Fix your voice
I was just listening to a TV commercial featuring a woman who’s running for office. And she has this squirrelly, girly voice that makes her sound like a first-grader, not like a woman of substance and power. Women like that don’t do well in debates because their voices start getting on everyone’s nerves. And it’s not just women who have that problem. Everything Joseph Lieberman says sounds boring to me. His voice is too whiny. I can’t vote for him because I can’t bear four years of that. He sounds like the guy on the Visine commercials. “For dry eyes . . .”
I knew a HIGHLY ambitious young woman–on track to be an astronaut, etc.–who was born and raised in New Jersey, but you’d never know it from her voice. She had absolutely no accent. And why not? Because she decided not to have one. She thought it would hold her back. So she deliberately got rid of it before she went to college. I guess I never really thought that was possible, but of course it is. People ditch their southern and cockney and Long Island accents all the time, right?
There are a few authors I’ve heard speak whose voices don’t match what they write. You hear them at a reading and you think, “No, that’s not it. Please shut up now–you’re ruining it for me.” And from then on you have to get their voices out of your head if you’re ever going to enjoy their work again.
In the past few weeks I’ve been overly focused on the fact that I, too, will be doing a lot of public speaking next year when my book comes out, and somehow I’ve convinced myself I have a slight lisp. I swear it wasn’t there last month. I’ve become hyperconscious of my tongue, and it keeps bumbling around in my mouth, getting in the way. So I’m hoping if I just go about my business, find other things to think about, my mouth will sort itself out again and I’ll thtop thounding like Thindy Brady.
Anyone in politics or entertainment whose voice you’d like to see fixed?
Technorati Tags: Joseph Lieberman, Public Speaking, Writing, Publishing, Politics
August 1st, 2006 at 8:48 am
Oh no. Not the guy from the Visine commercial. He sounds like the actor from the series ALF. The Dad.
And about the lisp, I wouldn’t worry about it. That really is a small thing.
August 1st, 2006 at 8:54 am
I don’t have a lithp! It’s all in my head!!
August 1st, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Ooh, this could be fun. How hyper-aware/self-conscious can we make you? Make sure you don’t blink too much.
I once had someone tell me I didn’t look to my left enough.
Anyway, the biggest killer of a nice presentation is ‘ummmmmm’ to fill that space while you think. ‘uhhhh’ Silence is ok. ‘ummmmm’ It is far shorter than you think.
August 1st, 2006 at 2:59 pm
And I was going to say you don’t look behind you often enough. Oh, well, everyone’s a critic.
August 1st, 2006 at 6:21 pm
You mean for the little people that I pass by? Hmmm, I’ll have to think about that.
August 1st, 2006 at 7:07 pm
rb, you’ve hit a nerve with me. as the mother of three college students, that would make it three former high-school students (i know what you’re thinking–how can that be, she’s so young! yes, in fact, i did need parental consent to wed, but that’s another story)i have suffered through years of high pitched, nail on chalkboard, valley girl voices. (that current phone commercial with the high school cheerleader is so spot on). i have made it my personal mission to alert all young women that leave me with blood dribbling from my ears after the exchange of a few sentences of how “pleasant” they would sound if they dropped the pitch a couple of octaves (and eliminate the words, really, omg,you know and and like from their vocabularies). unfortunately i have no documented successes. i struggle on.
August 1st, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Annette, thank you for doing your part in this worldwide campaign to get young women to speak like women, not shrill Muppets. Thank you for all you do.
August 1st, 2006 at 8:42 pm
If Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise could STFU forever, it still wouldn’t be long enough.
My mom insists Alanis Morissette was cast as god in Dogma to prove no one should ever have to listen to her voice.
August 1st, 2006 at 9:02 pm
I’m sorry, Lizzie, but STFU? I can guess the last two words, but the first two?
And am I the only person who doesn’t know this?
August 2nd, 2006 at 12:13 am
rb, you are probably the only one who can’t figure it out in context. my quess–”shut the…”. but again, that’s just a quess.
August 2nd, 2006 at 2:57 am
Shut The — (No, I haven’t seen the abbreviation before.)
I think more women and girls SHOULD go for a muppet sound. Miss Piggy is quite the confident and commanding lady. Are you going to ignore what she is saying? Like, OMG — NO WAY! Miss Piggy ROCKS! Totally!!!
August 2nd, 2006 at 5:29 am
It’s a pretty common internet acronym; ST = Shut The
The U is Up, which is probably not what you initially thought.
August 2nd, 2006 at 5:46 am
Okay, yes, so I am the last to know. Thank you all for educating me.