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I know it was Flavor Aid, but Kool Aid flows better...

So my friend scored some Broadway tickets at a deep discount and I ended up seeing Chicago and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The lead of Chicago (Roxie Hart) was played by Angelica Ross, who happens to be a TIM, one I really dislike for one huge reason, but I digress. Aside from the bad storyline, I found his acting to be wooden and unconvincing. I left the theater feeling aggravated

Second came HP, a play which I ended up liking far more than Chicago, but what interested me was how the theater employees were all wearing"ally" and pronoun pins, how there was a sign by the bathroom saying "all gender expressions welcome" and that the play's showbill had pronouns next to the cast members' bios (the Chicago one didn't have this BTW). It was like they were going out of their way to say how much they disagree with JKR's politics. 🧐

Between this and seeing the TIM at the Planned Parenthood wearing a shirt saying "no TERFs" at my local pride recently, I need a time turner myself so I can leave this clown era.

I know it was Flavor Aid, but Kool Aid flows better... So my friend scored some Broadway tickets at a deep discount and I ended up seeing *Chicago* and *Harry Potter and the Cursed Child*. The lead of Chicago (Roxie Hart) was played by Angelica Ross, who happens to be a TIM, one I really dislike for one huge reason, but I digress. Aside from the bad storyline, I found his acting to be wooden and unconvincing. I left the theater feeling aggravated Second came HP, a play which I ended up liking far more than Chicago, but what interested me was how the theater employees were all wearing"ally" and pronoun pins, how there was a sign by the bathroom saying "all gender expressions welcome" and that the play's showbill had pronouns next to the cast members' bios (the Chicago one didn't have this BTW). It was like they were going out of their way to say how much they disagree with JKR's politics. 🧐 Between this and seeing the TIM at the Planned Parenthood wearing a shirt saying "no TERFs" at my local pride recently, I need a time turner myself so I can leave this clown era.

72 comments

[–] GenderHeretic Assigned2LegsAB 12 points Edited

I had a feeling I knew what kind of singers you meant and yep, when I looked it up I was right. Women mock them because they sound god damn ridiculous imitating a female voice with male vocal chords. I had a music teacher in high school who would sing this way, and well, you can imagine teenagers' reactions, even though we all tried to keep straight faces. He'd get really butthurt at the muffled snickering and "brag" (whine) that men's voices have far greater range than women's. While that's true, it's also true that the voice you're putting on sounds indistinguishable from men who are trying to sound comedic.

And the thing is that a lot of men have fantastic high voices. Extremely high voices, too, that make full use of their wider range. It's that just this silly mimicry of women's voices will always draw attention to how their voices don't measure up to what they're imitating.
[–] a-witch-a-broad 4 points

I'm very interested in hearing examples of the sorts of voices you describe -- especially how women would mock countertenors, but also your opinion of what makes a good high male voice.

[–] GenderHeretic Assigned2LegsAB 8 points

I don't want to give examples as it's a matter of opinion and taste and I don't want to get sidetracked into why this or that example is good or bad. The best way I can explain what I mean is how fake a voice sounds, which again is a matter of opinion. Some singing styles (used by both sexes) involve putting on a voice, and sometimes the false or forced quality of it can be quite audible and it rubs me the wrong way (even when the singer is highly acclaimed). It's very noticeable when you compare various singers doing renditions of the same song with the same arrangement.

Men love to do silly, absurdly exaggerated voices when impersonating women, but then you have the male singers who use the same very fake type of voice for serious singing. It's not the high pitch itself, it's the resemblance in character to men's comedic mimicry of women. So we're supposed to laugh along with men when they use a particular voice to mock us, but we're also not supposed to find the exact same type of voice funny anymore when they want us to take it seriously and admire them for it.

If a male high singing voice doesn't sound like when men do an impersonation of a woman as part of a humorous anecdote, then it doesn't sound silly to me.
[–] Understanderson 1 points

It's interesting--there's a lot of overlap for me with the gender thing. Men who sing high but don't try to ape women are the ones I enjoy listening to: Freddie Mercury, Jeff Buckley, Sting--most of them are not classical singers.

Here's an example of a top drawer classical countertenor. He's a stiff, terrible actor and though his voice doesn't have the harsh, edgy sound countertenors often have, there's no way he would have been considered good enough to cast opposite Sonya Yoncheva (the soprano in this video) if he was a woman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuzLj2aoys
[–] RisingUp 1 points

JFC that’s just annoying to listen to! Especially with the faces he’s pulling. I had to turn it off, you wouldn’t know of a version of that song that has two women singing it? It was beautiful apart from his tone.

I also love high male voices in rock music (James from the Manic Street Preachers is one of my favourite voices) but you’re right, that’s men expressing themselves not trying to sound like women.
[–] [Deleted] 2 points

the voice that came to mind for me was Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden. He has a fairly high voice, and it sounds genuine, not artificial in any way
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