One of the worst offenders of this trend is Jane Velez Mitchell
Ahhh but you are forgetting the most trusted therapy of them all: time.
That’s what the doctors mean when they call teen-age a “self-limiting disease”
Mae West didn’t have creaky voice. She purred. 
Since I read this thread a while ago, I’ve noticed a lot of vocal fry in women around me. One thing I’m noticing is that it is very contagious - I have to consciously not imitate them.
This 60-Second Science podcast about vocal fry is kinda meta.
Now, will somebody explain the whole “valley girl” thing? What valley?
Well, I am glad there is a name for this annoying affectation.
I have noticed it in some people for about 10 years. Seems to be an effort for the speaker to achieve empathy with the listener when speaker has a low self esteem or feels submissive .
Eeeew. Like, totally gross.
Thanks. I should have googled it; I’d just never heard the expression before.
This whole thread is based on a mistake. The original report linked in the OP mischaracterizes the research very badly. There is no “creeping in” of vocal fry. It has always been here.
Even though the phenomenon has always existed, I (for one) was never aware of it in anyone I know IRL. I first noticed it in Melissa Block on NPR’s All Things Considered. Now I hear it in many of NPR’s young-ish women reporters. The point of this thread isn’t the creep, it’s the aggravation the practice produces in the ears of the listener. There’s no mistake about that.
I don’t care about the accuracy of the research. I only put that in there to kick off the conversation and to describe the practice for those who had heard it but didn’t know what to call it.
The San Fernando Valley — essentially the northern suburbs of Los Angeles and the capital of the porn industry.
[amateur psychologist]The reason that vocal fry, valley girl dialect, and upspeak are annoying to some people is the practitioners are mindlessly joining a group to gain a feeling of belonging by adopting behavior that has no intrinsic value but serves to tie them to the group. The demographic who has the most intense need to belong to a group are the 12-24 age range, an age when people are still developing their identity. Not having established their own identity, they use the identity of a group as a substitute. Males and females both do things to belong to a group including fashion, hair, and manner of speech, but the males tend to form a different group (“Dude!”) than the females (“Oh! My! God!”) It is annoying to those who are not part of the group and who are put off by the very need to conform. This annoyance may be intensified in those who passed through exactly the same phase and are painfully reminded of their own awkward youth when they see others in the same state.[/amateur psychologist]
Aside from the vivid demo, the valley is the San Fernando Valley outside L.A.
I’ve also read or heard that girls/women think they will have more credibility if they pitch their voices lower than is natural, which is prolly why one hears it so much from NPR reporters. I think that might be true up to a point… I mean a high-pitched, squeaky, girly cartoon voice reporting from a war zone or from the Supreme Court might not necessarily inspire confidence. But pitching your voice unnaturally low so it sounds like a robot growl is going too far in the other direction.
It’s possible to pitch your voice lower but if you do it, you also have to support the tone with the diaphragm. That’s what voice coaches teach you. If you don’t, and you just push the air out with your throat, then you get fry.
There ya go!
This thread has made me notice it more, too, but I’ve also noticed that men do it as well. It’s not a female-only phenomenon, it’s just not as noticeable in men since their voices are low, and some men have naturally (or unnaturally via smoking) raspy voices to begin with.
I think Moon Zappa is hot. Wow.
Is pointing out vocal fry the new slut-shaming?!
Being annoyed by speech patterns is just being annoyed and doesn’t pass judgment on the morality of the subject. So, no. BTW I didn’t know there was an *old *slut-shaming as a particular thing other than the usual that’s been going on forever.