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The Consequences Of Creaky Voice

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Introduction: Imagine living in a world where a slightly creak in your voice can stop you from getting a job. As unfair as that may sound, this can and do happen. Whether good or bad, people are judged based on their appearance and presentation of oneself, and how people talk is no exception. It is not farfetched to say that if a person wants to be taken seriously, they would try to speak more intelligently and carefully. In my research, I am going to examine how people can be perceived and how they are affected by the way they sound. Specifically, I am going to analyze the benefits and consequences of women using creaky voice, also known as vocal fry, as part of their speech. My research aims to uncover people’s true feelings towards creaky …show more content…

Women believe that, like men, speaking in a lowered tone (with creaky voice) will make them appear more authoritative in a professional environment. Yuasa described this as, “another consequence of American women’s unconscious efforts to adopt typically male characteristics” (Yuasa, 2010, p.319). However, Yuasa’s study reveals that women do indeed benefit from speaking with a creaky voice. Participants in her study perceived the women who spoke with a noticeable creak as being well-educated, upwardly-mobile, and, in some instances, more sexually desirable. (Yuasa, 2012 p.319-320, 330) Additionally, participants rated these women to be more approachable and more sympathetic, “[the] use of creaky voice as a sympathy-eliciting device contrasts with its use to express authority mentioned above. The former usage reflects positive-politeness, which emphasizes commonality between the participants (of the conversations), while the latter designates negative-politeness, which highlights the differences between them. In other words, creaky voice can convey two opposing meanings” (Yuasa, 2010, p.320). Essentially, Yuasa’s study demonstrated how creaky voice can be very beneficial to women if they want to be respected and taken seriously in a professional space. Yuasa’s study also demonstrated that women can be perceived as more sympathetic when speaking with a creak which benefits women further by making it easier to extend

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