The Digital Translation of Soundscapes: AI Assistant Gender Performativity and the Reconstruction of Sound Meaning

Xinran Feng

Pinnacle Academic Press Proceedings Series, 2025, vol. 4, 189-202

Abstract: Artificial intelligence voice assistants increasingly shape how gender is experienced and understood through digital sound. The design of feminized AI voices reflects and reinforces cultural expectations that link femininity with service, politeness, and emotional labor. Through an interdisciplinary framework grounded in gender performativity theory, technofeminist analysis, and sound studies, this paper examines how vocal features such as pitch, tone, rhythm, and speech patterns encode social roles within AI systems. These vocal characteristics are not neutral but function as carriers of symbolic meaning, aligning technological outputs with long-standing gender hierarchies. The widespread adoption of female-voiced assistants in domestic and service-oriented applications illustrates how gendered labor is reimagined in digital form. At the same time, limited representation of non-binary and culturally diverse voices highlights a structural gap in current AI voice design. Ethical concerns emerge around the standardization of voice as both a technical product and a social interface. A more inclusive approach to voice technology requires recognition of sound as a material practice that shapes identity, agency, and interaction. Rather than treating voice as a passive output, AI systems should be developed with attention to cultural specificity, user diversity, and the symbolic implications of auditory design. Understanding voice as a site of power and representation offers a critical pathway toward more equitable and reflective technological development.

Keywords: AI voice assistant; gender performativity; technofeminism; digital soundscape; voice ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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