Lowering Women's Voice (Literally)

In this seventh episode of A Special Place In Hell, Sarah and Meghan are feeling generous and decided to make the bonus content at the end available to everybody (you are all very welcome)!

But before they get to the extra-spicy stuff, they take on two medium-spicy topics. The first concerns policing; specifically policing women’s voices. Provoked by a tweet from actor Jane Lynch inveighing upon women to speak in lower registers, the women/girls consider why higher pitches—not to mention “uptalk” — is taken less seriously. Meghan, who has spent an inordinate amount of time over the years thinking about vocal intonation, has some things to say about this. She also shares her own struggles with vocal fry. This is an act of radical vulnerability.

The women/girls then move on to one of Sarah’s favorite subjects: why university life has become so lame. Citing a recent article about Stanford’s gradual elimination of student social organizations, she laments the homogenization of social life under the banner of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. On the other hand, Meghan thinks renting bulldozers to lay six inches of sand on the floor of a fraternity house might be a mark of privilege.

Because the co-hostesses realized the bonus content was the best part of the episode, it was decided that the entire episode would be available to the plebs. (#Inclusivity) In the final portion of the show, they discuss a recent New Yorker article about a new dating app for non-monogamous, non-heteronormative people, and Meghan explains why she’d rather look at real estate than use dating apps. They also consider whether women who get cosmetic surgery always do so for the Male Gaze (or someone’s Gaze). Sarah thinks performing for the Gaze is okay, so long as one is honest about it, and wonders if she should invest in a new face.

Relevant links:

• Palladium Magazine, Stanford’s War On Social Life

• The New Yorker, A Hookup App For The Emotionally Mature

• Sarah’s Substack, Hold That Thought

• Meghan’s new society for heterodox women, The Unspeakeasy (Which Stanford would probably ban.)