Re:Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
by freshhawk on Monday October 17, 2011 @02:48PM
(#3121840)
> marketers have an easier time finding a universally
> likeable female voice than a male one
This article could have shorter, the rest of it seems to spend half the time explaining why it's ok to discount conflicting evidence and the other half throwing out conjecture on why the premise of sexism might possibly be slightly accurate.
Is it really that weird that different cultures end up with different genders for a friendly, non-judgemental, disembodied and slightly inhuman mechanical voice? How weird would it be if there was no cultural preference? If the preference was always 50.0/50.0? Now that would be unlikely!
There are so many factors here, some of which are, no doubt, cultural stereotypes about gender. Doesn't it seem more likely that the "friendly" and "non-judgemental" part is the stereotype? Even if it's not, since the author makes it clear this is an open question why are all the options twisted into an anti-women stereotype?
> This dovetails with the way stereotypes
> work; our prejudices make us dislike hearing
> a man go about secretarial work
Are you fucking kidding me? That's a stretch for an explanation of why men and women find the women's voice more likeable. Why not the much more likely Loving Mother stereotype? Sure, it's all conjecture and that's fine, but the author has clearly made up her mind that this is sexist and is trying to figure out why. That seems backwards if you are interested in truth.
> likeable female voice than a male one
This article could have shorter, the rest of it seems to spend half the time explaining why it's ok to discount conflicting evidence and the other half throwing out conjecture on why the premise of sexism might possibly be slightly accurate.
Is it really that weird that different cultures end up with different genders for a friendly, non-judgemental, disembodied and slightly inhuman mechanical voice? How weird would it be if there was no cultural preference? If the preference was always 50.0/50.0? Now that would be unlikely!
There are so many factors here, some of which are, no doubt, cultural stereotypes about gender. Doesn't it seem more likely that the "friendly" and "non-judgemental" part is the stereotype? Even if it's not, since the author makes it clear this is an open question why are all the options twisted into an anti-women stereotype?
> This dovetails with the way stereotypes
> work; our prejudices make us dislike hearing
> a man go about secretarial work
Are you fucking kidding me? That's a stretch for an explanation of why men and women find the women's voice more likeable. Why not the much more likely Loving Mother stereotype? Sure, it's all conjecture and that's fine, but the author has clearly made up her mind that this is sexist and is trying to figure out why. That seems backwards if you are interested in truth.