Assuming Biological Responsibility
Thursday, September 7th, 2006We all know what happens when we assume. Well…
Women in almost every culture speak in deeper voices than Japanese women. American women’s voices are lower than Japanese women’s, Swedish women’s are lower than American’s, and Dutch women’s are lower than Swedish women’s. Vocal difference is one way of expressing social difference, so that in Dutch society, which doesn’t differentiate much between its image of the ideal male and the ideal female, there are few differences between male and female voice. The Dutch also find medium and low pitch more attractive than high pitch.
Via Drum, who comments rightly:
Which goes to show how powerfully culture worms its way into things that are widely assumed to be mostly biological. Most people believe that women have higher pitched voices as a matter of simple physiology, but it ain’t so. It’s mostly cultural…
Surely biology impacts voice pitch in terms of the possible range available to an individual, but it’s culture that determines it in the end. So many things are culturally determined. Nature vs nurture? Feh — nature sets ‘em up, nurture hits ‘em outta the park. Or not, depending…
