Sexist assholes
The use of disembodied female-sounding voices in service industries
21–25 of 25 posts
Re: The use of disembodied female-sounding voices in service industries
#22> intended to take on a specific gendered role; to politely and submissively assist.
> Moreover, the monotonous presence of pre-recorded voices also embodies the stereotype of the ‘nagging’ female. She’s constantly reminding us to remove shopping bags from the checkout, to mind the gap, to be careful and so on.
One of these is not like the other.
A thought exercise for the article authors: how would these parts of the article look if the voice sounded like a man?
Re: The use of disembodied female-sounding voices in service industries
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because natural male voice is generally lower than female voice. Also there is research on gender neutral voice (like this https://www.genderlessvoice.com/ ) but as you can hear, the voice is everything but natural and easy to understand
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What exactly is it you're arguing for? I don't get it. What difference is there between recording a female and making a male recording sound female?
Re: The use of disembodied female-sounding voices in service industries
#24I think the article totally miss the point of why we use female (high pitch) voice instead of male (low pitch) voice. In a public environment, the majority of the lower spectrum of sound is flooded with the surrounding noise what means that if a low pitch noise is used it will barely be understable. High pitch voices are well better in theses cases because it uses the less busy part of the sound spectrum resulting in…
Is that true, though? If there's automotive traffic or construction work going on, possibly, but any public space with lots of women and (especially) children won't be quiet in the high frequencies. I nonscientifically believe the booming male voices were a lot more effective at being understood and commanding attention over the din at public swimming pools back when I used to spend summers there. They also sometimes…
> There's also this thing with having a "soft voice", that's something much more often attributed to women than men (IME – can't remember hearing that said about a man, like, ever).
The "soft spoken" is used for men.
Re: The use of disembodied female-sounding voices in service industries
#25The famous "mind the gap" is from a man. British Siri was always a male voice. The automatic-semi-recored voice in German trains is male. This 10 year old CNN article is way more informing: https://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/21/tech/innovation/female-co... For example female voices for early radar systems were chosen, because their voices stand out from the male fighter pilots. Sexist? Maybe, but also a smart and pragma…
> For example female voices for early radar systems were chosen, because their voices stand out from the male fighter pilots.
I hate war, but I can't help but love the pragmatism and rationality.