It was ages before I understood what vocal fry was. I’d keep reading about it and what an absolutely awful thing it was, but any examples cited were unfamiliar to me, due to my age and terminal unhipness. I finally found out when a podcast I’d started listening to regularly did a piece on it and pointed out that one of the presenters had it. I was, like, “Huh? That’s the big deal? I do that myself, sometimes.”
Now I notice it all the time, and yeah, it’s as much men as women who do it, but it’s not that big a deal. I’m more annoyed at myself for noticing it than at people for doing it.
