“VERBAL HYGIENE” ON THE RADIO: AN EXPLORATION INTO PERCEPTIONS OF FEMALE VOICES ON PUBLIC RADIO AND HOW THEY REFLECT LANGUAGE AND GENDER IDEOLOGIES WITHIN AMERICAN CULTURE

This thesis examines how voice works as an identity marker that reinforces language and gender ideologies, or “common-sense” beliefs about language, within American culture. In particular, it investigates the perception of female voices on public radio. As women’s voices enter the public sphere through an authoritative medium, such as National Public Radio, they challenge traditionally held notions of “good” language use. This project considers expectations of how men and women “should” speak, and how this, coupled with a perceived notion of a “standardized” English language, influences the way public radio listeners construct identity through the disembodied voices of radio. This thesis uses this cultural backdrop to examine how these ideologies lead to overt criticisms of female voices on the radio through acts of “verbal hygiene,” or metacommentaries on language and prescriptions for “good” language use, due to tensions between concepts of authenticity and institutional, or “social," voices, as reflected in both industry and listener constructions of how language “should” be used on public radio in regards to voice and tonality.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Barrett, Jennifer M

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/86340

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/86340