Voice and Physical Appearance in Female-to-Male Transsexuals

Borsel, John Van; Pot, Kathelijne de; Cuypere, Griet De

doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2007.10.018

Cited by 39 publications

(35 citation statements)

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“…The voice of MTP transsexual clients can be an obstacle in the search for adequacy between their physical appearance and gender identity (13) . A transsexual who is apparently a woman can be identified as a man several times in their daily life.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Translation and preliminary evaluation of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Transgender Voice Questionnaire for male-to-female transsexuals

Santos

Aguiar

Baeck

et al. 2015

CoDAS

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Translation and preliminary evaluation of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Transgender Voice Questionnaire for male-to-female transsexuals

Santos

Aguiar

Baeck

et al. 2015

CoDAS

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“…So far, evidence from androgen treatment of individuals lacking the masculinisation of the larynx (e.g. female-to-male transsexuals and adult males with hypogonadism) has shown that vocal folds are still sensitive to testosterone in adulthood, with testosterone injections permanently thickening the folds and thus lowering voice F0 (Akcam et al, 2004;Baker, 1999;Talaat et al, 1987;Van Borsel et al, 2000). However, the potential effects of testosterone exposure in adult males without androgen deficiencies on the physiology (vocal fold mass and length, vocal tract length and extensibility) and on the behavioural control of the vocal apparatus (Pisanski et al, 2012) remain largely unknown.…”

Section: Physiological Characteristics and Voice Cuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What makes a voice masculine: Physiological and acoustical correlates of women's ratings of men's vocal masculinity

Cartei

Bond

Reby

2014

Hormones and Behavior

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“…However, I will begin by focusing on the intra-speaker variation found among two of these speakers who were available for follow up recordings a year after the initial meeting. This approach mirrors the one taken by one of the only other studies done on the acoustics of trans men's voices, carried out by van Borsel and his colleagues (van Borsel et al 2000;Adler & van Borsel 2006). Based on read speech, these authors found a significant drop in F0 during the speakers' first year on testosterone, along with a significant narrowing of pitch range; one speaker's mean went from 215 Hz to 155 Hz, while the other dropped from 160 Hz to 132 Hz.…”

mentioning

confidence: 64%

Biology, socialization, and identity: Accounting for the voices of female-to-male transsexuals

Zimman

2010

ExAbs

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Differences between men's and women's voices are frequently attributed to physiological differences between the sexes. However, ample linguistic literature has shown that many of these distinctions are in fact socially learned (see Simpson 2009 for a review). One particularly strong piece of evidence for the social nature of the gendered voice comes from the literature on childhood language socialization, which shows that boys and girls taken on gender-appropriate phonetic traits long before physiological differentiation occurs (e.g. Sachs et al. 1973). Even features linked to biology -such as vocal pitch -differ across cultures, as can be seen in work like Yuasa's (2009) treatment of the pitch in American English and Japanese. However, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of a number of issues, among them: which phonetic features are influenced by biology, and how strong is this influence? Which are learned as part of language socialization? Finally, how malleable are these features beyond childhood?I take steps toward addressing these questions by focusing on a group that is almost completely absent from the linguistic literature: female-to-male transsexuals, or trans men. Trans men are individuals who are assigned to a female gender role at birth and raised accordingly, but who come to identify as men and take steps to transition from a female gender role to a male one. Previous studies of transsexuals' voices have shown that we can learn quite a bit from looking at speakers who cross the gender divide, though the focus has generally been on trans women (i.e. male-to-female transsexuals). For instance, Gelfer and Schofield (2000) analyzed the differences between trans women whose voices were perceived as male and those perceived as female and identified 160 Hz as a cross-over point that distinguished the two groups. Trans men, on the other hand, promise a unique set of insights for a number of reasons. First, one of the most common medical interventions sought by trans men is testosterone therapy, which produces many of the physiological changes men typically experience during puberty, including a marked drop in vocal pitch that usually results in a male-sounding voice. Second, in addition to shedding light on gender differences in the voice, trans men also show how different kinds of masculinity are perceived, as my work on gay-sounding voices among trans and non-trans men has shown (discussed below). Finally, trans men underscore the importance of viewing masculinity as a social achievement. As Kulick (1999) notes, it is all too easy to assume that trans women are actively constructing their femininity while treating trans men as if they are doing nothing in particular by accomplishing masculinity. In other words, the near-exclusive focus on trans women over trans men reinforces the unmarked status of male speech.In this paper I discuss two analyses I have done as part of an on-going investigation of the properties of trans men's voices. The first of these, which sheds light on the role of language s...

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Voice and Physical Appearance in Female-to-Male Transsexuals

Cited by 39 publications

References 5 publications

Translation and preliminary evaluation of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Transgender Voice Questionnaire for male-to-female transsexuals

Translation and preliminary evaluation of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Transgender Voice Questionnaire for male-to-female transsexuals

What makes a voice masculine: Physiological and acoustical correlates of women's ratings of men's vocal masculinity

Biology, socialization, and identity: Accounting for the voices of female-to-male transsexuals

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