Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Voice Changes 1.0

My voice has started to drop. I wasn't sure initially, since I didn't hear any change until after working my booth at the Seattle Pride Festival on June 27th. I almost talked myself hoarse. For the first couple days I just attributed the change to the festival. Certainly, some of it was the strain on my voice from the Pride Festival, but not all of it. I think I can safely say at this point that my voice is starting to get lower and roughen a bit. I don't know how low it'll go. There are many transmen out there who's voices don't drop very much, but rather who's voices just get gruffer. Of course, I also don't know how high their voices were to begin with. Ultimately, it's all just up to our individual biology.

I actually noticed a difference in how my throat felt within a few days of starting Testosterone. The closest feeling I can liken it to is how your throat feels when you're about to lose your voice from a cold or from yelling a lot. But there was none of the discomfort of having a cold or having talked my vocal cords raw. All told it was a bit of an odd feeling. I don't know if this is how it feels for cisgendered (non-transgendered) men when they go through puberty. If any of you remember how it felt, I'd be curious to know.

On a related note, I'm going to start posting my voice recordings shortly. I'm trying to find a way to upload them or embed them into these posts so you can listen to them. At the same time, I want them to be secure, so not just anyone can download them. If anyone has any suggestions on this front I'd appreciate them. As far as I can tell Blogger (the blogging tool you're viewing right now) lets you upload videos, but not sound clips.

That's all for now!

1 comment:

  1. As a boring cis- type person, I honestly don't recall ever really FEELING a change in my voice. Admittedly, I've always had a highish voice -- like on the high side of masculine, I don't think since I was a kid I'd ever been mistaken for a woman on the phone -- so, perhaps that's part of it too, just in that it never dropped SUPER far, like, y'know, to Batman-Voice levels... I think, too, though, is that aside from voice-cracking, it's a bit more gradual, too.

    If you need webspace to upload clips, too -- let me know; I'd be more than happy to let you post 'em to KS or TODCRA's FTP space -- and they would be hidden aside from any direct linkage. (That, and, well, if anyone DID come across 'em, I don't think they'd know what they were anyway.)

    Finally -- IIRC, Alexis Arquette was one of the first Transitioning Celebrities, but I think she was more a celebrity BECAUSE of the transition. Chaz is certainly much higher profile. (And I hope Cher's more accepting this time. Apparently when he originally came out as a lesbian, she was all dumb about it.)

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