After almost 16 years of practicing mainly feminization of the transgender woman’s voice on a daily basis, I notice more and more an increasing demand from cisgender women in terms of femininity, emotionality of their speech and way of expressing themselves. Indeed, voice feminization does not only encompass the transgender voice but also works with cisgender voices, bigender voices, fluid voices, etc.
I also realize that for a few years now, in my sector, there has been a common and reiterative phenomenon; there is an excess of cisgenderization of transidentity, including voice, behaviors, attitudes, etc.
It is clear that, since I started working on the feminization of the voice, I have noticed an evolution in society. An evolution in terms of acceptance of the transgender person (and be careful because this still differs from one country to another), depathologization, open-mindedness regarding transgender people but, even if we are still far from reaching a real balance, I think we are on the right track.
However, as you can read in my article and hear in my video on the de-medicalization of my practice, under my point of view, society is still too hypocritical because, despite having a law that protects transgender people, there are still too many medicalized protocols that hinder the journey of the transidentitarian person and imprison them in a false freedom.
I therefore advocate de-cisgeneralization in general, but also depathologization and de-medicalization of any practice linked to the transidentified person.
Demystification of the cisgender voice
As far as voice is concerned, I think that the cisgender voice needs to be demystified. Throughout all these years of work, I have noticed that transgender women associate a cisgender voice with a perfect voice (regardless of the time of day or the characteristics and circumstances of life), which causes them great frustration/envy/comprehension because they are looking for something fictitious.
Indeed, the cisgender voice is a changing, dynamic, melodious voice… but it is, above all, a human voice, i.e. a voice that moves with us throughout the day; in the morning, it is slightly deeper (like all voices in fact), when it has a cold it gets worse, etc. We must know that the voice reflects our emotions, so sometimes it is difficult to understand, especially when the emotion is too strong, it darkens when we get angry, and, of course, it disappears when we are affected by the silence mainly caused by the emotion.
The vast majority of my patients/trainees come to Femivoz with a mental image or representation of the cisgender voice that is far from realistic. They consider the cisgender voice as a perfect voice that they want no matter what. I think, this is the cause of many of their daily frustrations, because, deep down, they are looking for something unattainable.
Therefore, it is important to know that the vocal training proposed to my trainees is not oriented towards the objective of reaching the sonority of a cisgender voice, but the purpose is to build, discover, know, draw their own voice, the same one that will end up in total harmony with their personality and identity. So, to the question: can a transgender voice reach the sonority of a cisgender voice? My answer is: “I think that every voice is different from every other voice and cannot be compared”. If the question is: can a transgender voice achieve a natural sonority, the answer is clearly “yes”.
On the contrary, a wrong act is the constant attempt to cisgeneralize a voice. I think that transgender women should orient their vocal training towards the search for their own voice, as this will allow them to achieve the vocal development they dream of, thus reaching a real voice, in total harmony with their personality and their universe. The idea is not to plagiarize a cisgender voice in order to imprison once again the transgender woman in a scheme that does not take into account her personality or her identity, but in this case, to “normalize” or “cisgeneralize” her.
This imposed vocal scheme would prevent to reach the vocal balance necessary to be totally in harmony with the personality and identity of the transgender person. Therefore, what I do is to develop a vocal, expressive and communicational dynamic, unique and proper to each one of us; without copying schemes, forgetting the fear of rejection.
It should also be taken into account that, sometimes, the excessive cisgeneralization of the transgender voice generates a too caricatural or unnatural sonority that ends up locking the transgender woman in a false copy of the cisgender voice, and that, consequently, ends up imprisoning her instead of freeing her.
Revision/abolition of the terms and concepts gender and transgender.
I must say that, although it may seem bold, I am against the term “gender” since, in my view, it is a purely social and useless creation that prevents the necessary social balance from being achieved. Likewise, I am against the concept of “transgender” because it highlights the concept of gender imposed by a society that continues to imprison us in a social scheme that distinguishes rather than unites us, that “normalizes” rather than allows us the freedom to be unique.
For me, transidentity should not be considered as a “deviation” from a normality imposed by a society that does not respect human diversity (in fact this is what happens with speech therapy that continues to treat the transgender voice as a pathological voice and not as a healthy voice, which is why I am de-medicalizing my practice and moving away from speech therapy).
Therefore, for me, every being should have the freedom to express themselves as they are, without having to submit to any rules whether social, legal or otherwise in order to be accepted.
Likewise, I think that all people in this world are “human beings”, without any other label. Thus, I am in favor of the abolition of any social categorization linked to gender in order to free ourselves behaviorally, educationally, communicationally and vocally. I am in favor of a society where the categorizations linked to sex, gender, stereotypes… are non-existent.
In an ideal society, sexual orientation, self-expression, identity… would be a source of diversity, human richness, respect and freedom. Thus, it would no longer be necessary to define ourselves as men or women, nor would we be obliged to stereotype our children from birth, it would be enough to let them grow up in total harmony with their identity in order to allow and motivate them in their development in total freedom.
This last social scheme would allow us to live freely and would considerably reduce the discomforts linked to identity. It would above all allow us to give the human being an opportunity to go beyond himself, to get out of his own conceptual and social prisons that have been inflicted on us for centuries.
As a conclusion, there should be no distinction between cisgender and transgender voice, nor between cisgender woman and transgender woman; in this society, there should be neither schemes that separate nor schemes that oppose human beings.
However, I think that our society is in full evolution and transition, and, currently, regarding the distinction between cisgender and transgender voice, I must say that as a vocal coach my aim is not to help my patients to achieve a copy of the cisgender voice, but to help them to discover themselves in order to make the most of their human, vocal, feminine potential… so that they can express themselves freely and in total harmony with their own existential scheme.