Now wait. This is a sport's blog, remember?
So what has this to do with sport????
Well i will come to that later. Looking up my notes (the one i made about some 30 minutes ago, to be exact) i saw that after my own personal experience in the last 2 days, i wanted to make a research on that. Always good to turn experience into knowledge. You never know what it might be good for.
After skimming several articles and forum posts, i found out about the following interesting aspects ( i'm adding sources at the bottom of this post, don't want to be sued for plagiarism):
- When a woman and a man out on a first date make small talk, their “antenna” for sex appeal isn’t focused on what the person is saying, but on how they’re saying it.
- Women prefer deeper, more masculine voices. The pitch of the man’s voice is also related to how much testosterone the man had at puberty; women pick up on these testosterone cues on a subconscious level.
- The males of other species develop deep voices to attract women and to intimidate other men. It is possible the human male voice developed for the same reasons.
[Just for the record, not really important for my view on things: after giving birth, women prefer men with higher voices around them. They aren't ready for another encounter- yet.]
If you're a man, you might be interested to read this, from a woman's posting in a body-builder forum:
'I don't care so much how the guy looks- just have a deep, vibrating voice, turn out the lights and i'm ready!' Now really...
- Guys will be delighted to know that there are bloke-centric websites with discussion forums for voice improvement and how effectively they can be used to attract members of the opposite sex. "A man with a low-octave baritone only has to speak one line to draw my attention. With a fine accent, it can sound very sexy," says Pallavi, a student of art.
Men are definitely having it too easy. All you need is to develop a low bariton and women will come and lie at your feet??? Thats just not fair, come on.
Well, draw your own conclusions. I'm certain its not the only thing. If you are a guy and have a voice like a mouse on a bad day, get rich. That helps too.
Well, back to the question of what this has to do with sport. It has actually, with Tennis, precisely. For two days in a row i received what i would call 'an overdose of pheromones through voice'. In other words, i didn't have to sniff on the guy to feel 'high'. I just listened.
For quite some time, i have asked myself how some man's voice over the TV (or livestream) can make half of the women listening faint and the other half wanting to have a child from the guy. Or the other way round. Or both. Or whatever. Not that the man in question is not attractive- but that is not what the girls in the forums are talking about. Only the voice. I'm beginning to understand.
If you are a woman- to you, this man's voice says: 'get ready'. Well it actually uses another word, but since i don't know if you are over 18....well i suppose you get the idea. And what he is really saying are just numbers. Yes, numbers. And we women can become the victim of such a voice faster than you can say supercalifragilisticexpiallydocious (hello Mary Poppins, btw). What can we do??
I have a bad message for you, girls. Nothing. This is something out of our control. To know about something doesn't automatically give you a choice. Its a hormone thing, and you can't escape. Should you ever fall for a guy who is treating you badly, has a notebook with girls names as thick as an encyclopedia and hates his mother just because he has a 'low bariton'....well at least you will know why.
To come to an end, i would like to present an example of the 'low bariton'. Just to make myself clear, i cannot be held responsible for possible female reactions like fainting, tearing clothes off, or running to the next store buying a kilo of chocolate ruining the diet.
Some of my sources for the research:
http://www.kaobie.com/2010/06/deep-male-voice-strong-attraction/
http://nikadon.com/women-prefer-men-with-deeper-voices/
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-09-08/man-woman/28272550_1_voice-body-language-singers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/articles/lifecycle/teenagers/voice.shtml
