# The female scream

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-female-scream/262622>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 1, 2004, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-female-scream/262622 "2004-09-01T19:20:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-female-scream/262622/21 "2004-09-02T14:54:20Z")

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I always thought of it as a hey-everyone-look-at-me kind of thing.

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**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-female-scream/262622/22 "2004-09-02T16:26:21Z")

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Ask Howard Dean why men don’t scream when excited.

Unless one is going for the rebel yell or the Tejano whoop, screaming in excitement tends to make a man look ridiculous. Not that the rebel yell or Tejano whoop _won’t_ necessarily make you look ridiculous, mind you.

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**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-female-scream/262622/23 "2004-09-02T17:17:15Z")

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The Hollywood Scream: As a kid, the scream of one of the men on the tree bridge in the b/w version of King Kong haunted me.

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**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-female-scream/262622/24 "2004-09-03T00:54:38Z")

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I scream. Not some low-register hollow bellow either. I’ve screamed at movies, at pain, in pure furious anger… in frustration or fear.

Dunno. I think I’m a guy. Don’t think that screaming in head voice makes me less of a guy.

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**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-female-scream/262622/25 "2004-09-03T01:31:56Z")

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If a man screams like that, people will think he’s an '80s heavy metal singer 😉  
At my last job, my [female] boss asked me about the male customers:

Boss: “Why do men always say ‘hello’? ‘Hello.’” (She pronounced “hello” with very clipped syllables.) “All these guys do that!” she said.

Me: Because men sound silly if they say, ‘Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!’" (me going falsetto and really drawing out the “iiiiiiiii”, doing a pretty good impression of my boss…)  
As to the shrieking, I try to avoid being in the same bar with a group of women celebrating one of their birthdays…

But I noticed this phenomenon way back when I was a little boy. I had been invited to a birthday party for a neighbor girl a bit younger than me. She opened one present, and it was a Baby Tenderlove™ doll, and she let out the most ear-splitting shriek you ever want to hear. Now, had I received something that I really really really wanted, I’d have said, “All right!” Not, “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

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