And that was like, so totally uptalk?
Think of your stereotypical teen movie. One of the ones where the new girl falls in love with the quarterback. Now think of a classic romantic comedy. There’s a kiss in the rain and some sort of holiday is celebrated. Chances are you have a mean girl in both (it’s a fact of life that women can’t fall in love without competing for it first). There’s also some sort of ditzy female sidekick character. Both the mean girl and the one-dimensional airhead probably both tend to talk like this? Like every sentence ends sorta higher than it started? And they like, say like? And generally undermine all of their own thoughts? The supporting character is more likely to fall victim of the latter.
This style of speaking is often categorized as “valley girl” although it can also be known as uptalk. One prolific example of this is the trio from Mean Girls: Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried), and Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert). However, this character trait can be demonstrated by a wide variety of female characters across several medias. That makes sense seeing as real young women do it as well. But why has it been so popularized by film and media?
This style of speaking portrays women as less intelligent and submissive. It fulfils the rule of the patriarchy that outlines that women must not speak in a stern tone of voice.
According to data found in a New York Times article entitled “Overturning the Myth of Valley Girl Speak,” men regularly use uptalk as well. The problem here is that women use it twice as much, and are (perhaps therefore) the ones being mocked for it. It is a frequent media trope to portray a one-dimensional filler character (that’s typically female) as ignorant using this Valley Girl style of talking.
In a New York Times article title “Why Young Girls Don’t Think They Are Smart Enough” the writers state that young girls start to doubt their intelligence as early as age six. They are trained to believe a stereotype before they have time to develop as people. Viewing these female characters that seem to be unsure of themselves may teach young (particularly female) viewers to second guess themselves. Young women in particular seem to be told to take up as little space as possible and to be submissive toward others. Opinionated women are labeled as bossy or aggressive. It might seem easier for women to portray every thought they had as a submissive inquiry as opposed to a well-organized and articulate statement.
In another New York Times article, “They’re, Like, Way Ahead of the Linguistic Currrrve,” evidence is provided that shows uptalk is moving up the imaginary hierarchy of dialects, not down. Grandparents, professors and professionals all use this style of speech that initiated with young women. It’s casual and puts no pressure on either the speaker nor the listener. In a sense, uptalk is a more relaxed style of speech. This passivity might be seen as a more relaxed way of communicating without being aggressive. This might make uptalk more popular as it is useful in a creative way.
