To have only just realised that 'Vocal Fry' is a thing?

[ChinkChink]

That is to say - I was aware of, and increasingly being irritated by, women using a pattern of speech where sentences trail off into husky or guttural tones at the end, as if they're too lazy to take a breath. It makes them sound docile.

Vocal Fry, as it has been dubbed, apparently started among z-listers in the US a few years ago.

One British TV character who uses it a lot is Debbie Dingle, which I realise isn't very helpful if you don't watch Emmerdale. I noticed it with a couple of the Love Island females this year - don't ask me which ones. They all meld into one in my head.

But what's driven me to post is that I've noticed one of my colleagues has started doing it. It's the vocal equivalent of twirling your hair and pretending to be thick when a bloke hoves into view.

So. Vocal Fry. Have you noticed? AIBU in allowing it to get on me tits?

Yup. I associate it with a a particular sort of narcy navel-gazing vlogger.

It’s like the compulsion to talk endlessly about oneself outweighs whether they actually have anything to say, so they just open their mouths and that strange noise comes out.

Men absolutely do this too, and if you haven’t noticed it perhaps you should question why your perception of male and female voices is so different.

We are socialised to view men as more authoritative and reasonable than women, which is why it’s so essential that we challenge ourselves when we internalise these harmful attitudes.

Ira Glass is one of the biggest ‘offenders’ when it comes to vocal fry but he is never criticised for it. An American study found that the men they surveyed used vocal fry 25% of the time, and the women only 10% of the time.

Ask yourself why only female vocal fry bothers you. Question that impulse! Internalised misogyny deserves to be challenged.

Once you start hearing it, it really grates. I will however listen for it in men, and challenge myself!

It does seem like an affectation though.

I just thought this was LA affected voice.

Alaska on RuPaul’s Drag Race has the worst vocal fry ever and it drives me nuts

Ha! Alaska is always the very first person I think of whenever the subject comes up, her voice is pretty much 100% vocal fry but I love her so much it never bothers me.

Men absolutely can and do have vocal fry though (and not just drag queens!) If you think about your stereotypical douchey ‘posh’ boy accent (the ‘on my gap yaaahhh’ kind of thing) then you’ll start to recognise it. The blonde guy with dreads from the inbetweeners movie comes to mind!

“Alaska on RuPaul’s Drag Race has the worst vocal fry ever and it drives me nuts“

Ahhhhhh yes!!!

I could only think of the Kardashians as an example, but I think Alaska’s is even more exaggerated.

It almost sounds like they can’t be bothered talking, like every word is an effort

Well thank you for that OP. I hadn't noticed vocal fry before. Now I recognise it and will be annoyed when I hear it in the future, which thanks to Confirmation Bias is going to mean that I will become more annoyed in the future than I want to be or had planned for.

Thanks a lot.

What was more annoying was how close that women was to the camera & why she used a capital A for the word announcement in iklboos link.

Also I find people that start a sentenve with 'So' or end it with 'No' or 'Right'

But thats not relevent.

Millie Macintosh used to vocal fry a loootttt on Made in Chelsea.

My friend told me.

Huh

I hadn’t noticed it particularly and the videos didn’t make it any clearer... until kourtney kardashian, I had noticed her doing it, but tbh, I thought it was because of her lip fillers

Then I thought, oh, that’s what that guy in made in Chelsea does, what’s his name... so I googled made in Chelsea vocal fry

And it’s just loads of stuff criticising the women.

Anyway the one I was thinking of is mark Francis apparently and he’s way worse than any of the women and yet not articles about him...

What’s that about then?

I'd only noticed it in men before and found it really fucking annoying. I think there was an interview with Macklemore I was watching and he was doing it and it really really really grated on me. But I don't think he talks like that all the time. I thought he might have been ill that day.

Owen Wilson? Maybe just in Zoolander as the model.

YANBU. It's annoying-- in both men and women. Another thing I've noticed (in the US, at least) is how many people start nearly every sentence with "so".

People can speak however they choose, but it's incredibly irritating to listen to and makes me instantly take a certain degree of dislike to the person speaking (even though I know it's irrational). It sounds so stupid and fake!

I saw the Youtube compilation of Kim Kardashian doing it a while ago. Hilaire.

Must be a family trait.

I was googling videos on this yesterday (I was watching a Real Housewives program). I HATE it. DD does it a bit

It's not something I've ever noticed. From the examples in the first video, it just sounds like a very specific kind of cliched US teenager thing. The woman in the second video gives some examples which sound quite normal and difficult to notice in everyday speech.

So that is why I can't understand most of what Debbie Dingle is saying, I thought she had a bad tongue piercing or something. Have to use the subtitles to understand her, stupid woman.

've also noticed a tendency to end a sentences with a trailing "or..."
Another one is that words ending in 'o' receive a final y, so becomes soy, no becomes noy.

I first noticed this when I watched Neighbours in the 80's and assumed it was an Aussie thing.

I also really loathe the shtupid in stead of stupid sound, it seems to have started with the use of chube for tube.

YABU, both because, ffs, didn’t we do this to death a good long while ago?

So presumably you expect every poster to undertake an in-depth trawl of the entire site to ensure that they never post on a subject that has been discussed previously? Did MNHQ make you the post police?

Yes I'm with you! It's a Valley girl thing.

I first noticed it listening to my favourite murder where one of the hosts (Georgia) has really bad vocal fry. She's from Southern California and now I've heard it and know what it is I can't stop hearing it!!!!

Google 'Kim kardashian vocal fry' it'll do your nut in!!!!!

"docile"? I think it's very ugly, loathsome really. I think it makes people sound lazy and stupid.

Can't stand it, and won't listen to it if I can help it (podcasts etc).

In my workplace it's the young men doing it, interestingly.

Could it be a confidence thing? Perhaps the people who do it are self-conscious about either their voice or about what they're saying?

no offence but I'm from the U.K and this is something I might do if I was trying to put on an American accent (albeit badly)

This pisses me off. I'm a 44-year-old woman with a naturally deep voice and I have genuine vocal fry. It's not necessarily an affectation, it's a low vocal register. My natural register has some fry to it.

I'm very articulate and fluid in my speech and have never had a problem with people taking me seriously

I've just got a deep fucking voice.

So presumably you expect every poster to undertake an in-depth trawl of the entire site to ensure that they never post on a subject that has been discussed previously? Did MNHQ make you the post police?

OP asked if SWBU “To have only just realised that 'Vocal Fry' is a thing?”, and I answered yes, because vocal fry was all over the media a few years ago - the article I posted was 3 years old. I hope the OP has read it, it’s very good.

Nothing to do with being the post police.