I was, like, oh, my god!

Working at a nearby coffee shop the other day, I overheard the conversation of a young woman on her cell phone. None of the conversation made an impression on me, just the high-pitched, sing-song quality of her voice. Having spent a good part of my life in Southern California, I’m particularly sensitive to this type of voice, and I find it particularly grating. No doubt, CJ will speak this way.

Later on that day, Becky, CJ and I took Heidi for a walk through the dog park. It frequently happens that we would meet strangers at the dog park who would talk to CJ, and such was the case this time. The woman spoke to CJ in a high-pitched, sing-song baby voice, and I suppressed a cringe.

It got me thinking. Becky had introduced CJ as “she.” Would strangers use a different voice if they thought that CJ were a boy?

Of course, we treat infants differently based on our perceived gender of the infant, and the children, in turn, alter their behavior in response. But I’d like to give CJ a chance at some of the “boy” attributes. I’ve decided that, on occasion, we’ll introduce her to strangers as a boy. See what happens. Maybe we can get people to use deep-voiced baby talk, instead of high-pitched baby talk.

Yeah, it’s a losing cause, I know.