Solving women’s voices? A theoretical framework for talking through the algorithm

Abstract

This article offers a four-dimensional framework for analyzing technologies of gendered voice, especially those which have sought to correct or “solve” the supposedly unruly, unpleasant, or otherwise problematic voices of women. While modern technologies such as artificially intelligent assistants Siri and Alexa implement digital algorithms for cultivating feminine voices, this framework insists upon a broad conceptualization of algorithms to consider how predigital technologies and institutions of vocal cultivation also anticipate and echo such contemporary means of vocal norm-production and control. By imagining gendered voice through this broad lens of the algorithm, we can begin to deconstruct the ways in which technologies and institutions of voice have historically operated as algorithms that attempt to “solve” women’s voices by making them amenable to hegemonic, patriarchal values, uses, and ideals. The research builds upon existing communication literature surrounding the nature and functionality of algorithms as well as feminist posthumanist theory, which provides a richer conceptualization of how algorithms of voice enact both a political and material discipline upon women’s voices.