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"Sexy baby voice" is an English language speech pattern or sociolect, first described by U.S. media in 2013, in which young women affect the high-pitched voice of pre-pubescent girls. Actress Lake Bell popularized the term with her 2013 film In a World..., and subsequently gave various interviews on the speech pattern.
The speech patterns at issue are described as sounding "like Minnie Mouse on helium",[1] or a "mousy squeak [with a] handful of gravel tossed across the very top of the register".[2] Actress Lake Bell described the style as an amalgamation of "valley-girl voice" (characterized by "upspeak" and vocal fry) and high pitch.[1]
"Sexy baby voice" is controversial in discussions about gender equality and related issues. Bell[3] and others have argued that the use of "sexy baby voice" demeans the speaker, who appears as a "submissive 12-year-old trying to be a sex object",[2] or that its use in film and television exploits contemporary culture's "fetish for adult sexuality wrapped in adolescent packages".[4]
Others questioned the purpose of critiquing the speech pattern, asserting that "picking at the vocal quirks of your own gender is just as much of a nuisance as harping on the bodies that belong to them".[2] Phonetician Mark Liberman wrote that it was not clear that the discussion about "sexy baby voice" referred to a specific speech pattern rather than just "a long list of things about various female-associated vocal features that people don't like". He also noted previous discussions about similar female speech patterns in earlier decades, such as a controversy about "uptalk" in the 1990s.[5]
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