Exogenous Testosterone and the Transgender Singing Voice: A 30-Month Case Study

Agha, Ari; Hynes, Laura

doi:10.53830/ykwm3774

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Exogenous testosterone, often taken by trans masculine people after they have undergone an estrogen-dominant puberty, usually results in some lengthening and/or thickening of the vocal folds (though how much is unpredictable), but because the larynx of an adult has already begun the ossification process, the larynx itself generally will not grow. Likewise, an adult who begins a course of testosterone therapy will generally not get taller or develop a longer vocal tract ( Agha and Hynes, 2022 ). While vocal pitch might change with testosterone therapy alone, many physical elements affecting voice quality will not.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual biases in evaluation of speakers’ and singers’ voice type by cis and trans listeners

2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

IntroductionA singer’s or speaker’s Fach (voice type) should be appraised based on acoustic cues characterizing their voice. Instead, in practice, it is often influenced by the individual’s physical appearance. This is especially distressful for transgender people who may be excluded from formal singing because of perceived mismatch between their voice and appearance. To eventually break down these visual biases, we need a better understanding of the conditions under which they occur. Specifically, we hypothesized that trans listeners (not actors) would be better able to resist such biases, relative to cis listeners, precisely because they would be more aware of appearance-voice dissociations.MethodsIn an online study, 85 cisgender and 81 transgender participants were presented with 18 different actors singing or speaking short sentences. These actors covered six voice categories from high/bright (traditionally feminine) to low/dark (traditionally masculine) voices: namely soprano, mezzo-soprano (referred to henceforth as mezzo), contralto (referred to henceforth as alto), tenor, baritone, and bass. Every participant provided voice type ratings for (1) Audio-only (A) stimuli to get an unbiased estimate of a given actor’s voice type, (2) Video-only (V) stimuli to get an estimate of the strength of the bias itself, and (3) combined Audio-Visual (AV) stimuli to see how much visual cues would affect the evaluation of the audio.ResultsResults demonstrated that visual biases are not subtle and hold across the entire scale, shifting voice appraisal by about a third of the distance between adjacent voice types (for example, a third of the bass-to-baritone distance). This shift was 30% smaller for trans than for cis listeners, confirming our main hypothesis. This pattern was largely similar whether actors sung or spoke, though singing overall led to more feminine/high/bright ratings.ConclusionThis study is one of the first demonstrations that transgender listeners are in fact better judges of a singer’s or speaker’s voice type because they are better able to separate the actors’ voice from their appearance, a finding that opens exciting avenues to fight more generally against implicit (or sometimes explicit) biases in voice appraisal.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual biases in evaluation of speakers’ and singers’ voice type by cis and trans listeners

2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Transgender and Gender-Expansive Singers in Choir: A Review of the Literature

Carlson

2024

Update: Applications of Research in Music Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this article is to review published literature on transgender and gender-expansive (TGE) singers in the context of the choral rehearsal from the past 10 years, 2013 to 2023. Authors wrote on a variety of topics related to gender-inclusive teaching and vocal pedagogy, including honoring singer names and pronouns, using gender-neutral language in rehearsal, choosing gender-neutral ensemble names, providing gender-free options for choral attire, programming repertoire that does not perpetuate gender stereotypes, and supporting singers through transition. Some TGE singers experience vocal dysphoria associated with singing a vocal part that they feel does not align with their gender identity and some choirs are implementing flexible voicing options for increased comfort during rehearsal. Teacher training in these areas can help foster an environment that is welcoming and affirming to gender diversity and aid in singer retention and psychological well-being.

show abstract

Exogenous Testosterone and the Transgender Singing Voice: A 30-Month Case Study

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Visual biases in evaluation of speakers’ and singers’ voice type by cis and trans listeners

Visual biases in evaluation of speakers’ and singers’ voice type by cis and trans listeners

Transgender and Gender-Expansive Singers in Choir: A Review of the Literature

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About