5 ms·
An interesting take on how “feminine voice” assistants can hardwire sexism
- twodave 8y agoWhy are we trying to remove gender from everything? It’s one of the great things in life! Our differences should be appreciated, not ignored and certainly not attacked.
- PaulHoule 8y agoIt's funny. Look at science fiction voice assistants and you will find many male voices such as KITT, Jarvis, etc. Cortana, Siri, Alexa and others I know are female and I wonder why. I know the spectral content and legibility of male and female voices are different, but I do wonder if people feel more comfortable with a female in a "servant" roles and have the same kind of fear of men that many people have towards black people. The evidence is clear that both boys and girls benefit from male role models. Having a actively involved father is great, but it is also good to have male teachers and caregivers at the preschool and K-6 levels. Preschools that hire male workers, however, find it is just a matter of time before somebody is like "yikes! they have a male working there!" and a complaint of sexual abuse is filed. Often these turn out to be groundless, but it can be a big burden on an organization that isn't equipped to handle it. Although you still hear the broken record that the educational system discriminates against women, and it probably does in some way, women are getting better results today from preschool to the PhD. I think growing up in a female-dominated space might be teaching boys that education is a "girl thing" the same way that many black people have gotten the idea that education is a "white thing" Most commercial voice synthesizers have multiple voices, both male and female -- I don't think they do it for "political correctness", I think they just figure people want a choice. Why don't voice assistants give us that choice?