America just got exposure to a heretofore unfamiliar patois.
Fundi-baby voice.
We know the "Valley Girl" patois, a voice that drops in and out of vocal fry, that low rattle. There is a Black patois, used in some communities. I have heard people turn it on and off. Steve Harvey, a Black game show host, jokes about it. Holden Caulfield's language in Catcher in the Rye was a mid-century boarding school patois.
"Fundi-baby" is the current term for what we heard Thursday evening. I expect a new, more respectful term will emerge as people realize that Senator Katie Britt wasn't making a mistake. She was talking in the manner of a particular subculture, one that Trump is cultivating. She was talking in code to "her" people.
The Fundi-baby voice is the voice of a fundamentalist Christian mother-homemaker. The voice and manner communicates a woman's primary role as a person who bears children and teaches language and faith to them. It is a way to affirm stay-at-home moms living in traditional, pre-Betty Friedan, pre-feminist, pre-"women's liberation" America. That role and lifestyle is "old fashioned." There are more women in the workforce now than men, and it takes two incomes for most Americans to have a middle class lifestyle. The Fundi-baby voice is a way to show pride and solidarity with that group.
She needed to exaggerate to make her point. She is, after all, a U.S. senator, the very expression of a woman out in the "man's world" of economic and political power. She wanted to make sure that her team understood that, notwithstanding all that, she was still one of them, at home in the kitchen.
Fundi-baby voice is slow-paced, sing-song, child-like speech, exaggerated in its facial expressions and emotion. It is like baby talk, except as spoken to young children learning to read. Remember how you read a Dr. Seuss book to a pre-school child? It's weird when spoken to adults, but less weird if one considers American Sign Language. ASL interpreters use exaggerated facial expressions and big gestures. It is boldly expressive because people not fluent with ASL, and people at the back of the room, may need extra clarity. When Joe Biden spoke beside a barn in Iowa, this woman interpreted.
Kelly Johnson, the wife of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, spoke in Fundi-baby voice in a Fox interview. It was far less exaggerated than Senator Britt 's, but we heard it clearly. The interview on Fox was introduced by asking how she was holding up amid the media's "constant attacks on her family and her Christian faith."
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13 comments:
We shouldn’t make fun or laugh because in general, democrats are respectful of others while republicans seem to think it’s ok to laugh at stuttering or handicap people. As far as morality goes anyone with eyes can see who has the morality high ground. Republicans see the sliver in others eye and miss the log in their own.
I agree that people should not be ridiculed for how they talk, unless they are acting and being fake.
At the same time, women and other marginalized people should be encouraged to find their authentic voice and to speak their authentic truth. Being brain-washed, indoctrinated and socialized from birth to be a second-class citizen dominated by your husband and church is unacceptable.
A great example of this is the brave women who made the docuseries "Escaping Polygamy."
Fortunately, most of us no longer expect black men and Native American men to accept their historically second-class citizen status. The same goes for women and girls. Oppression is oppression. Women's rights are human rights.
Another docuseries, which I haven't seen, is "Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey." Google search for more information. Religion was used to justify the enslavement of black people. It also is used to control and oppress women and girls. Do people not know this by now?
Pete, the SNL parody was very accurate, for satire.
It didn't mock her voice, but the content and her overly dramatic actions.
Friends who have seen the real version and the SNL version have commented how close they were.
Much like Tina Fey's impersonation of Palin.
Or Phil Hartman's impersonation of President Clinton.
Biggs's speech was extremely misleading and inaccurate, but typical GOPee.
"We shouldn’t make fun or laugh because in general, democrats are respectful of others, because we show it by calling Donald Trump the Orange Man"
I forgot to add that Scarlett nailed the impression.
If Biggs is the GOPee's "rising star" she sure flamed out. Perhaps she has never told Ridgeway and the other child about honesty.
She was such a train wreck that I hope TFG picks her as his VP nominee.
Nothing says "mom" quite being a lawyer and a US Senator's chief of staff. Who knows what heights my mom and family would have reached if my mom went in to politics!
We've probably seen as much of Britt's kitchen table as she has.
I haven't seen that particular Documentary, but unfortunately a substantial plurality of the people in this Country think the Suppression and control of women is just fine and dandy. They finally got Roe overturned, are now after drugs like mifeprestone, and rest assured, when Contraception is outlawed, a woman's right to Vote will be next on their agenda.
Has anybody else noted that "Ridgeway" is named after a fictional sadistic Slavecatcher ? From the 2017 novel Underground Railroad ? Personally, I'd name a boy child after just about anybody but a sadist and Slave Catcher, but then, I wasn't raised in Alabama.
Being ridiculed by opponents seems to come with the job in politics. The best mockery Tina Fey did of Sarah Palin was when she quoted Palin word for word. Sometimes politicians are parodies of themselves.
In announcing that Katie Britt would give the party response, Mitch McConnell called her “an unapologetic optimist.” I sure didn’t hear much of that. She called attention to a number of problems, but offered little in the way of solutions. Ironically, what she focused on the most was the border, a problem Republicans had just refused to address. Maybe the mockery is warranted.
Katie Britt is 42 years old, she's from Alabama, she's never held any political office before, and most of her professional experience has been working on the staffs of other politicians. I consider her to be a "lightweight". She has limited life experiences. She's certainly not in the intellectual league of some senior Senators.
I believe that she was chosen to do the State of the Union response because she portrays the "average" housewife. She's young and she has little children. She's more relatable to to a younger female voter than an old, male politician would be. That's who the GOP is trying to appeal to.
I only viewed part of her speech, and I was turned-off by her "dramatics". She sounded like "Daisey Mae" from the "Lil' Abner" comic strip. I guess that she was trying to appeal to the female voters in Mississippi. It sounded like she "dumbed-down" her message. Personally, I would have preferred a hard-hitting response from Ted Cruz over a Daisey Mae impersonator. It appeared that the GOP was trying to showcase their newest member, and to appeal to females. They could have done better.
Searching on-line I see "fundie" and also "fundy" baby voice. "Weak men fear strong women."
March, which is Women's History Month, is a great time to learn about the accomplishments and contributions of women of all backgrounds and circumstances who came before us. We stand on their shoulders and we thank them.
Consider Scarlett's impersonation used this voice, it didn't name it.
In fact, I'm sure this manner of speaking has another name that's not as insulting. Maybe a stage whisper?
Renaming it to appear derogative has come through social media, not SJ.
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