GUEST POST from Don – Affectation

AFFECTATION

Recently I have given significant thought to affectation.  All of my life I have understood it and refused to be emotionally swayed by it.  (It is very emotionally based, by the way).

Growing up going to church there was the “preacher voice” and the “prayer voice.”
Then in school there was the “teacher voice.”
At the doctor’s office, ophthalmologist, and the dentist there was the “medical voice.”
In college and beyond there was the “professor voice” (which was different from the “teacher voice).

In every case, the VOICE was used and tended to imply authority (power), and even encourage obedience.  There are more.

There are those women who insist on using the “strong woman voice” to deflate anyone they deem to be sexist (whether or not they actually are, and no matter what sex they claim as their own).

There is the “gay male voice” which, although it does not seem powerful, is altogether as powerful and demanding of obedience as any other.

I’m sure you would recognize the “protester voice” or the “telemarketer voice.”  These are voices which play with your emotions, right?  Who doesn’t want to contribute to the “Sheriff’s Fund?”  Who doesn’t want to join the “2, 4, 6, 8” chant?

I’m not the only one who notices VOICE:
An Algorithmic Investigation of the Highfalutin ‘Poet Voice’
Research suggests that the affected reading style consists of a particular set of attributes.
by Cara Giaimo, Atlas Obscura

Can I admit I know a published poet?  (I have a signed copy of at least one of his published works).  You can look for his poems, but they are relatively unknown.  When talking with “Bill” (name changed) he does talk differently (slightly), but when he reads anything his VOICE is there.

Affectation is rampant in America.  Especially in politics, when a politician appears before a mostly black crowd or a mostly Hispanic crowd suddenly he or she takes on the affectation (or assumed affectation) of the crowd.  It speaks strongly and emotionally.  Politics is all about power, emotion, and obedience.

RESIST.

My first comment about listening to one who uses an affectation is to Resist allowing it to change your opinion or decisions.  Affectation is an attempt to CONTROL you.  It is intended to grab your EMOTIONS.  It is intended to make you SUBMIT.  Let me say, you are allowed to permit another to control you and make you submit if you decide that’s in your own best interests, but it should be an educated and thoughtful choice.  Don’t allow another to steal what isn’t theirs merely by using a tone or voice of authority.

Resist that “mom voice” or “dad voice” in your head.  (If you are not an adult maybe you should listen carefully, but once an adult the voice becomes something less outside and more inside).  “Don’t make me come back there!”  

Authoritative voices are important.  If they are people with YOUR best interests at heart you should not dismiss them outright.  However, if they are attempting to sway you to following a path you have not chosen to take, you should resist and consider.  So, your doctor tells you to stop eating “pig chips” for your health, you should evaluate whether the doctor is “just doing A job” or “concerned about YOU.”  I recommend “pig chips” may not be in your own best interest.  (Further, I doubt the doctor is heavily invested in a company which sells a rival “horse chips” product.)

Your professor may be a blowhard about “macro ebtronical symbolistic synergy” (I thought, “There’s no such thing,” but then I realized that someone might be “professorizing” just that concept somewhere in academia).  However, it also may be in your own best interest to get a good grade.  Get the grade and avoid that professor’s courses in the future.

The point is that what the VOICE tells you may not be what’s best for you.  Think it through.

DELETE.

My second comment is that you should avoid AFFECTATION when you speak.  Use the common tongue.  Say things in words understood by the man or woman on your street.  You will notice that most telecasters (who are paid big bucks for the job) and advertisers speak mostly Midwestern English.  They don’t sound like preachers, teachers, doctors, or gays.  They don’t sound like the affectations of ethnic groups.  They sound common, natural.  (Although, if you listen carefully they also have a “voice.”  They are selling something, like news or a product.)

So, listen, think, and delete your know-it-all voice, your dad voice, your mom voice, your medical voice, your ethnic affectational voice.  Just speak.

I find that when “I’m in Rome” I speak Italian (actually I moved to below the Mason-Dixon line and they do talk a bit differently.  For example, “Bless his heart” comes up when there is someone who irritates).  It irritates me that I can’t stay true to Midwestern English without conscious thought.  They change me.  

Well, I’m kind of glad to admit that change is possible.  It is not a VOICE of affectation that changes me but an honest desire to be with the people with whom I associate.  It is a conscious and intentional being with.  None are attempting to play with my emotions.  None are attempting to gain power over me.  They aren’t demanding compliance.  They are just being themselves.  That makes my desire to be like them OK.  That is “something almost, but not quite entirely unlike tea” (or like affectation … assuming the “preacher voice,” etc.)  [Quote is from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy].

Copyright 2025 Donald Whelpley

[PLEASE NOTE that Don is always open to discussing the thoughts and opinions he shares here and welcomes comments as shared in the comment section. He doesn’t use other social media platforms and won’t see whatever you’d like to share with him if you post it elsewhere.
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