Back in my all-female college a cappella days, "man voice" was a talent. We needed it to make our soprano-heavy melodies more full and to keep our faithful fans more plentiful than those of our intra-campus competitors. The rich, soulful dooby-doo's and num num nums made our renditions of songs like, "It's Raining Men", "Torn" and "Son of a Preacherman" more entertaining than they perhaps should have been. (Supplemented of course by artful, arm-waving and knee-dipping choreography.)

We couldn't get enough of the man voice. I remember that having a cold or sore throat automatically made any of us eligible to belt out the low notes. And some of our man voices could go more than an octave below middle C, if not lower on a particularly phlegmy day.

"I feel like crap, I'll sing man voice today."

I never took it seriously though. The vocal stylings of a woman trying to sound mannish always seemed laughable, honestly.

But now I find myself in an uncomfortable position. I'm told that if I want to be taken seriously in my profession--that is of a broadcast journalist--I need to lower my speaking voice and sound, well, as much like a man as possible.

Culture and society look upon older (or older-sounding) as wiser--and for good reason. The more productive years one has on this planet, the more experience they have. A wet-behind-the-ears rookie reporter is of course going to have less credibility than a veteran journalist.

"Young women have it tough," they say. But aren't we supposed to be ourselves? Isn't the enforced uniformity of broadcast delivery what makes the news so shallow these days? Telling young women to lower their voices and sound like "experienced" broadcasters makes us less like ourselves and more like a borg drone. Perhaps my notion that people want to get their news from people who sound like actual human beings is too subversive or rebellious...but I suspect not...

In any case, I've been told that smoking is a good way to lower my voice. The day I take up that foul habit for the sake of my career is the day I'll ask someone to shoot me right between the eyes.

I understand people don't want their news delivered by someone who sounds like a five-year old, or who sounds like a high school senior doing an internship. But I like to think that my style of communication is trustworthy, even if a little higher in pitch...