Here's my cool thing of the day, a map of wind patterns over the continental US
That is wonderful.
The students perception of your intelligence is inversely related to how high your voice is.
Not just students. I think that's generally true. Relatedly, I've noticed I get taken much more seriously when I drop my voice an octave.
Because of the high pitch and the softness of a woman's voice, it makes them very difficult to understand unless they are right up in your face
Like a woman can't project? I mean, some women can't, or don't; I've known several women whose speaking voices were almost impossible to understand unless they were "right up in your face", but I think that's because our culture teaches women to speak softly, and some women seem to really take the lesson to heart. More than once I've said to a woman, come on, speak up, talk out loud! and they look at me like I've encouraged them to fart in church.
One of my friends from grad school has a really high voice -- like, Minnie Mouse quality -- and it usually took forever for her students to trust that she actually knew what she was talking about.
One of my coworkers M. also has a really high, child-like speaking voice. She's also a tiny woman who looks about 20. I know she has a hard time being taken seriously. One reason she likes her job is that we all treated her like a competent adult from day one. (And now I wonder if it matters that the team she joined is all women?)
Once I was at a brainstorming meeting, also attended by my boss and run by her boss, at which I was the junior staff. I said a Thing, and it passed without note. Two minutes later, the male manager sitting at my right said the exact same Thing. And everyone said, wow, Bill, good point! I could NOT believe that happened. Oh hell no. I said, Bill, I just said that exact same thing two minutes ago. There was silence, and then Boss Boss grinned and said, yeah, Bill, she did. And Bill had the grace to blush and keep his damn mouth shut. I think that incident contributed to my reputation at work.
So I just had a tiny little flashback: back in the mid-90s I had a job working for the guy I call Evil Ex-Boss (everyone has one, right?). It was my first professional gig out of law school, and he treated me like shit and I was miserable and nothing ever got better and eventually I quit and moved across the country.
Odd timing. I call my version of him "evil little troll man" (no moving across the country, but he did cause a substantial shift in my career path).
Anyway, an email went out to the local law librarian group yesterday that he just died. He was only 65, which seems very young these days.
An old friend of the family likes to talk about how in her college theatre days, there was a classmate of hers who used to get cast in everything despite, in her opinion, not having much talent or range. Really, all Jimmy Jones had going for him was that deep booming voice...
I'm assuming Jimmy's middle name was Earl?
Allyson, just throwing this out there, you are welcome at my place if you can get your ticket changed to an earlier flight through DFW. I would LOVE to have you and the house would be yours during the day - backyard and patio all yours to lounge.
Oh, so lovely to be back at work, where My Nemesis is back to her old tricks: just got an email chain forwarded through three other people that would have saved everyone some effort and confusion if she had just sent it straight to me. But that would involve recognizing that I have a role in this organization, and she can't bring herself to do that...
Like a woman can't project? I mean, some women can't, or don't; I've known several women whose speaking voices were almost impossible to understand unless they were "right up in your face", but I think that's because our culture teaches women to speak softly, and some women seem to really take the lesson to heart.
They asked me to keep it down, at krav. You could hear all my classes from every room, and one instructor told me I didn't have to "compensate", you know, I could just teach like a chick. It took him a while to understand that...lo...that was "like a chick". Because it was how I teach the martial arts, and I'm a chick.
There's a woman on one of our project teams who has a not just high, but squeaky high school voice. It really took meeting her to help get past it, because it's not the sort of voice I think people have naturally, and so I had to wonder what her deal was with choosing it.
Somehow, though, not over the phone, it seems a lot more plausible. She lends it more gravitas, and no longer sounds like she's nervous and 13. Poor thing. People definitely talked shit about her voice behind her back, although no one cast aspersions on the quality of her work.
Jilli, where is the sterling silver or pewter version of this, the bracelet on the right with the claws? They must be easy to find, no?
Haven't seen one yet, but do you want me to put the babygoths of Tumblr on the search?
