voice he always groans "Not another HFBS".

I have noticed more and more in adverts sound like kids (and I don't mean the Haribou advert!).

I noticed vocal fry has become extremely common in mostly young, American actresses in the last few years.
I assumed it was just an acting technique which was the current fashion.
But people will emulate what they see and hear in films.

Very interesting thread, and this is tangentially connected to my line of work so it intrigues me. Vocal fry is something different though - that growly, drawly, long-drawn-out sound in the lower register when air is released very slowly through the vocal cords. It tends to be associated with a lower rather than a higher voice.

Lizzie just anecdotally - DH once happened to walk past Alan Carr in the street as he (AC) was on the phone to someone, and he sounded.....completely normal. Nothing like his 'on-stage' voice!

So often when I watch younger people (Phd students and junior postgrads) in challenging situations (like answering questions after presenting at conferences)

I used to work in an academic research group which was mostly female, and the Professor leading it was female.
It was the harshest environment I've ever worked in.
New PhD students doing their introduction presentation were ripped apart by everyone.
I wonder if it was a tactic encouraged by the Prof to toughen up her students for academic life?
One thing I've noticed about academia is that the people who answer assertively and aggressively are the ones who make it to senior levels. Both female and male, because plenty of men aren't like this as well.

SomeDyke, you are probably right on the money there

As a big tall woman with a deep voice and (too much?) Natural confidence, I compensate by wearing very feminine clothes (dresses) and by smiling .... women have to smile more too

Now that you put it that way, it all makes perfect sense.

I have one of those voices. I hate it, but I do. I think I am speaking like everybody else but when I listen back to myself on recordings, it's like Marilyn Monroe meets Minnie Mouse. It sounds like I think I'm being all cutesy but that is honestly not my intention!

@SomeDyke - Once I tried to talk in a lower, flatter voice at work (in customer service), and the reaction I got was unbelievable. Within about two seconds, a man called me a cunt. I got several complaints for being "rude" even though I was doing nothing else differently!

To all of you who are puzzled why women do it because if a woman talks and responds like a man she is very often judged as being aggressive etc etc. So often when I watch younger people (Phd students and junior postgrads) in challenging situations (like answering questions after presenting at conferences), the male stereotypical response to questions is very aggressive and assertive when questioned by senior males this is usually seen as a good response and even if they are talking bollocks, they are seen as robustly standing up for themselves. Watching women respond to questioning by senior men, very often you do get the whole demure and self-effacing thing. As a female who doesn't do that, you very, very soon get seen as aggressive. If you're a dyke as well, then you also get the 'no wonder, man-hating lesbian' thing going on.
Women have to negotiate their way through such male-dominated and hierarchical environments using whatever tools they can. One of which is the non-threatening, infantilization act. It's not about annoying you it's about placating the man.............

I hadn’t heard it (had heard of it) until there was a young woman interviewed in the radio with her quivering wee voice. I thought the poor thing had just escaped from a shark attack or something but no, it was something very mundane. I was crying with laughter ‘shaaageeeeeeeeeeee’.

It’s the breathy little girl voices that seem to cover every classic song recently and completely ruin it, it’s so fake and makes my hackles rise.

And they often leave off the last consonant of words, as if they can't quite summon up that much energy.
At first I thought that it was an accent, but most don't seem to speak that way.

It’s the weird crackly, quavery voice I hear now that get me. Women (I haven’t heard men) talking as if they are having a breakdown or have just witnessed a hideous accident. A bit like Scooby Doo actually.

I think that's the vocal fry or often goes along with it.

It’s the breathy little girl voices that seem to cover every classic song recently and completely ruin it, it’s so fake and makes my hackles rise.