cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/43713029
Some idiot told me that I don’t talk like a woman, that I talk like a man. Not that my voice sounds masculine (it doesn’t) but that I “use masculine words or phrases” what the fuck does that even mean?
If there’s a better community to post this please let me know and I’ll delete this and post it again there.
Edit: They aren’t a man, they’re a woman. She definitely gave off the JK Rowling TERF vibes though.
Crossposted this here just in case anyone here has anything to add the the other community didn’t say. I know trans experiences can bring new perspectives.
There’s a pernicious bit of socialization where women are often stymied from being directly assertive. Often they are rewarded for concensus seeking behaviour - euphemism, gentle value neutral phrasing, permission seeking, not interrupting and ceeding the floor. This socialization pattern rewards quiet and service in favour of other people’s emotions often at the direct cost of one’s own.
It’s not a good thing because it trains women to conveniently fade into the background, never center themselves publicly and builds in an instant hesitation every time they speak that takes years of work to undo. It’s effectively the female version of the socialization of men to never express their emotional needs except through anger. In this version one is denied anger or any form of strong self advocacy instead limiting women to a toolbox of subtle manipulations. It fucks women up.
If that is what was intended by this person it’s a very shitty standard to hold women to and they are a misogynistic prick. You are better off without that baggage.
Many cis women have been getting shit for that sort of thing forever. Women will never be woman enough until they 100% fit into what the patriarchy says they should be, voice mannerisms included.
You’re a real woman, and these people will never take that from you 🫂
It means that person is an emotional child who is not worth your time. They are afraid of you, and are threatened, and not attracted to that kind of strength.
I however, am, and am not attracted to any woman I’m not afraid of.
So, watcha doin’ later…?
Well, while it is true that the way a person speaks isn’t a guarantee of anything, there are patterns and mannerisms that are more or less common along gender lines.
The biggest one you’ll see talked about is active vs passive voice. On average, men are more likely to use the active, women the passive. Again, it isn’t some kind of built in inevitably, I’ve never seen any research that indicates causation with any degree of certainty that’s believable
But it is part of some speech therapy programs for trans people, most commonly trans women.
Webster’s has a good explanation, but I’ll lift their example out of laziness in case nobody wants to read it.
It’s about verb vs subject. Active voice is “Jerry threw the ball”. Passive would be “the ball was thrown by Jerry”. Now, in writing, each has a use and choosing one or the other wouldn’t necessarily mean anything about the author. But, in speech, (again, on average) men will use the active voice more than women, when either would work equally well to convey the matter.
And there are also turns of phrase that have some degree of prevalence along gender lines. There’s minor differences in adjective and adverb usage. There’s even some general patterns in cursing. Best example that I know of is that men are something like twice as likely to say something is bullshit rather than just calling it stupid or even wrong.
None of that is 100% though. And, to the best of my reading on it over the years, it seems to be either predominantly, or fully a learned thing. When someone internally identifies as a boy or man, they’ll pick up those gender norms. The same is true for those that internally identify as girl or woman. So the details of exactly what patterns exist will differ between languages and cultures, but people tend to gravitate to the patterns of their gender identity.
It’s a really fascinating piece of human behavior, and language acquisition in specific.
Probably also a cultural thing, have you heard Irish people? I’m sure the “manly speech” guy would say Irish women also speak manly.
Oh hell yeah! On each side of my family, we’ve got Irish and Scots-Irish ancestry. The women in our family are fairly well known for “plain speaking”. Or, in the case of chauvinists and misogynists, not knowing their place. One particular branch, there’s a reputation for it enough that “sounding like a last name” is a local saying.
From what I’ve seen in documentaries and on YouTube, it very likely is something that’s been passed down
maybe that person thinks like whoever made this meme