I've never (emotionally) understood the adult woman speaking in the infamous "baby voice." It's not unique to religion -- one of the standard TV tropes always has young American women speak loudly and directly while "proper" British girls speak in a soft, barely audible almost whisper even when angry.

So, this seems a "trend" that has more to do with female submission to patriarchy more than anything else.


##########

https://jesspiper.substack.com/p/the-fundie-baby-voice

The breathless speech, the incongruent facial movements and smiles. The cadence of condescension. I am better than you, and here are the ways. I have children. They are perfect. I have a marriage. It is perfect. I am pretty and well-educated. I am a Christian—I am god fearing and I prove it by holding hands with my family and praying for the rest of you. I am better than you.

Now that you know the term and what to look for, I want to warn you that the voice doesn’t always equate to a terrible woman or even a submissive one. I grew up with so many who used the voice because they were trained to use it. They are kind women who show up for others in sickness and in need. They take care of their families and their neighbors and their church sisters and brothers. They are living the life they feel called to lead—I give them grace and understanding. They are not out to harm others.


##########


Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Like Kathy Lee Gifford. I hate her commercials about Balance of Nature and the way she talks. Those who want you to believe they are really spiritual seem to do it.

I definitely don't have a sweet voice. I have a deep voice for a female and I never try to make it sweet.

Craig Ferguson Says Women Should Talk In Baby Voices Around Men | TODAY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idPyg50jPDU

If a man told me I should talk with a soft voice, be sweet, I'd do the opposite. When I am angry I yell. My mother was always running around closing windows if my sisters and I would argue. So then I get married and my "husband" can be very difficult to live with. He'd get kicked out of the house if he acted that way now that we live as friends in the house I hung onto.

But he ran around the house one day closing windows and then it got much worse. He thinks if you speak softly it doesn't matter what other horrible things you do. Keep sweet. Never. Take my word for it, he never ran around closing windows again. I told him I wanted the neighbors to hear what he was really like.

"I give them grace and understanding. They are not out to harm others."

Like squirrels or pigeons in a park, who will come right up to you and hang out. Throw them a few crumbs and they are all over them. You know that you personally can never be a squirrel or a pigeon. It doesn't detract from the experience.

One 'Sister' in my old ward who always talked in a very pronounced Baby/Little Girl voice had a very domineering patriarchal husband. Her voice appeared to an effort to show submission and compliance to him.

Was she happy and fulfilled? You would need to ask her.

Shinehah wrote in part:

"Was she happy and fulfilled? You would need to ask her."

I doubt that she would be fully truthful if you did ask her unless you were a very close female friend who wouldn't "blab" about her problems to others.

The "gothardite" (IBLP) flavored independent fundamentalist baptist women speak in a whispery baby voice as they were instructed to by Bill Gothard who wrote pamphlets about the tone and voice modulation women should use when speaking to their husbands and others (it was ok to use a harsh voice to their children). This was a way for wives to be pleasing to their husbands, as god intended, instructed a man who never married and had no experience in being a husband or having a wife, or with raising the eleventy million children he instructed his followers to have.

I was an unfortunate victim of a mother who was determined to keep her daughters talking "sweet." When my voice began to change into adulthood, my mother became abusive. She would Yell at me and tell me that if I didn't stay talking small and sweetly that she would tell the entire neighborhood that I was not a good girl Wow! Really? I was a pure young lady as far as any Mormon Could measure.

"British girls speak in a soft, barely audible almost whisper even when angry.* Almost 64 years married to an English girl tells me this is nonsense lol.

meaning it's something you see in movies or television, not meant to be real life

A Message From Lady Penelope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2hEep7o7wY



The Allure of Marilyn Monroe's Breathy Voice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jOMS-xXaqc



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2024 12:16AM by anybody.

I'm with you, Kentish. My mother and sister both give the lie to this as they were/are very quick to shout.

"The only thing we have to farre is farre itself..."

If you watch the old British TV shows that make it over here on PBS or old American movies from before WW2, there's a lot contrived accents used to indicate clas distinction.

##########

Lady Mary As Connie Tough

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Vwj3_BfnzUE

##########

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/08/the-rise-and-fall-of-katharine-hepburns-fake-accent/278505/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-fake-british-accent-took-old-hollywood-by-storm


If you’ve ever seen a movie made before 1950, you’re familiar with the accent used by actors like Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Ingrid Bergman: a sort of high-pitched, indistinctly-accented way of speaking that also pops up in recordings of politicians like FDR and writers like Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr. It’s easy to gloss over today, because movies have captured a few different accents that aren’t really present today, like the Borscht Belt Jewish accent of Mel Brooks and the old New York “Toity-Toid Street” accent. Is it British? Is American? Is it just “rich”?

But the accent we’re talking about here is among the weirdest ways of speaking in the history of the English language. It is not entirely natural, for one thing: the form of the accent was firmly guided by certain key figures, who created strict rules that were aggressively taught. And it also vanished quickly, within the span of perhaps a decade, which might be related to the fact that it isn’t entirely natural.

##########



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2024 08:35AM by anybody.

Couldn't get the Lady Penelope link. I am assuming it is the Gerry Anderson Lady P from the Thunderbirds TV show. My last job in the UK was at Anderson's publishing arm and I wrote a weekly strip for the publication Lady Penelope.

Gadzooks, man!!

What a stroke of good fortune to get Lady Penelope to strip weekly!!!

Yes, that Lady P. Fixed the URL.

Big Gerry Anderson fan since watching old re-runs of his shows in third grade.

There was a boys weekly that started before Lady P that featured all the characters Anderson created starting with Supercar and Fireball XL5. Spent time at the studio where TBs was filmed.

"Thunderbirds Are Go" Countdown (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQwgIZ__WrY

A political spokeswoman just used that voice in a rebuttal video.

This is not meant as a political comment. I'm just saying it happened.

It is required for SPs & wannabes to maintain dominance in their ‘callings’; they need respect & loyalty to function, but loyalty seems to be a substitute foe actual, verifiably credibility needed to be a researcher, a scientist, a physician or a reliable ‘blue collar’ employee such as a police officer, fire fighter, machine operator or train crew member.
Oh yeah, those also apply to lawyers and accountants!