3 ms·
This is something that I suspect could never be won. Female voices perpetuate the stereotype of a servile woman. Male voices perpetuate the stereotype of a man
by misnome 7y ago
This is something that I suspect could never be won. Female voices perpetuate the stereotype of a servile woman. Male voices perpetuate the stereotype of a man being more authoritative. A Gender neutral voice will have people queuing up to claim it's not neutral enough, with a long list of specific sounding edge cases arguing that it falls into either of those camps.
FWIW In my language (British) Siri is male by default, as it is apparently in Arabic, Dutch and French also.
- ksaj 7y agoIf Siri used a female voice in some countries/kingdoms, it would possibly be a punishable offense. I'm unaware of cultures where the reverse may be true. It's quite a quirk. Why doesn't Siri et al have a circular slider like some of the digital music synths have, where the sound coordinates are wood, string, glass and metalic, along with other timbre controls on the side to allow emulation of just about every instrument you can imagine. One axis for voice pitch, and the other for softness. Done. Everyone's happy then.
- belorn 7y agoSiri is default male for Arabic, French, Dutch and British English. From countries where those languages are used, how many do you think have laws that make a female Siri illegal? Arabic, French, Dutch and British English speakers are a rather large portion of the total customer of devices with Siri. If we don't count the US market, male is likely the default in the majority of sold apple devices.