As I become, with continuing "culture shock," increasingly accustomed to the "homeland," what the USA powers-that-be now call what we ordinary American citizens once named (far less pretentiously) our "country tis of thee" -- truly a city upon a hill (yes, I repeat, truly city upon a hill; just compare it with others) -- a country which I, with a mixture of hope and regret, left to serve it overseas as an American diplomat for over twenty years) -- I become more and more concerned about the once-lovely American female voice (at least as I perhaps falsely remember it), so enchanting and enticing, being turned into a blackboard chalk screeching, with God's favorite creation (and of course God is a woman) of all minds and beauties now violating their vocal cords in the city upon a hill by
turning their speech into the verbal equivalent of power drills or bulldozers, grinding away rather than enlightening/charming their interlocutors or lovers (lovers -- if such a specie, in our modern world, still exists, male or female) by the softness (soft power?) of their elocution.
I simply find it so unbearable, as an all-USA human being, not specifically "male," to be in a public space in the imperial capital (Washington, D.C.) with acidic voices (especially on cell phones) so sharp, so ear-busting, so offensive to the gentility of speech, as not to express my concern (perhaps shared but not expressed by others of all sexes) in this modest blog.
Of course, in our social-media age, this degeneration of the purity and clarity of the female voice is part of a larger crisis in our American language, which is being replaced by electronic messages nuking the real, human -- and yes, sexual -- sound of our words -- and world.
Women, like all of us, are being exploited.
I added this sentence, of course, in the hope of being considered "politically correct."
No comments:
Post a Comment