That Baby Voice... Michelle and Mary Kay

[Ungodly Grandma]

1 minute ago, AliceInFundyland said:

I was just struck with an image of Gil in bed and and Kathy Bates in Misery (oddly, the clothing/voice is appropriate) about to whack the shit out of him. Never had that thought before. Nice.

I was all excited for a minute! God, I love Kathy Bates, the thought of her maybe being Gils's first wife, fighting her way out!

there's a movie for her. 

 

[Cleopatra7]

8 minutes ago, Gobsmacked said:

You mean Kelly Bates.

D'oh, you're right. All these names are going to together for me.

[Alicja]

49 minutes ago, anne.stults said:

Wish I could post a link but I cannot figure out how to do it.  Anyway, Dr. Drew said the baby voice is usually in someone who has suffered sexual abuse.  He said the age of the baby in the voice is from about the time they suffered the abuse.  

I do the baby voice occasionally. In Freudian psychology, it's called regression, I believe. IIRC it's not cause just by sexual abuse but by other forms.

I tend to "regress" when I'm around someone I feel especially safe around. Sometimes it happens at random moments, which can be quite annoying.

[Ungodly Grandma]

6 minutes ago, Alicja said:

I do the baby voice occasionally. In Freudian psychology, it's called regression, I believe. IIRC it's not cause just by sexual abuse but by other forms.

I tend to "regress" when I'm around someone I feel especially safe around. Sometimes it happens at random moments, which can be quite annoying.

That's pretty funny. My husband once remarked I was annoyingly whiny when I thought I was just very relaxed.

[Alicja]

1 minute ago, Ungodly Grandma said:

That's pretty funny. My husband once remarked I was annoyingly whiny when I thought I was just very relaxed.

It can make for some interesting conversations, that's for sure! 

[fundie_grandchild]

I always found Jackie Kennedy's voice kind of annoying.  I always thought it was an affectation to show how refined she was, especially when she played hostess and showed 'us' around the Whitehouse. 

[ksgranola1]

Yeah, Jackie's baby voice bothered the shit out of me. I thought it was something she learned in "finishing school."

[Cleopatra7]

7 minutes ago, fundie_grandchild said:

I always found Jackie Kennedy's voice kind of annoying.  I always thought it was an affectation to show how refined she was, especially when she played hostess and showed 'us' around the Whitehouse. 

She was probably socialized to "be nice" and not raise her voice, like a lot of women in her generation, regardless of class. As a wealthy woman, she was probably taught in various ways that her role was essentially to be seen and not heard.

[lascuba]

4 hours ago, Wenny said:

I've heard it called SBV (sexy baby voice) either it 1) Makes the person seem cute and think men like it or 2) some trauma happen at a young age. It is like Upspeak (valleyspeak, everything ends in a question) and vocal growl (Kourtney and Khole K, they speak normally but then their voice goes monotone and flat. Just a vocal tick that some people have. I surprised that none of her daughters do it since girl have a habit of conforming to vocal ticks in large groups. 

I thought vocal fry was caused by running out of breath, so it's not so much an affectation than it is poor breath control while speaking. 

I'm with everyone saying that the baby voice is an affectation with these women.

[Johanna25]

30 minutes ago, Cleopatra7 said:

She was probably socialized to "be nice" and not raise her voice, like a lot of women in her generation, regardless of class. As a wealthy woman, she was probably taught in various ways that her role was essentially to be seen and not heard.

Yes, despite the benefits, life among the 0.1% is not a bed of roses. Their social events tend to separate the men and women, and a woman must always cater to her man. Makes me grateful not to have been raised to marry one of the masters of the universe. And keeping oneself fit and beautiful is a fulltime job. Not for me; I enjoy being a bit of a slob.

[FundamentallyShocked]

3 hours ago, Cleopatra7 said:

Gothardism in general probably teaches that female helplessness is attractive (or "godly" as they might say) which includes the baby voice, although I recall that Kathy Bates doesn't use the baby voice.

Yea back in my teens, a friend had me read "Beautiful Girlhood". It was a fundie-lite book and openly taught that women should appear helpless and clingy to please a man. It included instuctions like saying, "Oh Tiger, come quick! There's a spider and I don't know what to do. Oh, help!"

I gave the book back.

[2manyKidzzz]

1 hour ago, Cleopatra7 said:

She was probably socialized to "be nice" and not raise her voice, like a lot of women in her generation, regardless of class. As a wealthy woman, she was probably taught in various ways that her role was essentially to be seen and not heard.

I had just seen incidentally on facebook that Jackie had 5 pregnancies and two living children. A miscarriage, a stillborn, a child who lived 39 hours and Caroline and John Jr. And thank God she died before John Jr. did. I'm sure it would have killed her. Losing three is very hard and money and position couldn't help her there for sure. (I'm not a big fan, just saw the bit about the pregnancies yesterday)

[Cleopatra7]

MKL's was raised in a very conservative Catholic home, so she was probably socialized to talk in a little girl voice and appear dainty and delicate. Her father, John George Schmitz was so conservative that he ran as an American Independent Party candidate, and saw integration as a "communist plot." I wonder what he thought about MKL having babies with a Samoan boy (he died before MKL and Vili married). But given that Schmitz had two out of wedlock children that he didn't support, not even from a financial standpoint, it's not like he was in a position to criticize her.

[TeaGrannie]

13 minutes ago, FundamentallyShocked said:

Yea back in my teens, a friend had me read "Beautiful Girlhood". It was a fundie-lite book and openly taught that women should appear helpless and clingy to please a man. It included instuctions like saying, "Oh Tiger, come quick! There's a spider and I don't know what to do. Oh, help!"

I gave the book back.

I nearly spit pop on my iPad picturing the reaction of my husband if I did that. He'd think I lost my mind, lol.  I'm not known for being clingy or needy, far too independent for that. 

[nausicaa]

1 hour ago, ksgranola1 said:

Yeah, Jackie's baby voice bothered the shit out of me. I thought it was something she learned in "finishing school."

Jackie Kennedy attended Foxcroft, a very elite girls school which is now academically rigorous but at the time she attended was essentially a finishing school. Her breathy baby voice was called the "Foxcroft accent" in upper crust circles because so many of the school's graduates in the first half of the 20th century had it. And it's exceptionally strong in her White House tour.

I live somewhat near Foxcroft and will occasionally run into one of the older graduates who have that accent (though I don't know if it's from having it inculcated in school or consciously mimicking JKO because Jackie is essentially a god round those parts). Tom Wolfe of all people actually has a pretty funny essay about the accent. 

[FundamentallyShocked]

2 minutes ago, TeaGrannie said:

I nearly spit pop on my iPad picturing the reaction of my husband if I did that. He'd think I lost my mind, lol.  I'm not known for being clingy or needy, far too independent for that. 

My then-boyfriend, now husband, told me that if I acted that way, he'd laugh in my face. A real man isn't threatened by a strong woman. In fact, they benefit because they don't have to run from work home to kill random spiders.

[EmCatlyn]

14 minutes ago, 2manyKidzzz said:

I had just seen incidentally on facebook that Jackie had 5 pregnancies and two living children. A miscarriage, a stillborn, a child who lived 39 hours and Caroline and John Jr. And thank God she died before John Jr. did. I'm sure it would have killed her. Losing three is very hard and money and position couldn't help her there for sure. (I'm not a big fan, just saw the bit about the pregnancies yesterday)

I have never been a Jackie "fan" but I always respected her quality as a mother.  She did everything she could to protect her children and to meet their emotional needs.  In spite of her Jetset life when she was Jackie O, she always took time for the kids.  So I agree. John Jrs death would have been too much.

[refugee]

2 hours ago, fundie_grandchild said:

I always found Jackie Kennedy's voice kind of annoying.  I always thought it was an affectation to show how refined she was, especially when she played hostess and showed 'us' around the Whitehouse. 

Have you ever heard that parody of the Kennedy family in the White House? We had it on an LP when I was a little kid. Apparently Vaughn Meader was a Kennedy impersonator comedian.

I think they might have taken the record off the market after the assassination, though. I found it on Youtube just now, it really brings back memories. One of our family quotes is from that album, even though the kids don't know the context, never having heard the original. "I'll have a chicken sandwich with a live chicken!"

It was funny in the context of the whole segment, which had to do with leaders of various nations all gathered together for a working lunch. At least, I *think* it was funny.  (Don't remember for sure, but I do remember adults and teens listening to it laughing like hyenas. I think the voices were quite possibly passable, if not spot on.) It possibly wouldn't be very politically correct today.

We feed the dog raw chicken, bones and all, and when she starts dancing for her dinner, someone invariably says the line. (No live chickens were hurt or killed in the writing of this post...)

 

[Mothership]

vocal fry

The link above is an interesting article about vocal fry which could easily cover baby voice as well.  Among other things it addresses the demographic that finds it "authoratative" and those who find it annoying.

Another article (I'll look again for the link) also discussed that women are judged more for using VF (Kardashians) than men (great example on the link above.

It made me wonder if anyone is impressed with the Michelle baby voice or the Marilyn Monroe/Jackie O breathy voice--or if it is all in the mind of the woman with the voice!

Another example is the Sharon Stone voice--never found it appealing, but it seemed to appearl to men---or so I was told.

[EyeQueue]

6 minutes ago, Mothership said:

vocal fry

The link above is an interesting article about vocal fry which could easily cover baby voice as well.  Among other things it addresses the demographic that finds it "authoratative" and those who find it annoying.

Another article (I'll look again for the link) also discussed that women are judged more for using VF (Kardashians) than men (great example on the link above.

It made me wonder if anyone is impressed with the Michelle baby voice or the Marilyn Monroe/Jackie O breathy voice--or if it is all in the mind of the woman with the voice!

Another example is the Sharon Stone voice--never found it appealing, but it seemed to appearl to men---or so I was told.

I honestly don't see how vocal fry sounds at all "authoritative." I listened to something recently about it (can't remember the source) but this commentator was saying it just made the women who used it (predominantly young women) sound disengaged, disaffected, and world-weary.

I would think disengaged and disaffected is the furthest thing from "authoritative."

I was, however, mortified to hear that I tend toward vocal fry sometimes (and I'm in my early 40s).

[Ungodly Grandma]

8 hours ago, ksgranola1 said:

Yeah, Jackie's baby voice bothered the shit out of me. I thought it was something she learned in "finishing school."

I agree it was a fancy school accent, but it made her sound developmentally disabled!

[Eatingintheprayercloset]

12 hours ago, Mothership said:

This is referred to as Vocal Fry and is an affectation that become ingrained-much like the valley girl upspeak.  Makes me think that the baby voice is the same affectation--one that is intentional for whatever reason (I like the two suggested by Wenny) and becomes the norm.

I have pretty noticeable "vocal fry" and probably some form of valley speak sadly lol (not Kourtney Kardashian bad though). I'm kind of self conscious about it because I I know most people connect vocal fry with intelligence level. 

This is why I try not to bash the J'slaves Ummms, Yeahs, Likes. I had this problem in high school. I don't like to think  it was because I was dumb (graduated top 5% of my class, AP classes, accepted to multiple colleges) but I didn't take an oral language or debating class. Naturally, most people will use filler words when they talk in public settings. Good public speaking is truly an art form! I've taken communication classes in college and got so much better at speaking. Maybe it's something you grow out of eventually? I'm 21 but I notice a lot of my older friends don't really use filler words.

 

 

 

I still think the J'slaves lack of communication skills is due to their lack of education, but I do think there's some "naturally" smart ones in the bunch *coughJanacough* even with their "likes, ums, and yeahs"

 

 

[devoe364]

@EyeQueue I also think that the way Abby speaks to children is abhorent. Reminds me of my meanest gymnastics coach. That said, Sophia Lucia drove me nuts with the baby voice however. So I was happy when Abby addressed it. 

[HarleyQuinn]

I completely forgot about the clusterfuck that was Mary Kay Letourneau. In my trip down memory lane I saw that People Mag did a piece on them last year about their first time, and you know damn well had the genders been swapped, they would never have touched that.

I hate to say, but I agree with the other posts that J'Chelle probably does the baby voice because Boob thinks it's sexy.

[Fundie Bunny]

14 minutes ago, HarleyQuinn said:

I completely forgot about the clusterfuck that was Mary Kay Letourneau. In my trip down memory lane I saw that People Mag did a piece on them last year about their first time, and you know damn well had the genders been swapped, they would never have touched that.

I hate to say, but I agree with the other posts that J'Chelle probably does the baby voice because Boob thinks it's sexy.

Wow. What the fuck? It's fucked up enough without them talking about it.