Hi all, wondering what you make of this, if you possibly relate to this. Do you consciously alter the way your voice sounds to make people around you more aware of your gender expression? I've noticed that I compulsively speak in a lighter tone and with a slightly quicker rhythm these days ... I've had a long-standing obsession with voice acting so maybe it's some of that coming through, getting me to mimic the patterns of feminine voices I hear so I can speak in a way that differs from my typical male voice.
Well not really that related, but I find when I get insecure over my voice it tends to get higher and I speak quicker. Which is exactly what I'm insecure over -_-
Before I ever questioned I was trans, I deepened my voice as low as I could with it still being natural. I don't know a specific reason why, but I assume it had to with being trans and I unconsciously acted on it.
I did the same thing too! Even when I wasn't consciously questioning my identity, I tended to speak in the lower parts of my normal range. It gets higher when I get nervous or get caught off guard though. Nowadays I try to deepen my voice a bit more than what is considered natural for my range, though I have no idea if it sounds normal or ridiculous to other people. I also tend to forget to deepen it and when my naturally higher pitched voice comes out it makes me want to punch a wall :bang:
Same, my voice raised when nervous and when I was hysterical with laughter. God, my hysterical laughter is obnoxious and makes me so dysphoric. I try to laugh quietly so no one notices how high-pitched it is. And when I try to make it lower I sound dumb. I sound like "hurr hurr HURR"
Haha, apparently I did this when I was going through puberty. My dad actually asked my doctor if I had a hormonal imbalance because my voice suddenly got deeper, but I think I was just rebelling against my body becoming girly and felt I had to do something to counteract it. My voice is still pretty low; I'm not sure if I actually caused that or if it was heading there anyway, but I have gotten "sir" many a times over the phone/drive thru. Now, I don't. Not consciously at least. I know I speak differently around various groups of people for different occasions, but not out of gender expression. Eh.
Yeah, since I came out to myself I've been lightening my voice around friends and speaking with a more feminine rhythm. I luckily don't have very deep voice naturally, so I make it a little bit lighter and it's fairly androgynous without anyone asking me why I'm speaking like that. It's a nice, subtle way to express myself without having to face revealing questions.
If you're comfortable with it I would recommend recording your voice and listening to it. Typically in a normal conversational setting my voice is deeper but if I try to raise my voice for some reason I tend to higher my pitch as well. I once surprised my friend by how deep I could make my voice so I think I have quite a bit of vocal range.
I can do a girl voice with ease, if I'm joking around haha But normally my voice is quite deep for not being on T. This doesn't matter whether I'm outside or not. It's always like that. Even when I'm cross dressing/talking about guys (when I tend to get reallly flamboyant) my voice pitch is the same. The only thing that changes in my voice when I am outside (actively making SURE I pass), is my intonation. Sometimes I make sure the way I talk sounds manly. But I notice in my case, since I look like a femboy, it's best to talk the way I normally do. A slight feminine intonation is more natural coming from a long haired femme goth boy than an extra manly speech pattern.
When I began to accept that I was trans, I dropped my voice a lot naturally. When I was on the phone though, it would go back into the higher range (this was annoying). Now that I am on T, I have to worry about not dropping my voice too low.
