Has your opinion about importance of your voice changed since Caitlyn Jenner

[Dena]

My voice has been a problem for me for a while. I have been trying to train it but it's so...inconsistent. I'll continue trying but I think surgery's the route I'll need to take to be completely happy with it.

To be absolutely honest and to take my own experiences out of the collective...I need my voice to be permanently different. It still sounds too deep to me and bums me out all the time. I just tend to try to make the best of bad situations and before this past year spent decades avoiding doctors. I suppose there is some of that restraining me. I did just ask my father for a loan for surgery. I can't stand that I can slip into the baritone. Things are better now, my Mom didn't have to ask if she was talking with me or my brother when I called on her birthday. But it is still too low for me.

Basically I am going to keep working on it on my own until I can afford to undo the testosterone damage surgically.

Surgical voices require being able to master the mouth voice. If you can't you should consider some speech therapy before making a big investment in a voice that isn't going to work. I have been using the mouth voice for so long that it is locked into place and I have to force my self to drop back to the male range. If you would like additional information, let me know and I will be happy to work with you.

[Kellam]

Thanks Dena. I have been working on that and it is a big part of comments from my friends and family. A few of them have said I sound way more feminine now. I will keep at it too. It just isn't enough for me. Sometimes when I am singing I slip low. Songs that I have known for decades. Like I said I am thinking about the whole thing and won't consider aproaching surgery for a good long while.

SRS comes first and thankfully that is covered by my insurance. I am just over half a year from meeting their prerequisite.

I pass ok for now voice wise and with more work that will be more consistent. My decisions are not based on passing or not, it is all about how I feel. But thank you so much for the words of encouragement!

[Jill F]

No. My voice just is what it is and will likely always be.  I do sound like a woman these days, even if that woman is Bea Arthur. 

I still shop at all the stores and eat at the same restaurants that I went to before, so I'm guessing a lot of people out there know what's up with me.  I really do have better things to worry about than whether people think I'm trans or not.  I just assume they all know and I go about my day.

[Stephanie G]

For me it hasn't changed how I see it. I don't pay much attention to celebrities tbh, they are just other people that happen to be famous . Though for me I really want my voice to match me, if that makes any sense. Like it's not about how other see/hear me, it's about me. The more in harmony I feel with myself the better, and having a male or close to male voice just doesn't do it for me.

[Zoetrope]

So much fuss about Caitlyn ...

I have heard some trans people say, 'Oh, I can't stand Jenner, it's all her fault that I am getting clocked' ... and so on.

What nonsense. Don't underestimate others' powers of perception! There is no universal standard of 'passing'. What 'passes' to one person, may not to another!

All Jenner has done is put the trans question on the table. I can't possibly speak for her motives, as I don't have a window into her mind, but effectively all she has done is put it out there.

I am glad for the boost of trans awareness. I am grateful that people care enough, and are interested enough, to have the guts to ask me questions. It makes me feel integrated - not cast out.

Jenner has not ruined my life at all!

[kelly_aus]

My voice is what it is, and it's part of me.. I had several sessions with a speech therapist because I didn't think it was feminine at all.. She showed me that it was, despite what I thought. Do I have a pitch that most of you would consider feminine? No.. But I learnt that pitch wasn't as important as a bunch of other factors - things I had going on long before I transitioned. So I'll stick with my deeper woman's voice, thanks.

[Violet Bloom]

  If anything, Jenner's voice has reinforced the decision I made to work hard at feminizing my voice.  It comes down to the fact that a mis-matched voice and presentation too easily weirds-out or offends the general public.  Purely from a practical standpoint, as I work in retail customer service I can't afford to creep-out my customers.  My employer has been making strong efforts to support my transition but I suspect this would have had limits if the customers started complaining about me.

  My voice was never strongly masculine or deep, perhaps kinda andro, but it definitely didn't fit my feminine presentation going through transition.  I never liked my old voice so some of the speech therapy was for my own comfort.  When I'm at work I find that sometimes I've been talking so much that my voice slips a bit because it gets tired and I still have trouble with volume at times.  I pass to most customers now as a result of FFS and the freedom my presentation gives me to use a strongly female voice and mannerisms.  I can still revert to my old voice with some effort but I never use it publicly and only try it occasionally for comparison with where I am now.  If I do it while looking in a mirror it creeps me out, so I fully understand why it bothers other people if they witness such a thing.

[Sammy]

I listened to the award speech with some delay and I had previously also caught some glimpses of critical "opinions" as to Jenner's voice and deliberately did not read them, because I try to stay away from those who tend to impose heavily binary views on everyone.
I kept watching and listening, and then I realised that if I was to disconnect everything I know about Caitlyn (which is not possible) and just listen to that speech, knowing that it is being delivered by "some" woman, I would totally buy. I would think that this is a woman of significant age, probably she has smoked a lot during her life, but it was female leaning voice, nevertheless. So, the rest does not really matter, but, of course, we know that it was Caitlyn who spoke, we know her history, trans-ness and the rest just goes on. So, why cant we leave her alone? She has achieved more than most her critics have ever done and most probably ever will (when taken all together btw)? Criticising her looks or voice almost equals the issue she referred to in her speech - and she said, go ahead, she can take it... so .

As regards my own voice, I am content that it does not clock me immediately once I open my mouth. I know, it is not female, but it not really male either - some female friends have said that I sound like them when they wake up (except I keep going that way for the rest of the day). So, as long as it does its job, it is all fine by me.

[Ange]

I'm only thinking to change it because I don't want people to hurt me or give me weird looks because of it.

I don't give a damn about my voice and honnestly I don't give a damn about my face either. Clothes are always restricted to what you can wear without being ridiculous, and this rule is true for everyone, be it cis or trans. I don't give a damn about them.

I only want my body back. Everything else is basically society being mean to me.