Struggling to Pass? Here’s Why Voice Alone is Not Enough to Pass as Trans Female.
Ever worked really hard in voice therapy only to find yourself still struggling to pass? Or worse, perfected your voice but others still misgender you?
Thats because HRT does not thin the vocal folds for trans feminine people the way it thickens them for trans masculine. Leading to a physiological barrier that prevents your voice from becoming more feminine.
As a result, you find yourself struggling as you wish to express yourself in a voice that matches your desired gender.
And boy the struggle is real! Often manifesting as various symptoms of gender dysphoria:
Isolation
Withdrawal
Depression
Anxiety
And when misgendering happens, you feel anger, frustration, and hopelessness.
If you ever wonder why people misgender, you’ll find this video helpful: Why People Misgender & How to Deal With It.
HERE IS HOW YOU FEMINIZE YOUR VOICE & WHY ITS NOT ENOUGH!
To feminize your voice, you engage in self-treatment through voice apps, online resources or DIY youtube tutorials. Maybe even enlisting help of the voice therapist and opting in to have voice surgery.
Yes, increasing the pitch to a level that is within the range of cis-female is an important objective of the above options.
And while these options often do help, you still find yourself struggling to pass.
Why is that? Thats because the perception of femininity are not based on pitch alone!
THE ROLE OF PERCEPTIONS IN TRANS WOMEN WHEN IT COMES TO PASSING!
The role of perceptions, as research demonstrates, plays an important part in whether others perceive you as feminine or not.
Factors influencing perception of femininity are:
Resonance
Intonation
Word choice
And the big one - physical presentation!
In fact, research demonstrates that physical presentation plays a strong role in gender identification and perceived femininity (Owen & Hancock 2010; Davies, S., et al., 2015).
A study by Van Borsel et al., looked at the effect of appearance on ratings of femininity. Individuals were asked to rate the level of femaleness from a sample of 14 trans feminine individuals (Van Borsel et al., 2001). Presenters were evaluated based on, visual-only, audio-only, and audiovisual.
The visual-only presentation, was rated as the more feminine than the audiovisual presentation. Whereas the audiovisual presentation was rated as more feminine than the audio-only (Van Borsel et al., 2001).
In other words, how you physically present yourself impacts passibility more than voice alone!
A combination of how you present present yourself together with feminine voice, also helps!
As research shows, feminine appearance plays an important part in the designation of femininity. Voice alone, is not enough for passibility, if passibility is your goal.
If passibility is what you are thriving for and you find yourself struggling believing it is your voice, don’t forget that physical presentation plays a bigger part in perceived femininity!
This recognition can help you shift emphasis on overall appearance vs stressing over physical aspects of voice that are often difficult to change.
This shift will also help you decrease gender dysphoria and increase your inner confidence.
To help you make the most of the difficult times when misgendering does happen, watch: How You Can Capitalize on Being Misgendered.
If you feel lost and dont know where to start, take a look at my comprehensive gender resource page offering YT make up tutorials, list of electrologists, and other helpful info.
You may also find the following helpful:
Your Gender is Not an Apology! 3 Steps Toward Self Acceptance.
2 Main Reasons Why Surgical Transition Alone Won't Make You Happy!
WATCH EXPERT VIDEOS ON GENDER DYSPHORIA
REFERENCES & SOURCES
Davies S., Papp VG., Antoni C. (2015). Voice and communication change for gender nonconforming individuals: giving voice to the person inside. International Journal of Transgenderism. 16(3): 117-59.
Owen, K ., & Hancock AB. (2010). The role of self and listener perceptions of femininity in voice therapy. International Journal of Transgenderism. 12:272-84.
Van Borsel J., De Cuyper G., Van den Berghe H. (2001). Physical appearance and voice in male-to-female transsexuals. Journal of Voice. 15(4):570-5.
