Eeeeeeeeeeeek!!!! Or, how many people actually scream?

[swan_tower]

A couple of hours ago I asked on Twitter how women react when they see something terrible. My proximate reason for asking was that I’ve discovered Netflix has Murder, She Wrote available streaming; in watching it, I’ve been reminded of the standard-issue scream uttered by women in TV and movies when they find a dead body. You know the one: hands to the cheeks, mouth and eyes wide in horror, a high-pitched and wordless shriek coming from her mouth.

It’s always seemed weird to me because I don’t do that. Okay, to be fair, I’ve never come across a dead body. But I have accidentally lit myself on fire — my clothing, anyway — and my reaction at the time was to bellow “FUCK!” at the top of my lungs while beating at the flames with my other sleeve until they went out. The top of my lungs . . . but not the top of my range. Same thing when my husband accidentally kicked my badly-sprained toe, causing me no small amount of pain. I don’t scream so much as yell, often with a great deal of profanity.

So I posted on Twitter because I wanted to know: how many women out there do scream at such things? Is it the majority, and I’m a weird outlier, or is that just a convention of media that doesn’t happen so much in real life? Twitter anecdata thus far suggests a moderately even split; there are definitely women who do the high-pitched wordless shriek thing, but not an overwhelming majority by any means. (Also, at least one guy has testified to uttering a scream of his own when subjected to sudden pain.) It seems the trope isn’t unfounded, then, but it’s also not universal. Which, because I’m an anthropologist at heart, means I’m now wondering whether that reaction has become less common over time (as women are no longer socialized in the same way as thirty or fifty years ago) and whether our media depictions have changed as well.

I have no idea. But it’s interesting to think about, because the standard-issue scream has always felt so very fake to me.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[starlady]

I'm betting socialization all the way. Women don't faint at the drop of a hat anymore, either--though obviously the tightness of corsets was a contributing factor in that cultural meme.

[genarti]

I'm betting socialization too.

I've never come across a dead body, I admit, nor that kind of visceral awful shock. But my reaction to being badly startled or stubbing my toe badly is to catch my breath silently -- not to freeze up physically, but vocally I do. (And then I maybe hiss a swear word under my breath, even though I rarely swear.) That's quite possibly significantly influenced by socialization too, of course. But I can't picture myself screaming like that without consciously deciding to and working up to it.

[green_knight]

I suppose it's like the typical movie whinny. Horses do make that noise, but only under particular circumstances. Apart from one horse I knew who'd stand in the pasture whinnying his heart out, ready for the Big Screen, for no discernible reason at all.

[lizvogel]

Wandering in a bit late, but...

Sudden pain gets loud profanity from me, at roughly my normal speaking register. Crisis-surprise, however (which I suspect is the category that finding a dead body would fall under) gets a very calm, very matter-of-fact tone, like normal conversation only more deadpan.

For example, when crossing the top of the Blue Water Bridge one day:
Me: Oh dear.
Passenger: What?
Me: ...We have no brakes.

I'm reasonably sure I'm an outlier in this. ;-)

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

I'm more the "sharp intake of breath" type, unless I'm also experiencing pain and frustration, in which case it's the loud profanity.

[scribblemyname]

Pain, shriek
Startled, surprise, fear, yell unless I was startled while walking, trying to navigate, then somewhere between or a squeal

[gelsey.livejournal.com]

I shriek when startled. However, my mother has the most glorious horror scream when scared. Not high pitched at all, but genuine horror filled. It usually comes out when I accidentally scare her while she's vacuuming. I wish I could record it for you.

However, if I'm trying, I do have a lovely blood curdling scream. However I've never used it when genuinely frightened.

[aedifica]

I'm actually trying to train myself into screaming when scared-startled, because I think it would be useful (that is, I think it would be more noticed) when I'm biking and a car didn't see me. My natural reaction seems to be a brief wordless yell, which I'm trying to nudge into a scream.

[marycatelli]

Of course, there is also the question of whether those women constitute a plurality. If it's the commonest reaction, that would explain it -- even before it turns into a trope that we can all read as short-hand.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

I occasionally shriek or yelp if I'm startled--unexpected snakes or scorpions, etc. In case of surprising pain I'll usually bellow and swear. I have never screamed, not had the instinct to.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I yell shit or fuck, don't scream. I've also noticed over the years when monitoring the schoolyard that little girls somehow learn early that shrill shriek that usually means "Look at MEEEE!"

[cgbookcat1.livejournal.com]

I also have a "sharp intake of breath," which may or may not be followed by a yelp or quiet profanity.

[edenfalling]

When startled/scared or mildly hurt, I tend toward a short, wordless yell that almost immediately segues into either cursing or annoyed laughter, depending on what the stimulus was. Really bad pain generally knocks me silent for a few seconds so all I can do is suck in my breath and sort of wheeze; then I segue into curses.

[sovay]

So I posted on Twitter because I wanted to know: how many women out there do scream at such things?

I yell with pain, but not with surprise or horror, and it is definitely lower-pitched than the classic horror scream. The one time my sleeve caught on fire while cooking, I was talking to derspatchel; I believe I said, ". . . and I'm on fire," and held my arm under the tap until the flames went out. When really terrible things happen, I tend to shift into crisis mode, which does not have time for shrieking.

Which, because I’m an anthropologist at heart, means I’m now wondering whether that reaction has become less common over time (as women are no longer socialized in the same way as thirty or fifty years ago) and whether our media depictions have changed as well.

I have always assumed it was socialized behavior. In tenth grade, I was one of two girls in a roughly fifty-fifty mixed-gender classroom who did not scream or flinch back or otherwise show signs of distaste and alarm when one of the crayfish we were studying suddenly flicked its tail, scattering tepid pond water across the lab bench. Even then, it seemed improbable to me that all of the other girls were really scared of the crayfish and none of the other boys weren't startled.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I was disturbed to discover that I did make a horrible high-pitched keening noise when my pre-vocal daughter did heart-stopping things like fall down the stairs. It's not quite the cinematic scream, but I think if I tried to do it on purpose I might end up with that instead.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

I'm on team "sharp intake of breath". If there's sudden pain, generally "Ow!" If I'm startled by something touching me unexpectedly or suddenly looming into view as though it might fall on me, I flinch violently away from it but don't usually make any noise.

[lowellboyslash.livejournal.com]

I am definitely of the "yell obscenities in a loud voice and in my chest register" persuasion when faced with something upsetting. If sufficiently startled, I also tend to punch first and yell second, which... can sometimes have unfortunate results. Every once in a while, I do a high-pitched "Eep!" instead, but definitely not that television scream.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I'm not a screamer. I yell, or usually remain silent (while still having the shocked or scared physical responses of shaking or freezing or whatever).

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

It depends on what it is. I've shrieked when startled, but I think this is in part my PTSD, because I also go into hypervigalence/self-defense mode. When I was 15, I dropped a wine glass on my food, causing a 3" long by 2" wide (guesstimating from memory) gash. I looked down, went, "Well fuck," and then went to the bathroom to start doing first aid. My sister nearly passed out when she saw the blood, when I asked her to call my parents' cell phone, she started wavering, I sighed and said, "Give me the phone," called my parents and explained the situation while cleaning the wound. I then had argue with Mom, who is a nurse, that "well, butterfly closures should handle it." I said, "No. We are going to urgent care. I am getting stitches. This is not up for debate." (I was an easy-going teen, so if I said something like that? There were reasons.)

I've had sharp intakes of breath but those have usually been shock at reading or hearing something really fucking horrible. For the most part, my reaction is not to scream. Granted, after the DSHS psych eval for disability cash assistance, which was stressy and in-depth enough to be actively massively triggering, I went out to the car, told my fiance to cover his ears, and just started screaming. It was not pleasant.

But horror movie type screams? No, I'm pretty sure my reaction to finding a dead body would be, "Well, shit, that's different." Really, being startled is the thing that tends to get a reactive shriek from me, but that's... really the only situation I can think of that being the case for.