From Upspeak To Vocal Fry: Are We ‘Policing’ Young Women’s Voices?

Journalist Jessica Grose is no stranger to criticism of her voice. When she was co-hosting the Slate podcast, the DoubleX Gabfest, she would receive emails complaining about her “upspeak” — a tendency to raise her voice at the end of sentences. Once an older man she was interviewing for an article in Businessweek told her that she sounded like his granddaughter.

“That was the first moment I felt [my voice] was hurting my career beyond just irritating a couple listeners,” Grose tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross.

Grose sought help from a voice coach in an effort to make herself sound more professional, but Stanford linguistics professor Penny Eckert argues that women shouldn’t have to change their voices to suit society.