Women with fake little girl voices

It’s an Asian thing

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.

Yes BlueCornishPixie and EweSurname - I can relate to what you are saying. When I'm in a threatening situation, and I do find confrontation in general quite threatening, I can feel my voice change, and I'm not happy about it at all. Working on it.
I also know a woman who always seems to talk in a different voice and use 'cute' expressions and a giggle when she's actually being quite confrontational or even insulting ( a sort of I'm just having a silly little joke here so can't take offence kind of thing.)
I think women do it to appear non-threatening or compliant whether as a safety mechanism, a way to be passive-aggressive, or as a way to seem more attractive to others (usually but not always men) and I do think it's often not a conscious thing. I also think it can be a bit contagious.

Sarah Millican's voice irritates me because it sounds fakely high

I haven't noticed it on the increase with speaking, but I have noticed pop music women's voices are going for a very young sounding, breathy sound. Along with it some other singers going for more of an Adele/Amy Winehouse sound, but in some ways quite similar. I don't think its a very healthy way to sing so it would probably be good to let it go.

Generally though, women are much faster to pick up on vocal trends and language than men are. I would avoid reading to much into them, some of it is kind of random I suspect, a singer like Adele gets famous and then all kinds of people want to sound like her and it permeates the culture.

I also think its natural for people to change their pitch in different situations, and men do this as well with people who are in authority over them or speaking to children. But they still don't sound like boys so maybe it is less noticeable, many women on the other hand can easily use the vocal range of girls.

I think I remember reading that when flirting, man tend to use their deeper register and women their higher. That might be mostly about emphasising sexual dimorphism though.

The Rugrats being babies...

I know a woman who only does this around men and it’s quite disturbing. Seems subconscious to her but I’m conscious of it and it’s annoying to think she associates it with her attractiveness.

I knew a family (of all females) who used to speak to each other in the voices of the Rugrats (remember them?) Even when i was 12/13 I remember hating it, especially when the mum did it.

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.

I know what you mean OP but I'm the reverse situation (aussie in UK). I know one older British woman who does it and a younger colleague here does it. The older woman does it to manipulate her audience to her way of thinking (not sure if it's the voice or the ensuing tantrum that people are swayed by) and the younger woman does it as a defence mechanism to avoid criticism from customers. My boss employed her because she "sounded fragile" and he concluded this would dissuade customers from getting upset with her when our service failed to deliver. He was wrong unsurprisingly. But good to know he is not above exploiting others weaknesses. Over the years, I have seen her baby voice steadily disappear, thankfully. Another colleague had the full on baby voice going. I think hers was defensive too,with a touch of "please like me" thrown in. Her other mode of talking was direct, blunt and taking no prisoners. Interesting to observe. Next time I come across it I'm going to ask "are you aware you are talking differently and like a child?" see what comes back!

As regards Japan, as far back as 1991 I could find papers written saying:
"These pitch differences arise, it is suggested, because of a contrasting sociosemiotic function assigned to pitch in the two speech communities whereby Japanese high pitch is typically reserved for the enactment of female roles while English high pitch is adopted by both sexes to express politeness."

Also papers on whether or not gay (men) sounded gay.

Given the actual innate differences in the vocal tracts of males and females, perhaps no surprise that speech itself has become gendered. Even if you aren't speaking a language like japanese which seems to have explicit male and female forms of speech. Although the quote that:
"Men, however, tend to show a "self-oriented conversation style", telling stories and expressing their expertise on topics being discussed more than is typical of women in these studies." shows that some things cross many boundaries!

The women sounding more childlike, part surely of a whole wider thing, where women are treated by some men as if they aren't proper responsible adults. Women have been trying to manipulate their own speech in order to progress for a long time. The infantilization approach given dominant older males, no surprise at all..........

I have no idea whether it's a current fashion, but I used to work with a woman years ago who did it.
The whole team were mid to late 20s, yet she'd put on her "helpless woman" voice as I termed it when speaking to the men.
I thought it was a vocal version of fluttering eyelashes and she used it to get them to do stuff for her.
She was intelligent and educated (PhD) so I did wonder why she felt she had to resort to it.

BlueCornishPixie yes to everything you've written. I think it's a way I can ask for people to do things that doesn't seem threatening, which is ridiculous as I'm not asking anyone to do anything outrageous.

It's another tactic that my inner Beryl uses but as I say, I've been trying to overcome it. I'll still have a high voice though!

I'm actually at a loss for words to respond to this . It's quite awesome in its arrogance.

No it isn't.

We have a couple of women at work who do this. Only ever to men. One of the women, I hadn't realised it wasn't her actual voice until I heard her speaking to a more junior female member of staff in an adult voice.

Whilst I understand some of the criticism of this thread, I do think it's a feminist issue worth discussing. It falls firmly into infantilising women and the idea that helpless and young = sexy. Yuk.

It's taken to ridiculous extremes in Japan

yy, i was going to say this- its incredible there. in the shops, offices, greeting people, a very high child-like voice-but when chatting etc back to normal.

why cant people put effort into not assuming that having a high girlish voice means you are stupid or incapable??

Because that would involve questioning themselves rather than judging you and finding you wanting.

Perhaps those who say they have never noticed this admittedly (and thankfully) rare phenomenon are the onesdoingit?

I'm actually at a loss for words to respond to this ^. It's quite awesome in its arrogance.

..So really the options left to you are to sit and work on making your voice sound more masculine..

I seem to remember hearing that Mrs Thatcher did just that when she became Prime Minister?

Why don't some people want us to discuss this?

I mean it seems a bit shit to blame women themselves for the way feminine voices are perceived by society... I mean even if a woman is actively making her voice higher and more childish in order to manipulate or lessen expectations of her or illicit care for herself... isnt it kind of awful that she would have to do that? And then that it would also work because of the way people view traditional femininity?

As someone with a naturally very high voice i do not get taken seriously very often, particularly in a career setting. Theres even been times where I've said something and it's been completely dismissed then someone else has said the exact same thing and it's been praised... seconds after, so blatant that it would be comedic if anyone but me had actually noticed.
So really the options left to you are to sit and work on making your voice sound more masculine... or perhaps consider using your natural voice to your advantage to manipulate people.
Neither option would be needed if everyone just had a bit of a word with themselves about the negative associations they have with any traditional trappings of femininity.

(Whispers)

Perhaps those who say they have never noticed this admittedly (and thankfully) rare phenomenon are the ones doing it?

I don't hear it very often but it's certainly jarring if you know it's not the person's normal speaking voice. I don't think it's unreasonable to question what kind of conditioning might lead someone to adopt a higher pitched voice in certain situations but I think

I HATE THEM so MUCH! Speak properly for God's sake

might be the cause of some posters irritation. Its unecessarily harsh and looks like women trying to put other women down.

People always say this to me. People can actually be very nasty about it. I got bullied at school for it. I had one friend (who is no longer a friend funnily enough) who insisted that I was doing a fake voice and kept telling me to stop being stupid and talk in my normal voice.... she knew me for years... that WAS my real voice. I just have a really high voice and I talk very quietly. I have to really try not to speak like that... and although I do put effort into speaking more loudly so people can here I dont see why I should have to put effort into speaking deeply.... why cant people put effort into not assuming that having a high girlish voice means you are stupid or incapable??

curiosity.com/topics/theres-a-reason-babies-respond-to-high-pitched-baby-talk-curiosity/

I have a naturally high voice but I've noticed it goes higher when I'm asking for things or speaking to people in a position of authority.

Ha ha, I've noticed how high my voice goes when speaking to my dogs, or trying to get them to do something. Same thing used to happen when my children were little. I think it's an actual 'thing' now that I think about it, that babies and children respond better to high-pitched voices.

Wanders off to google....

Yes I've noticed this. Older women, Eastern suburbs (Melb), housewives. Very common. Put upon soft voice with a drawl.

I've always attributed it to housewife culture, ie, to have power and influence over the home feminity is accentuated and exaggerated. They're often very unhappy people.