the southern accent similar to fingernails on a chalkboard. PS: Most southern women who accentuate their accent are truly full of shit.

I didn't know the information you posted. We tend to think it is the British that use accent to distinguish class. In the good old USA, we like to forget we actually have "classes" and to pretend that anyone can move from dirt poor to filthy rich by dint of hard work.

It is really funny/sad to me to see how the lower classes ape the upper classes and usually get it wrong. It is all for naught because what really determines power in the US is not class but money.

Since we seem to be talking about New York, that accent has been around for over a decade in Westchester County, New York. You know, the one where every statement is intoned as if it were, like, a question? It is an affected accent common among upper class and upper middle class girls from Scarsdale (pronounced "Skerrrsdale") and other "tonier" (pronounced "tunnier") parts of the county. Far from being a display of feigned helplessness, it is in reality a display of faux superiority and social status in much the same way the affected upper class British accent is. It is a variation of the Valley Girl accent, itself affected and unnatural. It is used as an attempt to distinguish the speaker from the women of the working class, who speak in natural womanly voices which sometimes sound a bit harsh with the native New York accent. You would likely hear this accent more often in schools like NYU than in the local community colleges.

I don't know any guy who doesn't despise that accent, because it's like, tutully phunny (totally phoney) and childish? It's as annoying as nails on a chalkboard and I am amazed it is still around, figuring most such women would have grown up or been summarily executed long ago by the people they tortured with their voices. I would imagine most guys prefer the deeper, huskier voices of Eastern European women to that bubbleheaded blathering any day.

As for little girl voices in general, some women just naturally speak in a higher-pitched voice, and college-age women often do not sound as "womanly" as women in their thirties.

If you want to talk about the part of SW that used to belong to Mexico, then it includes Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah -- you get the picture.

However, most Texans don't really think about themselves as being any particular part of the US other than just Texas. Texas used to be a nation. Everytime some people here get really upset about the goings-on in Washington, they talk about succession, pointing out that we have a national constitution and system of government already at hand. However, some of those folks are weird. By their rhetoric, they make the Oklahoma City bombers look liberal.

To make it even more confusing, West Texas is not the western half but that pointy westward tip. The panhandle -- the northern-most part is not North Texas. That would be closer to the Dallas-Fort Worth-Denton area. Sometimes even I get confused.

I just know that no one here makes fun of my accent -- although no one can quite place it. When I lived elsewhere, men loved my accent. Women? Not so much.

and you want to continue that bigotry by doing it yourself? How about being strong and confidant rather than acting like a babydoll just cuz they want it?

I hate hearing mature, strong intelligent working women talk like baby dolls!

It's why men go so crazy for Bjork...

Her music is scary, but she talks like a babydoll

I thought Texas WAS in the Southwestern US. That's just like TExans to have a totally different geography in their mind than the rest of the world!

From the LA Times:

Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo's wife has an outstanding warrant for her arrest for failing to appear in court nearly nine years ago on charges of driving without insurance, with a suspended license and in an unregistered car, court records and officials confirmed Tuesday.

Plus he got her a city car to drive for free.

or sometimes honey, or sometimes even sugar.

It doesn't mean a thing because it's really not about gender. It is more about being Southern. Texas is an interesting case in point because toward the Eastern side of it you get this Deep South sensibility and to the Western side there is more of a cowboy/Western sensibility. The is really no such thing as a standard Texas accent. We can tell each other apart.

When my mother moved from the Southwestern US to Texas, the endearments drove her crazy, and probably because of her voice she was sometimes called sweetie.

My own accent is more Southern. As you move toward West Texas you get the hard nasal twang. To my ears, it can be quite unpleasant, especially if a woman's voice is also loud. I confess that I hate loud in either men's or women's voices. I actually cringe when I hear loud voices. However, because I have taught, I have learned to project my own voice.

People have so many prejudices about voices and accents that are mostly silly. For instance, in academia, people with Southern accents are considered stupid. In the South, New Yorkers are generally considered abrupt and rude.

Over the years, I have come to appreciate variety, both in people's voices and their outward appearance and manners. I try not to prejudge people because people fascinate me. Who knows what I might miss if I let assumptions get in the way.

One thing I enjoy about Salon is that who I am here is somewhat different that who I am in daily life. This is because feminists, religious doubters, and liberals simply could not easily survive in the small town where I have moved. I am here to do a bit of research. Sometime this summer, I plan to go to church. I will put on my best manners. ;)

Here I get to be a BITCH!