1. ELLE. MY 165
I
’m giving a presentation. It’s going okay but I’m not sure if
everyone is listening. I can hear murmurs in the back. Scrabbling
to re-engage my audience I find myself ending sentences in
questions marks, or ‘uptalking’ — “This was common in the
Victorian era?” — and dragging out my vowels in a gutteral
drawl called ‘vocal fry’ to draw more attention to what I’m
saying: “Some examples liiiiike…” It doesn’t work though. The
supervisor in the front row seems to find his pen more exciting
than my speech. I feel helpless.
Sound familiar? Probably. Perhaps you’ve gone for an
interview only to see the contempt in the interviewer’s eyes once
you start talking. You know it’s probably because you sound like
a cross between Zooey Deschanel and Kim Kardashian, but why
should that be more important than your well-
rounded resume?
A study by Duke University found that
voices that exhibit vocal fry are perceived as less
competent, less educated, less trustworthy, less
attractive, and most importantly, less hireable.
And guess what? That perception is greater when
it’s women doing the talking. Time even did an
online article on “3 speech habits that are worse
than vocal fry in an interview” — uptalk, nasal
tones and breathiness — which are all commonly
associated with women.
‘Vocal Fry May Hurt Women’s Job Prospects’,
the Atlantic informed us last year, and Slate
endeavoured to explain ‘Why Old Men Find
Young Women’s Voices So Annoying’.
That’s not all, ladies! It’s not just the pitch
of your voice but the words you use that make
you seem less authoritative. Former Google and
Apple exec Ellen Petry Lense recently wrote an
op-ed for Business Insider lamenting the use of
the word “just” among her female colleagues
because she said it makes them sound less
decisive. Inserting words like “actually” and
“but” in a sentence apparently cause women to
“come across as less competent and confident”, argued women’s
leadership expert Tara Mohr in an interview with Gwyneth
Paltrow’s Goop website. It seems there are dire consequences for
talking “like a woman”. Or perhaps the problem is that you’re
talking as a woman?
“Women and men can use exactly the same phrase, such as
giving direct orders, but they are evaluated very differently,” says
Melissa Yoong, Director of the Arts and Education Foundation
Programme at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. Her
research focuses on language and gender identities. In other
words, what is being criticised is not the linguistic behaviour,
but the women who display it. Yoong points out other sexist
stereotypes associated with women’s speech — the nagging wife,
the teary, apologetic employee and the girlfriend who refuses
to spell out what’s wrong. “Censuring women for vocal fry and
uptalk is a new addition to the long list of ways women are
undermined and silenced over generations.”
One study appearing in the journal American Speech in 2010
found that vocal fry is a result of women lowering their voices
to sound more authoritative. Another study from the Hong
Kong Polytechnic University found that uptalk was often used
by speakers in positions of power to assert dominance in the
workplace, regardless of gender. “So, as we can see, vocal fry
and uptalk have multiple functions. However, they have been
interpreted as female weaknesses,” continues Yoong.
“Women are subject to a double bind because of societal
stereotypes and expectations of how women
should speak, which are very carefully
policed,” explains Dr Louise Mullany, Associate
Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University
of Nottingham UK. Dr Mullany’s most recent
publication dealt with the sociolinguistics of
gender in public life. Her research has also found
that women aren’t the sole culprits of these
linguistic aberrations. “Based on my research on
language in the workplace, speech patterns are
context and role-dependent — it’s not gender
difference that’s the real issue.”
Yoong points out that studies have shown
differences in speech patterns caused by class,
culture and status are greater than the differences
than those between genders.
Uptalkandvocalfryaren’tevennewadditions
to the way we speak. Mark Liberman, linguistics
professor at the University of Pennsylvania
presents a hypothesis that uptalk could date back
to the 9th century. “It has been suggested that
this distribution of rising inflection in sentences
in northern England, Scotland and Northern
Ireland probably had something to do with the
Scandinavian influence there,” he told the BBC.
In the UK, where uptalk is widespread among men, the blame
is often placed on Australian imports — migrant workers and
episodes of Neighbours. Where did the Australians get it from?
No one knows. Uptalk is catching on in Asia though, says Yoong.
Speech patterns like uptalk, vocal fry and nasal, Paris Hilton-
esque Valley Girl speak are certainly not exclusive to women
and shouldn’t be held against us. So what can you do when you
find yourself being ignored, dismissed or judged negatively for
talking “like a girl”?
“Simple — point out that it isn’t just women who do it,” says
Yoong. Use the opportunity to draw attention to the fact that men
and women are assessed differently for the same things — and as
a chance to let your voice be heard. 
FRY LIKE A GIRL
These macho men are
guilty of vocal fry. Use them
as examples to silence
arguments about how
nasal your voice is.
“Vocal fry and uptalk have multiple functions. However, they have
been interpreted as female weaknesses.”
Vin Diesel
Macklemore
Bill Clinton >
Bruce Willis >
TH
AT’S WHAT SHE SAI
D
SORRY.
JUST.
I’M
NOT SURE. I GUESS
.BU
T.ACTUALLY
LIKE.UM
.
LITERALLY. JUS
T
WONDER
ING. MAYBE... PHOTOGRAPHY:CORBIS/CLICKPHOTOS;IMAXTREE.COM
164 ELLE.MY
BEAUTYPSYCHE
Often we don’t realise how our speech patterns affect the way we are
perceived. Samantha Joseph lends an ear to the way women talk
TH
AT’S WHAT SHE SAI
D
IT’S FINE. IDON
’TKNOW?
SORRY.
JUST.
I’M
NOT SURE. I GUESS
.BU
T.ACTUALLY
LIKE.UM
.
LITERALLY. JUS
T
WONDER
ING. MAYBE...