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One attribute that I haven't seen mentioned yet is voice. A man with a deep voice absolutely will get more attention than their peers, while a high and/or nasal voice (male or female) can be a significant handicap. A bit of training can help, but to a large extent these are innate and immutable characteristics that can effect career (and romantic) trajectories.



Some languages or accents within languages make this problem worse or ameliorate it. It's better to be high-pitched and British than high-pitched and American.


Owner/user of Classic British ascent and former drama student. When I was taught elocution, we were told to begin and end each word distinctly to the following/preceding words. This impacts positively of the 'readability' of speaking. This 'clipped' delivery is the distinguishing feature of the classic British received pronunciation (RP) accent.


The acceptability of accents is heavily influenced by pop culture, which is perhaps why a high-pitched British accent may seem OK, because of the compensatory cultural value of the Britishness.

A Russian accent will not be treated as generously in the English-speaking world, after years of bad-guy one-liners being the reference point. Same goes if you have a Middle Eastern accent, or an Indian accent.


I'm sure there are many people for whom those are The Worst, but in my direct experience the worst reactions tend to be associated with accents within the US. Try speaking with a Texas accent in Brooklyn, or vice versa. Yikes.


But you see my point. A TX accent can be substituted for a more mainstream one far more easily than a foreign accent can.




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