I'm a very introspective person, so I spend a lot of time thinking to myself and I've noticed my mind-voice typically sounds male and it disturbs me.
How do your mind-voices sound? Were they identical to your male voice? If so, have they changed as you transition and spend more time living as a woman?
Mine sounds more or less as my voice sounds to me, which is still deep for a woman but to high for a man. It raised as my voice raised.
My seems to go back and forth between male and female. It mostly seems to depends on how upset I am getting or how emotional. The most upset or emotional I am, the more likely it will be the male voice with that calming baritone father type of reassurance. If it is female I am have a pretty good day.
you know, i think we spend just way too much time worrying about being too male or too female or whatever. the truth is, if you are a woman your internal voice is female...period. whatever else it is, it's female, because it's your voice and you are female...it can't be any other. you think like a female, praise God not like some stereotypical woman, you sound like the one woman that you are.
it's the same principle as appearance..."i know i look like a girl. i know this because i look like me and i'm a girl." it's just about internal acceptance...you are who you are and you aren't going to change that fundamenally...and i hope you don't want to. we spend way too much time talking about being "who we are" and far too little time just being it. it's all good. God bless with...
My mindvoice is always my female voice. I don't know why, but my mindvoice has always been female.....not my current female voice, but always female. The "narrator" in my mind when reading was always female. Is that weird?
Bev
Quote from: Princess Katrina on October 18, 2008, 11:10:15 PM
I'm a very introspective person, so I spend a lot of time thinking to myself and I've noticed my mind-voice typically sounds male and it disturbs me.
How do your mind-voices sound? Were they identical to your male voice? If so, have they changed as you transition and spend more time living as a woman?
I kind of do too, but its only cause my day time voice is androgyous at best... I've never heard my girl self really so I have no idea how she really sounds... Just a general idea...
Oh, crap... I feel really freaky now. My thoughts don't have a tone. They're not even anything like a voice. Are you all saying that when you think things, you hear your voice? Like, with words and things? I just sort of... think. I can sort of do a voice, but it's more like an abstract stream of words without any sound at all. When I write or talk, I don't think about what I'm actually saying, I just sort of squeeze something until it condenses into words & squirts out. I don't know what I'm going to say from one word to the next.
Edit: I never really understood what people meant when they talked about thinking in a particular language. I don't naturally think in language.
My mind's voice is still my physical voice, I guess cause I've been around my whole life using this voice I've been born with.
Quote from: Katie Leah on October 23, 2008, 12:08:13 AM
Oh, crap... I feel really freaky now. My thoughts don't have a tone. They're not even anything like a voice. Are you all saying that when you think things, you hear your voice? Like, with words and things? I just sort of... think. I can sort of do a voice, but it's more like an abstract stream of words without any sound at all. When I write or talk, I don't think about what I'm actually saying, I just sort of squeeze something until it condenses into words & squirts out. I don't know what I'm going to say from one word to the next.
Edit: I never really understood what people meant when they talked about thinking in a particular language. I don't naturally think in language.
Relax....not that I'm anyone to be compared with as typical LOL....but I usually don't have a mind voice throughout the day. But sometimes. Always when I read, or write.
Bev
I hear the same voice as I talk. I hate that!
My mind-voice is not my normal speaking voice. It is a little higher, very clear, and definitely feminine ...... now if she'd just stop LAUGHING! :o
When I read, I just get a stream of words. It's not anything like a voice. Just the "idea" of one word at a time. It's the same when I write. Maybe it's an aspie thing?
Voice TrainingThe voice is very important at least just as important as your appearance if you are going be credible to the folks you associate with everyday. I was lucky that I had a half way voice, I am only a small person so I never really had a very deep voice. the mode of exercises I used to bring my voice up to a higher feminine pitch I just did mostly by humming tunes to myself, I could also hum tunes no mater where I was without bringing much attention. Below is a you tube video of voice training, I liked it, I thought it was pretty good way to train your voice.
QuoteI just sort of... think. I can sort of do a voice, but it's more like an abstract stream of words without any sound at all. When I write or talk, I don't think about what I'm actually saying, I just sort of squeeze something until it condenses into words & squirts out. I don't know what I'm going to say from one word to the next.
Edit: I never really understood what people meant when they talked about thinking in a particular language. I don't naturally think in language.
Katie Leah
Yep, it's called auto writing or auto thoughts. Just comes without trying to think it out before hand. The only problem is that's it's to easy to loose people that way. I may have thought or fantasized in a female voice in early transition but to actually think thoughts in a voice I don't believe I have. the thoughts are just formed into consciousness then expressed thought the medium of the mouth into words.
Words come out in a female voice because I tuned voice to do so, so that it just comes naturally without consciously thinking about it. I can enjoy a good giggle fit session with the other girls and my giggles sound authentic enough that I actually can get them going into it as well. I love getting into giggle fits especially with my mate, the last she hears from me at night is me giggling and bugging her like a ten year old kid and the same in the morning.
Voice may vary from normal voice to rough or raspy depending sometimes on physical condition, like being tiered of just waking up in the morning to post nasal drip, or a cold symptom etc.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=s7qSJ19f_QU&feature=related (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=s7qSJ19f_QU&feature=related)
Cindy
i never made any attempt to "redo" my voice. the truth is i think speaking in my own voice adds to my credibility among my peers. i've heard enough of the "transvoice" to turn me off forever, it's so plastic it crinkles.
but then, i'm not into "passing" either. i hated "passing" as a man and i, being a woman, feel no need to "pass" as female. being real, being just who i am without reservation is the basis of my happiness and utility as a human being. my experience has been that the less i try to impress others the more impressed they seem to be.
just the experience of one woman, may not work for all.
My "mind voice" is male..
Note; anything I post on this board are only suggestions as to what worked for me. I never implicated that it to be a guarantee it will work for anyone else. The best way to learn anything I found was to *note* different suggestions from different people and test them out for my own satisfaction. But other folks will usually find their own way to adjust to, or learn a certain new behaviour or personification using their own method getting there.
Check out my Blog **Cindy's Ramblings Blog**
Cindy
noted cindy. and just the same for me. though my methods diverge 180 degrees from yours, they are not intended to cast dispersions upon yours. just like you, i say what's worked for me so that others may hear and consider...or just disregard as not practical. you stated that a female sounding voice was important to "credibility" and i felt that another point of view on that might be called for here. the opposite has been true for me, my uncensored voice has enhanced my credibility among those in my everyday life...or so i believe. i guess it's according to what sort of credibility you are concerned with for yourself. have a nice day.
Tanks I agree, Each and everyone of us will have a different opinion, understanding or perspective on any given proposition even on the same given fact we will all have a slightly different perspective on just what constitutes that one particular given fact. A multifaceted universe or the great illusion not with holding. ;) I have a pretty good accumulation of singularly special thoughts and feelings.
My only desire is to pass on as much as I can of the experiences and knowledge I have accumulated through the years before that Cosmic Grey Hound bus comes to spirit me away to the next dimension.
Cindy
Quotei never made any attempt to "redo" my voice. the truth is i think speaking in my own voice adds to my credibility among my peers. i've heard enough of the "transvoice" to turn me off forever, it's so plastic it crinkles.
but then, i'm not into "passing" either. i hated "passing" as a man and i, being a woman, feel no need to "pass" as female. being real, being just who i am without reservation is the basis of my happiness and utility as a human being. my experience has been that the less i try to impress others the more impressed they seem to be.
just the experience of one woman, may not work for all.
Is there such a thing as voice dysphoria too? I would never feel right using my male voice becuase that is not
what I feel inside and I despise my male voice as much as the rest of my body, or at least my body prior to HRT.
And I don't think anyone needs to resign themselves to having a "transvoice". With enough effort and time I think
anyone can develop a passing and attractive voice. I think this may also be effected by age and sexual orientation.
A young TS (or any) who is not attached prior to transition and is attracted to men MUST change their voice to
ever have any hope of forming a relationship. If you have the self confidence to speak in a mans voice more power
to you.
As far as my mind voice, I never realized it but most of the time when I'm speaking out loud it's not male or female but always
very happy and sweet sounding, maybe reflecting what I usually feel on the inside. And I noticed that when I read
something it takes on the sound of what I think the character I'm reading would sound like. And when I type something like
this post, or an email or a business letter it always sounds female. Really cool and really odd that the mind works that way.
Amanda
I don't think of my "mind-voice" as particularly female, but it's certainly not male. Actually, my "mind voice" strongly informs how I hear my speaking voice; when I hear my own voice more objectively (for instance, recorded) it's a shock.
Amanda -- I have sung in various choirs for years, and the voice of a good soprano fills me with about as much envy as anything else can.
hmmmm....i guess the difference as i see it, amanda...is that i don't have a man's voice. i have a woman's voice...it's my voice and i am a woman.
it is difficult and i've always had some problems with the principle myself. when driving myself nuts trying to figure if grs was what i needed i had to face that issue in spades. i had long accepted that i was a woman. i knew and understood that i didn't want to become a woman, i already was one. my theory being that gender is not determined by what's between one's legs, but by what's between one's ears. so...i was a woman with a penis. i had a woman's penis.
just as i'm sure some won't ever be able to resolve that they have a woman's voice and be ok with it however it may sound, i just couldn't resolve having a woman's penis...it was just more then even my high ideals could deal with. it's true, everyone has a point where their principles just don't add up to the truth as it is.
and i take your point about being young and uninvolved. i'm old and married and not looking. we're i in a position like that i may have to make more compromises myself. what i am saying is really more about self image and confidence then whatever the details are. it's so hard for us to get to that point where we internalize, really accept, that we are women and all the exterior stuff does not affect that one single reality. until we accept that i don't think there is any end we won't go to in order to prove it...not just to others but to ourselves. i guess i kind of see that as a never ending process that will inevitably leave one empty. you just cannot ever prove your femininity, especially to someone else. you know who you are and at some point that just has to be enough. that place is somewhere else for each and every one of us...i just hope that what i say is worth considering, something for the young girls to hear...and maybe someday have it make some sense.
Pennyjane, how did you become so wise? :)
I only hope to some day have the mental a physical solidarity that you do.
My mind voice changes depending on the situation. Normally it's James Earl Jones for entertainment, dramatics and normal reading. Sometimes I'll sub with Ira Glass (This American Life from WBEZ in Chicago, NPR) or on rare occasions I've been known to do a bit of Garrison Keillor (A Prairie Home Companion from Minnesota Public Radio, NPR).
<---- listens to way to much public radio.
Now that I think of it, I don't think my mind even knows what my voice sounds like...
weird.
Quote.i just hope that what i say is worth considering, something for the young girls to hear...and maybe someday have it make some sense.
It's very valuable to hear and I don't discount it at all and I wish I could develop that attitude and hope someday
I will. And I'm envious of you and others here that live their lives in that way.
But for now I feel like I need to do those things becuase it makes me feel better about my
body, face, voice, etc. And do all the things that I feel like I missed out on becuase I was too dumb, scared,
uninformed, etc to do them.
Amanda
hi amanda...all those things but dumb. you clearly are not dumb. you will do what you need to do to make life right...and whatever that is is good. it's just that, for me, an impossible case to begin with, i had to except some pretty restrictive facts. i'm no looker, never gonna be...i don't have the time left to do all of those things. it's like that serentiy prayer...."God, grant me the serentiy to accept those things i cannot change, the courage to change those i can....and the wisdom to know the difference." it's that wisdom part that i've been trying to focus on. knowing and accepting my limitations so i don't end up tilting at windmills forever, but achieving what is within my limitations. you gotta keep focused on the truth to make this happen, not fantasy nor delusion...reality...what is. if i had never been able to do grs, then so be it...wouldn't have been the end of the world...i would have just had to find the way to happiness being a woman with a penis. one can not allow their circumstances to control their happiness, you just have to do the best you can with what you have and allow happiness to happen.
Imagine a contralto who just snorted a lot of speed. It goes with the rest of my personality. My speech tends to be very very rapid and frantic irl. It's no less dizzying on the inside. It makes me very distractable. Definitely feminine, though.
Hmmmm, I have a couple of voices in there actually - at least three I can identify - My "own" voice is my voice - it has always sounded like me, including its voice changing as mine has. I have a second voice in there that is distinctly female, somewhat older and wiser sounding - that's the voice that always presents intuitive, compassionate standpoints, then there is also a more androgynous, slightly male-ish voice that usually takes up the "common sense" logical argument. From time to time I've also noticed other voices - usually at first they seem either one of the two "others", but usually after I listen for a while, their attitudes and tone will differentiate them from the others.
Hehehe. It's never lonely in here. ::)
~Simone.
Hmm, my "common sense, logical" voice is more of a gender-indeterminate and slightly metallic tenor. More of a compy voice than anything else. It sounds even more like it's on speed, and I get a little dizzy if it goes on for too long. When it comes out in my speech, people swear I sound Swedish. I don't hear it.
I do have a "male" voice, though, that's more slow and methodical, and it's always got a gentle hint of irony in it. However, it alternates between a throaty rumble and something sounding similar to a female argonian (a very deep and raspy but definitely female tenor). And yes...that comes out in my voice, too. It always throws people for a loop the way my voice changes around. Just the other day, I had someone ask me, "dude, did your voice somehow get deeper?" Nope.
Lately, however, I've been identifying very closely with the argonian, and I would like to try to adopt it as my regular voice after I've gone through transition. It is pleasant. It marks a personality that is not prone to being thrown off easily by surprises or unusual situations yet doesn't obsess with shallow sources of novelty either. Flexible yet dependable. If I'm going to stick with my ambitions for academia, I might as well get the image right.
My Mind-Voice depends on my mood, when Angry it becomes more or less a demon's roar that won't shut up. But any other time, it is a clam voice, and sounds like my real voice.
QuoteHow do your mind-voices sound?
My "mind-voice" sounds like a chicken with a slight hint of goat mixed in.
My mind voice is like my voice....masculine.
My voice is where I trained it to be, in the female range. I was lucky that I never had a deep voice to start with
Cindy
I've only recently in the past few months started training my voice....course everytime i do in front of my mother she tells me to "talk normal" whcih ticks me off....hense my "A not so accepting family" topic elsewhere in the forums.... >:(
Family should be tied to utility poles with molasses all over them then beat them with feather pillows.
Cindy