The thing about trans women that people don’t talk about enough is the voice problem. Many of us are afraid to admit it, but there’s something incredibly degrading about being expected to alter the way we use our voice around people.
Really, like, the way that trans women are taught and expected to speak is incredibly tedious, unnatural, and obviously forced to the ear of any speech pathologist. So the “solution” is for us to go “full-time” and essentially ditch the voice that comes naturally.
It isn’t right, but there’s no winning in either case. People will misgender you if you speak naturally, and if you do try to use your “feminized” voice you’re honestly putting yourself at risk of violence, and how the fuck am I supposed to feel confident when knowing full well that the sounds coming out of me aren’t genuine or convincing to anyone?
This is a serious fucking problem that doesn’t get addressed. Trans women are expected to find services and often pay absurd sums of money to get training or “therapy” for the voice, but all you are really doing is practicing the art of speaking in a submissive and stereotyped voice. Enter radfems, who would then use this as a weapon against us, claiming that we are perpetuating *ppfffpffpfafbloobpblboooblbllblblpp* by using our voices in a way that makes us feel safe.
But, unless you’re the lucky 5-10% of trans women who can pass even after speaking, that safety is not only unlikely, but more often than not people are going to look at you with disgust and of course you know what happens once you’re outed.
Why should I have to talk like a fucking cartoon character? Cis women do NOT sound the way that these voice experts insist they do, because trans women have to speak primarily with a head tone, completely forgoing the chest and therefore removing the part of the sound that makes it sound like speaking and not fucking squealing.
If you care about trans women, expecting us to change our voices in order to pass as cis is fucking gross.
read this in its entirety.
