Warning: this is a trivial curiosity.
For those of you who the term "inner voice(s)" is an applicable term for your thought structure, is/are your inner voice(s) gendered in any way? In terms of "voice" tone/quality, that is, and how you interpret/frame those qualities in terms of gender/non-gender, not the gender identity/identities of your consciousness. And, if so, does/do the "gender(s)" of your inner voice(s) match your gender identity/identities or are there nuances or incongruencies? Has it always been the same? Has it evolved over time, or does it cycle/vary over time normally?
For example, my "inner voice" has a deeper, masculine to androgynous tone/quality, and has as long as I can remember (even before coming to terms with my own gender stuffs), and sounds very different from my actual voice.
I have no idea what other people experience in this, and I'm just curious, and hoping someone else on here is to :)
do you mean like a voice you hear in your head? it's kind of hard to remember what that voice sounds like to me. i'm not really sure if my brain is making a voice, but if it does, it's usually androgynous. not something that i would associate with male or female. if i'm silently reading, sometimes i'll say the words in my head, and it sounds like my own voice, other times it's just an androgynous verbalizing. it's not really something that's easy to notice, because it's very subconscious, and sometimes conscious.
Because I'm thinking instead of hearing the voice, I couldn't describe the tone. If it is any gender... well, it wouldn't be gendered at all. My inner voice is very non-gendered.
My inner voice sounds like my own speaking voice
My inner voice usually just... is. I mean it doesn't really have a tone but when it does have a tone it is male. And oddly deeper when I am angry.
Quote from: Yakshini on April 18, 2011, 09:26:27 PM
Because I'm thinking instead of hearing the voice, I couldn't describe the tone. If it is any gender... well, it wouldn't be gendered at all. My inner voice is very non-gendered.
I've very much along these lines as well.
I know, when I think about my inner voice, it is flat and without tone or colour. Almost as if it isn't actually a voice at all, in comparison to any others.
While I would say that my internal monologue doesn't sound particularly male or female in my own head, I'd have to say that it definitely has mannerisms that most people would probably associate with feminine speech as far as word choice, tone, and attention to grammar and decorum are concerned. Of course, this is how I talk so it makes perfect sense :)
I think i have this female "intuition".I have avoided situations in the past with it.One person told me i have this 6th sense some times,and i have only known him about a year.I also had a dream recently were i looked down at myself and i was wearing a pretty black and white dress ( that i do not own).I usually don't see myself in dreams,but this one was vivid,almost real.I even remember the white belt.
My internal voice isn't gender-specific -- it tends to sound like whoever's voice I find fun to listen to at the moment.
As of late, I've been hearing Paula Poundstone and Craig Ferguson...
Mine is my voice.....so I guess its however I feel at the time. Lol. If I feel all macho then my mind uses my male up bringing, but when I am alone relaxing its the natural me. If that makes sense.
Now this migjt sound weird, but when I read my physics textbooks, its Morgan Freeman. He is my personal teacher and makes it easier to understand. Lol. Dead honest. ;D
Quote from: spacial on April 19, 2011, 02:03:12 AM
I've very much along these lines as well.
I know, when I think about my inner voice, it is flat and without tone or colour. Almost as if it isn't actually a voice at all, in comparison to any others.
Exactly. If anything, my internal voice would be incredibly boring to hear out loud for having a complete lack of qualities.
Ummm, I don't really have an inner voice, I mean it's there sometimes but its mostly just there because I will it to be there. And in that effect it usually takes the speach patterns and vocalization of movie characers/TV Show/ Jim Dale(Listened to the HP book on tape waaayyy too much as a kid.)
my inner voice is my voice now, how i hear it when it comes out, which is a little different than i sound reecorded or how others hear me. its more androgynous than anything i think. i dont remember how it used to sound, i think just always how my regular voice sounded to me. this is a really interesting question though, i wonder if itll change when my voice drops
I don't really know if I would call what I have an inner voice. For me its more like I'm playing a movie in my head with the occasional commentary if that makes any sense?
My inner head voice is clearly female in subject and tone as are my dreams.
I've recently been pondering this in terms of anima/animus. In the strict Jungian sense, men have anima (the female archetype) as their inner voice, women have animus (the male archetype). But for those of us who are trans, does that get reversed or are we stuck with the archetype from our biological sense?
I personally believe that soul/spirit/whatever is genderless and that our bodies are fluid. If an MTF (sorry, FTMs, been pondering this from my own point of view) was born with a biologically female brain and a male body, and always self-identifies as the opposite gender from their biological sex, then that person is, for all intents and purposes, female. It would then make sense that animus is the guide for the MTF as anima would be for the FTM (though for different biological reasons, obviously).
The only time I can remember feeling a powerful, definitive anima presence was in a pair of dreams back when I was 13. I dreamed that I was getting married, but at the last second, she said she had to go and left. The next day, I was so devastated by my dream image that I couldn't stop crying. I wished desperately for her to come back so we could be together. That next night, I got what I wished for. She came back, apologized, and explained that she had just died... though the plan was for us to be together in this life, it was no longer possible. That's the last time I ever saw her, but I've never forgotten. I've suffered gender dysphoria since I was at least 4 (the first time I remember shunning the company of other boys and praying to wake up a girl the next morning), so that dream, right on the brink of puberty, was striking in its timing, clarity, and message.
Was she the anima who would have guided me as a cisgender male? I've finally, 20 years later, come to terms with my transsexuality and began hormones and RLE. Did animus not show up these 20 years past because of the void in which I lived? Is this why I turned into a hermit and preferred to drown out my inner dialog? I don't know, but I keep hoping that some night soon, I'll see something that gives me the answers I seek.
My inner voice is neutral. In fact, on the basis of this neutrality, when my therapist asked me if I felt male or female inside, I told her neutral shading into male.
Jungian psychology, at least the classical version thereof, depends so heavily on a gender binary. Jungian psychology really struggles to fit gays and lesbians into its system, never mind the transgender. The whole idea of animus/anima assumes a certain natural, psychological heterosexuality -- the combination of the opposite-genders of ego and anima/animus producing a new, androgynous whole, a "beast with two backs" if you'll allow me the joke. Yet Jung was not necessarily kind to people who straddled the binary, as his case studies of "masculine" (really feminist) women show. I wonder what Jung would make of modern-day teenage boys wearing tight pants and make-up. I imagine him throwing up his hands in confusion. I think Jung had some intriguing ideas, but the anima/animus system clearly has problems, breaking down when in contact with gays and lesbians, or people who do not fit neatly into a gender binary.
On the other hand, I had a very Jungian dream a few years ago. In my dream, I met the "male" version of myself -- myself as I would have been if I had been born male. He was, of course, very handsome...but also really prissy and arrogant. I didn't get to see him too clearly, but I knew he was handsome somehow. He was totally in shadows, in fact, but I knew what he looked like, and even what he was wearing. That dream actually triggered my conscious awareness of having gender "issues", shall we say. Before then, I certainly had problems, but I could not allow myself to consider life as a man...it was too painful to conceive that my life had gone the wrong way. It's hard to accept that as being part of yourself when you are told it is a freakish and insane thing to feel.
Quote from: Yakshini on April 18, 2011, 09:26:27 PM
Because I'm thinking instead of hearing the voice, I couldn't describe the tone.
This, obviously.
My inner voice is like a bitchy but high spirited girl who says "Ugh!" before every sentence whenever she's disgusted, lolz
At least it was today :P
I try not to pay attention to voices in my head... lol just kidding... My inner voice is just sort of a disembodied train of never-ending thought... Doesn't really have a gender...
It's cool hearing from people, I didn't think anyone would care to indulge my curiosity :)
I kind of expected that to talk about gender with their inner thoughts would be an inapplicable question for some people (some people don't think primarily in language, some think in concepts/images/sound/tactile/olfactory sensation or other formats, for some language is visual, some do have an inner voice but to gender it would be inapplicable still, etc.).
But it's interesting to hear about everyone's experiences, eh? I especially liked hearing from folk who do have gendered inner voices, and how it relates to gender identity, natal sex, and transitioning. Thanks, keep it coming ;D
I have a flat monotonous voice without gender for reading
And one for speaking about(and in) hypothetical situation which can (never) happen to me, this voice is andro-femine and most time use girl gender to think about me
my inner voice has, for as far as I can remember, been a somewhat raspy whisper, with no apparent gender. I do generally have a gender when I am about to speak, and the gender of the voice in my head is the sound my body is trying to emulate (ie I make a mocking voice of another person or something I made up) whether I'm capable of making the sound or not. When I daydream or sleep I do also have a gendered voice, but I never daydream of myself, but rather one of dozens of characters in my head. I'm sure it's unhealthy, but they do all have at least some variety of voices both male and female.
My inner voice is a chamelion, I speak with a strong Bristolian accent but my everyday inner voice has no accent or gender.
If i've been talking to my Welsh friends on xbox for a night then for the next few hours my inner voice is Welsh, the same goes for my Scottish, Irish & American friends, this could be linked to the fact that when i'm around strong accents for a few days I start picking up on them, when I was younger i went to Turkey for 2 weeks & fell in with a group from Birmingham & when 2 friends joined us for the second week of the holiday they could barely understand what I was saying as I was talking as if i'd been a Brummie my whole life!
I must say that this is a very interesting topic & has given me something to ponder
Quote from: Jane on April 28, 2011, 01:04:14 PM
My inner voice is a chamelion, I speak with a strong Bristolian accent but my everyday inner voice has no accent or gender.
If i've been talking to my Welsh friends on xbox for a night then for the next few hours my inner voice is Welsh, the same goes for my Scottish, Irish & American friends, this could be linked to the fact that when i'm around strong accents for a few days I start picking up on them, when I was younger i went to Turkey for 2 weeks & fell in with a group from Birmingham & when 2 friends joined us for the second week of the holiday they could barely understand what I was saying as I was talking as if i'd been a Brummie my whole life!
I must say that this is a very interesting topic & has given me something to ponder
My inner and outer voices do the exact same thing. They would rather play with interesting accents and dialects than bother with silly gender business. I had way too much fun at a bachbierfest and came out with a german accent. People think I'm nuts! They love it!
Quote from: Beth Andrea on April 27, 2011, 11:24:25 PM
An additional question I'd be interested in...can anyone else sense from where their inner voice is coming from? (Some cultures believe the inner comes from the belly, we tend to believe it's in the brain, etc) (My voice seems to come from the base area of the brain, slightly to the left of center.)
For me, sometimes this voice seems to come from some place in my forehead. Other times it feels more like the inside of my head is incredibly huge and the voice is just echoing around in the space.
Quote from: JessicaG on April 21, 2011, 02:21:30 AM
Now this migjt sound weird, but when I read my physics textbooks, its Morgan Freeman. He is my personal teacher and makes it easier to understand. Lol. Dead honest. ;D
Funny you would mention that...I don't remember if it was a local on-air host I knew or some other comedian who once made a similar comment about their inner-voice being just like Morgan Freeman. The follow up comment was that it always made them wonder what Andy Dufresne was up to (recalling, obviously, the voiceover from the Shawshank Redemption) :D
Quote from: milly on April 27, 2011, 12:51:14 AM
some people don't think primarily in language, some think in concepts/images/sound/tactile/olfactory sensation or other formats,
This is how my my stream of consciousness goes, almost all of the time.
Sometimes though (more often lately, or when I'm stressed out) there's a voice over top of it all, which I used to refer to as my 'inner vocal voice'. Generally it requires a conscious attempt to speak with it..in my head. Most of the time this voice sounds like how I hear my voice IRL (andro), but after watching a lot of television it gets some funny accents and tones. When I'm feeling really down and dysphoric my inner voice ends up feminine, but when I feel alright it tends to be masculine, if present at all.
Sorry, sort of rambled there. But this was an interesting topic to read.
My real voice is a GERD induced ragged baritone with the dyslexic stammer. My inner voice has always been around E above middle C (mi), slightly feminine and clear! If only I can speak and write the same way without errors!
Joelene
My inner voice is too nebulous a concept to completely pin it down - it is too me to belong to a societal category as gender.
Oh, and how can people largely agree that an internal voice is neither male nor female and still deny that a person can in themselves identify as such?
Quote from: Pica Pica on April 30, 2011, 02:03:05 PM
Oh, and how can people largely agree that an internal voice is neither male nor female and still deny that a person can in themselves identify as such?
The inner voice is like dreams. Some people dream in color, others not. My dreams are in color most of the time with 3-D some of the time. The sounds I hear is a type of stereo that indicates direction. Sometimes my inner voice, thoughts and dreams are abstractions, no sound nor images. The loud whine of my tinnitis at 3.5 KHz and above is in stereo 5.1, weighted to the left and rear, with a 40 Hz rumble once in a while that appears to be in walls, if I near come the audio null of a corner in a quiet room.
Joelene
Quote from: Pica Pica on April 30, 2011, 02:03:05 PM
Oh, and how can people largely agree that an internal voice is neither male nor female and still deny that a person can in themselves identify as such?
Internal voices take place in the mind. They are not subject to sex hormones (at least not the same way the larynx is...).
I don't think there is a need for anyone's internal voice to change from its prenatal sexlessness.
Quote from: Pica Pica on April 30, 2011, 02:03:05 PM
Oh, and how can people largely agree that an internal voice is neither male nor female and still deny that a person can in themselves identify as such?
A person certainly can!
Tell 'em Pica Pica.
My inner voice is kind of a non gendered neurotic little weirdo! :P
Quote from: Pica Pica on April 30, 2011, 02:03:05 PM
Oh, and how can people largely agree that an internal voice is neither male nor female and still deny that a person can in themselves identify as such?
I agree, people can and do identify in infinite and nuanced ways, in terms of male, female and otherwise. Gender isn't just a spectrum, it's multidimensional and complex, certainly not a binary.
For some people, gender is an inapplicable to their identity as their inner voice.
My "inner voice" is my "rational mind" making calculations based upon my learned experiences.This voice has always fought the impulse to be female.The female is probably deeply ingrained in my subconscious.This was the conflict.The subconscious is the more powerful of the two many times over(science has proven this).So what can i do?..Well one thing(probably the only thing) i can do is to change my rational inner voice to one that will tell me it's ok to let the female take over for awhile...With that now everybodys happy
I'd say my conciously-thinking voice is definately female, and much more consistantly so than the voice that comes out of my mouth, which tends to vary a bit depending on my exhaustion level or excitement.
Hi,
So is my computer male or female, or does it think in both at the same time or can it be divided in to sounds . this is me of cause,my brain, or my thinking part,
You can see the notes you can hear the notes , if your a singer or play an instruiment , & are not tone deaf, then in my head i can see where they lie in regard to high or low or a mix of many at the same time . i know if i miss a note or its a sharp , or flat so i spos we can , to explain that, we have to use our voice.
You see a note on the sheet & as you read you can not see if its female or male till you are told in its tone & volume unless its in the treble clef or lower.bass clef or its marked soft as femm or hard as base or soft base ,]
Tho i play by ear i can read music yet to convert that through my hands to my hohrner a malodica wind , is not so easy. yet i know what it is.
Im just a woman ...yet. i think as a woman ....so...
...noeleena...
Depends what it's saying. If it's telling me what an idiot I am, it seems to sound like an old friend from childhood who used to do that a lot, if it's saying I did something okay then it sounds like my mum used to when she said stuff like that. Guess my memories influence what my inner voice(s) sound like.
Answer for me = yes!
It kind of varies.
But if I'm really being myself in a conversation with someone then it's a female voice.
I remember the first time I actually realized it. I was surprised and had never noticed before.
I got all excited.
I don't have a normal female speaking voice yet though unfortunately, but it makes me wonder if it'll sound the way it does in my head when I do.
I really hope so.
Quote from: Emmy on May 08, 2011, 10:20:58 AM
Answer for me = yes!
It kind of varies.
But if I'm really being myself in a conversation with someone then it's a female voice.
I remember the first time I actually realized it. I was surprised and had never noticed before.
I got all excited.
I don't have a normal female speaking voice yet though unfortunately, but it makes me wonder if it'll sound the way it does in my head when I do.
I really hope so.
Bingo! This is exactly like me (right down to outward non-female voice yet).
I too recall noticing that I was 'thinking' in a female voice/perspective for the first time and was like 'that was weird - but nice.' It basically occurs most of the time nowadays.
Sometimes I even think to myself "Thank God they can't hear what I'm thinking right now" as it happens tons around men. Gotta work on aligning that outside/inside thingie. One less closet to come out from....
My inner voice sounds like me! haha! It's funny because it's always going, and saying something or making my thoughts verbal in my brain.. if that makes sense! XD It sounds like the higher register of my own voice but still me nonetheless! :)
Quote from: ~RoadToTrista~ on April 25, 2011, 01:06:15 AM
My inner voice is like a bitchy but high spirited girl who says "Ugh!" before every sentence whenever she's disgusted, lolz
At least it was today :P
yes. yes. yes! I don't know if it's from watching BtVS all these years(just watched Band Candy last night) but my inner voice is definitely girly! Not all the time, but a good bit.
Sorry for the old thread ;D
Quote from: noeleena on May 08, 2011, 02:31:20 AM
So is my computer male or female,
my laptop is a slightly feminine male, the stationary is more like a male ogre. i don't think i've owned any female computers, but at least i know that my mom's car is a real tough lady
and back to topic.. my inner voice is my own, sometimes even spoken out loud. it's androgynous, but some times sounds slightly feminine, depends on what i'm thinking about. it usually speaks english, norwegian, or sami, but often also japanese. the voice will sound in very different ways in japanese, depending on what speech pattern it uses, but never really feminine. it sounds like a delinquent gal when trying to use a female speech pattern, but usually it speaks more like a guy
for those who are interested in jung's funny theories. once in my early puberty i had this dream... i was in the bathroom (safest place in the house), ->-bleeped-<-ing myself by sticking my dick in my pussy. try making sense of that in terms of anima/animus. i think i've alway wanted to have a hermaphrodite body with androgynous looks, so i could just be whatever i want to be
I have two inner voices, I'm crazy I know it XD But they're like this:
the voice that's female and tells me what to do to act like a girl, and normally gets on my nerves.
and the male voice that says all of the things I want to do.
So I guess its fake and real me :/