it can be pretty interesting when people can't tell if you are a guy or girl...

[YellowDaisy]

so, i am a transsexual. i like to play online video games. i use the headset, and it gets pretty interesting, because just by my voice, people can't tell if i'm male or female. i have a different sounding voice, and people think i sound like i'm sad or something, when i'm not... my voice is androgynous sounding. it didn't change the way a males voice changes (i'm 18 now.) it changed more like a female, but for some reason it sounds a little off, and people think i'm a little boy or something, and i don't act like one at all... i also have aspergers, and people who have that tend to have speech problems, but it does get annoying. it can be fun at the same time though...  🙂

[pebbles]

I get read more often as female by my voice it results in a number of interesting events.

"Go help... Him... Her... Hmm It has to be a her."
They acted like that because they remembered me as a boy.
"So are you pebbles' Girlfriend/Sister? We don't mind you playing just fess up."
"lol Who reckons Pebbles got a sex change?"
"Pebs are you a boy or a girl? cuz I reckon girl... But everyone remembers you as a boy."

I tried to explain that I'm trans... Two of them thought I was taking the piss and reported my account thinking Some random girl had hacked it and was now talking ->-bleeped-<- about pebbles. *sigh*

Other person was actually really gave me lots of compliments accepting understanding and curious had like 120 questions for me about transgender stuff, but now won't talk to me at all. *shrug* Kinda lame.

It's alot easier when pepole didn't know me from before. They just She/Her me and that's the end of it.
I had one guy when he heard my voice give me tons of sexist crap while I was playing. That was odd and my first run in with that kind of sexism.

I had a different person make fun of my voice and when I asked him why he was doing this, He accused me of begin 8 years old. I was like. "dude! I'm 23 I'm older than you!" to which I actually got an apology and they said "Oh I'm sorry lady.", Which is the first time in internet history where someone has apologised for disrespecting someone.

[Epigania]

I hate voice chat when I'm gaming.   I'm a bit of a powergamer and pseudo "alpha" type of personality.  (Would that be a type b+ personality?  )

When folks hear me on voice chat commanding raids, they get quiet for a bit.   I've had some people give me grief, but being in control has its advantages.

Every character I play, in the MMO I play (well any game really), is female, so my slightly andro voice throws people off because they are expecting the raid leader to be male.  /shrugs

I wouldn't worry about it, personally, Maylene.  Most people don't care, just like in real life, it's the ones who thought you were hot that get offended and make a huff about it. 😀

[sarahm]

I found it quite interesting after 2 months of hormones.
If I went down the street as a male, I failed so poorly, people gave me weird looks. (Presenting as how I was born LMAO)

I pass better as a female then I do male, and I've been on HRT for 3 months.
^_^

[barbie]

A lot of people here openly comment on that to me. Two days ago, a restaurant owner commented like:

"Oh. You are a man!" (when I got out of the car)
"You seem to be like a woman." (after studying my attire)
... It's confusing! (smile)" (after looking my face)

Some people here are so much outspoken. After hearing my voice, their questions get answered.

Barbie~~

[Nigella]

Hi there,

I hope this is not off thread but I am always surprised that more mtf's don't realise how important the voice is in passing. I have come to the conclusion that if your voice appears female then even if you have some male looking traits people will see you as female. At least that has been my experience. So the voice is just and perhaps a little more important than say facial surgery.

When I was just a year into my transition three late teen boys passed me while I was on holiday and I heard one say to the other young men that's a ->-bleeped-<-. I was so mad I turned around and said, "excuse me, were you just talking about me?" One of the other young men said, "my friend said it to me and to be honest I don't know." I said, "Its really rude." several times, while the other young man by then was shuffling on his feet, looking embarrassed. In the end all three apologised and I walked off satisfied. I think it was my female voice that actually made then think in the end that I was female.

The only occasion I have had such a thing. Still I got an apology, lol.

Stardust 

[confused]

i don't like voice chatting anyway , whether i'm  presenting as male or female , i just hate them for some reason
after some voice training though , i got to that point when people get confused about it in MMO games like SL (which i rarely play anyway ) , but then i stopped the voice training , and since i'm still in the closet i couldn't get any further because people were already noticing and starting to wonder what's happening

[Sinnyo]

I've a fairly negative relationship with voice, too. I'll occasionally speak to folks I've known for a while, as my voice is still very untrained, but I can only speak comfortably in quite a mid-low register. Anything else seems to strain me after a while.

Nothing put me off the idea of online console gaming more than the microphone headset, and I spent 3 years in Second Life avoiding voice chat too - which gets harder as more of the world embraces voice forums and 'real life' identities. Bleh. On the positive side, I've always presented as female online and it seems that without any conscious thought, I was typing as a woman. So that was nice. I'm.. not sure how that works, though.

I envy you and your androgynous vocals, anyway. ^_^

[AmySmiles]

I don't know if it's all in my head, but I've been noticing waitresses leaving off pronouns when referring to me when I'm eating out with friends.  When we're ordering, it usually goes something like: "And you sir? ... And you ma'am?  ... And you?"  That usually makes me happy for a while, but they amend it later to "sir," probably because I'm wearing guy clothes and my voice is androg enough that it could go either way.

One day I'm going to have to use my femme voice and see what the reactions are 🙂

[Epigania]

Yeah ... I notice when waiters or clerks leave of the pronouns.  I suppose it's better than being called "Sir" when your in a dress.  It doesn't happen as much anymore, but it occurs at times.

It hurts a bit, but not as much as using the wrong one.