Brit accents and trusthworthiness

Posted by Word Camel on January 07, 2005

In Reply to: Men in suits posted by ESC on January 07, 2005

: : : : : a phrase alledgedly used by aliens to describe the virtue of earth girls. It is part of a family of expressions like the description of US Army lads in England during WWII "overpaid, oversexed, and over here".
: : : : : Why is it that the girls from far away look so very tasty.... is it the grass is greener syndrome?

: : : : It's not that the girls "from away" are "easy." It is that it is easier for a man to abandon moral restraints when pursuing women who don't remind him of his mother and sisters and the girl-next-door.

: : : It's equally true that having a non-native accent apparently adds to a man's allure - the number of times I have been told in the USA that I'm just like Rupert Everett is ridiculous. Admittedly we're fractionally similar in coloration and diction, but he's apparently about 3 inches taller than me and we don't share the same gender preferences.

: : And you always reminded me of Rhett Butler...

: A memory from my youth. My girlfriend and I met some men with British accents. That and the fact that they were wearing suits with vests made me think that they were absolutely trustworthy. Turns out they were perfect gentlemen. Looking back though, it was probably a little silly to base character analysis on clothes and an accent.

I've notice that whenever the product is expensive or meant to be prestigious, the voice over has an English accent, not necessarily an upper class accent but an educated middle class.

One of the interesting points made during the program the other night was that when appearance and dialect don't match people feel something is wrong. Imagine your brain surgeon with a heavy Texas accent " We're fixin to cut off the top of yer head, then we're gonna root around in thar and see if'n we cain't git that ole tummer" It'd disturb me. Maybe this also accounts for some of GWB's unpopularity with some.

By the way, Rude boy is quite right, a soft celtic accent has been found to be the most non threatening and pleasant with people in the UK. consequently there are banks of call centres staffed by people from Scotland. Not Glasgow, because that's too hard to understand, but Edinburgh has a very nice accent.

• Brit accents and trusthworthiness Rude Boy 07/January/05