Among Friends

[Vivian]

For those unfamiliar with the term, vocal fry is that croaky kind of voice used by young women, à la The Kardashians. My husband cannot watch HGTV's Flip or Flop because the woman featured has a speaking voice he cannot stand. MUCH has been written about this damaging speech pattern. It is hard on the ears and worse on the voice of those who speak in vocal fry.

[on the bay]

I hate hearing this too! It seems a lot of newscasters also use it (of the younger generation).

Its amazing to me if you listen to any older movies, people who are not 13-45 or so, it just didn't exist.

Its so unattractive to listen to.

I often want to give many of the hosts and people on tv speech lessons.

Another popular speech pattern is fastasyoucanspeak! and there is one middle age newscaster who drops his sentences.(starting out loud and ending in an undecipherable whisper!)

I tell myself I need a life when I find myself mimicking/yelling at the tv

[Peaches McPhee]

I first heard about vocal fry on another forum that was talking about Flip or Flop's Christina and her voice.  I had never heard of it before, so I googled it, and, yes, apparently is is pretty common among certain people (young women).  I wonder what the long term health results are.  It probably started out as an affectation, but now they probably don't even realize it.

[newjersey]

I hear  this vocal fry all the time, also by young women on tv.   How do they even get their voices to sound like that?

[ChynnaBlue]

Men AND women have been using vocal fry for ages, but women are the ones who are constantly criticized for it. Ira Glass has been doing this since the beginning of This American Life, but only the women on the staff of This American Life get emailed complaints and even hate mail about this.

The vast majority of articles about this are negatively commenting on women and even deny men do this, but that's not correct. And more recent medical studies say that no, it's not harmful to vocal cords for women or men.

No matter who seems to do it, only women get the hate mail about it and Ira Glass says the complaints they get about the voices of women are the most hateful emails they get.

When men do it (Vin Diesel, Tom Hardy, Johnny Depp), people say "that's just the way they sound," or "that's just their voice." When women do it, "that's vocal fry," or "that's an annoying sound." 

It's another form of sexism. It's also a matter of age. People under 40 are less likely to have an issue with vocal fry than those over 40.

"This American Life host Ira Glass recently admitted that he uses vocal fry. But in a conversation with Chana Jaffe-Walt (who is not a dude), Glass also admitted that no one notices his vocal fry. And it's not that no one notices — women are criticized for using vocal fry while men have been getting away with it for years."

Source: http://www.upworthy.com/what-is-vocal-fry-and-why-doesnt-anyone-care-when-men-talk-like-that

And here's a link to the This American Life episode dedicated to vocal fry and the complaints the women on their staff get: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/545/if-you-dont-have-anything-nice-to-say-sa...

[sidsmom]

Vocal Fry is soooo not a new thing.

Vocal Fry is soooo not a female thing.

There's a host on my sports radio station who has been broadcasting for over 20yrs...and he has classic Vocal Fry.

A lot of singers 'bottom out'...think Trace Adkins, Alan Jackson..classic country western vocal fry.   Britney Spears?  I can't listen to her anymore...she's got such bad vocal fry, it kinda drives me nuts. Ha

[Bhvbum]

Right, vocal fry is not just a female thing, but I have probably heard 10 women for every one man talk this way so I don't think women get unfairly criticized. 

I can't stand it!!  Don't their parents or family talk to them about it. This is annoying to ALL ages. 

[cherry]

Are you talking about a voice that sounds like Grace  Vanderwaals? (sp) She croaks but I think its her natural voice

[Moonchilde]

If it's a choice between vocal fry and all the mostly younger women who sound like a cross between Minnie Mouse and The Chipmunks, I'll take the vocal fry, thanks. Every time I hear Babyvoice I want to ask if I can speak to their mommy.

[KarenQVC]

To me it sounds like their batteries are going bad.