Author:
In many stories on BCTS I read where the author assigns a "female voice" to his or her actress. I have made my own opinion known many times down through the years it's the rise and fall of pitch differentiates between a male and female voice. Several female actresses had a deep voice such as Paula Prentiss, Lauren Bacall, Susan Plushett, to name just a few. I doubt very few who had their back to them, and heard any of these women speak in a crowd, would turn to see who is talking think they are looking at a male.
My own voice changes so much during the day and or from day to day I'm not sure how I'm going to sound when I speak. Over the phone, they usually respond with with ma'am when I answer. If it's a business call and they ask to speak to "Mr." they usually hesitate when I respond, "speaking". If they are calling for Barbie, "yes, how may I help you?" there is never a hesitation. Too many years back I used a voice recorder to talk to and find a "female voice". It wasn't a rise in pitch but drop an octave and go sing song I found a voice I believed I could make a living talking to men over the phone. If you get my meaning. If the responses I received when talking on the CB was any indication, I was right. Careful people, you never know who is on the other end of that mike or phone.
I have never used that voice when meeting people. One, I don't know if I could maintain it for hours of conversation. Two, it's not really me. The first time I met one of my doctors for trans exam, and after approx ten minutes of conversation he asked me to use my normal voice. I answered what he was hearing was my normal voice. Then switched to my "female voice" and carried on the conversation for a couple minutes. He didn't say it but it was in his eyes as he studied me, "unbelievable".
One never knows what their own voice sounds like to other people until you record it and listen to it yourself. I've read where putting one's hands over their ears and speaking they would hear their voice as other's hear them. That's such crock I wonder how it ever got started.
Please, if one is afraid of being clocked or read, it's not such a bad thing except in your own mind. What is one striving for when they dress up and go out? Trying to be the girl next door or Miss America are nice goals in one's life but reality is a bitch. I've met a few girls who could be either but they aren't the norm. If one is stepping out, accept yourself. Most everyone else will accept you as, well, you. If one acts like a deer in the headlights, or a cat burglar crawling out the window, trust me, everyone will notice. People give off emotional vibes and the more extreme the emotions the more people will notice. There are more than the five senses and that sixth one is as real as the other five.
Above all else, be yourself, enjoy this life. It's the only one you're going to get at this moment in time. Don't take chances and stay safe. Buddy up with another girl or girl friends or boy friends if that works when going out. If one lives a kazillion miles from civilization, carry protection if law allows. Twenty five states allow Constitutional Carry. Every citizen has the right to protect themselves from harm. Check your state laws. I had two licenses to carry, either concealed or open before Oklahoma passed the Constitutional Carry Laws. I've kept them renewed for one reason only. If it ever comes to me defending myself, they are like a sheriff badge. I'm a woman, they may look but they can't touch. The judge knows I took the classes on firearms and defensive safety, end of story. I could have taught the instructors. I've been carrying since I was six years old. A gun is a useful tool nothing more. One doesn't drive with a shovel in their hands. It has a purpose and a useful tool.
Stay safe, travel in pairs or groups, watch each others drinks if one drinks. Don't leave with someone you don't know unless you have a death wish. There are predators and trans seems to be at the top of the list. Beautiful, long hair, interestingly dressed means one is at the top of that list. Survival means keeping one's mind in the game. Race car drivers lose their focus they lose their lives. Don't lose your focus anytime when out and about. A parking lot can be a dangerous place as much as a night club..
Hugs people, life is a gift, don't waste it.
Barb.
The boy and girl were born at the same time. They grew up together, the boy protecting the girl keeping her safe. In time the girl grew strong enough to live her own life. It was her turn to protect the boy. She would do that until the end of their lives which would end the way it began. Both finishing at the same time laid to rest in the same coffin. Most would only see the woman. Others would know there were two.
Comments
Feminine voice
Passing is highly over rated. Better to be accepted for who you are.
When I'm out and about, the only modification to my voice I make is to soften it and try to keep the bass notes to a minimum. Most people when looking at you will decide in the first few seconds if you are male or female. After that decision is made, it would take a huge non sequitur to change it.
Case in point: While I'm retired and have moved to a small town (2500 population), I drive school bus to give me something to do. It's the policy of the company to rinse the buses after each run. There are two stations to do that. One near the back of the property next to the fueling station and one near the Highway that goes by the bus yard. One afternoon, a month or so ago, I was rinsing my bus near the highway. I had my back to the road when I heard the sound of tires on the gravel. I didn't think too much of it as we have small vans that we use and I thought it might be one of them. Keep in mind that my drivers license indicates me as being male, so for work I dress pretty butch. Sneakers, jeans and a polo shirt (all off the women's racks). Only my hair is long with the sides pulled back to the crown of my head and held with a nondescript barrette. The car stopped and a man called out, "Excuse me young lady." (Mind you I'm 77 and the man in question was of that age group as well.) It was in the manor that older men address older women. Mind you I also don't wear any make up, not even lipstick at work. I turned to face him fully expecting him to notice my male origins but he didn't. He wanted to know if I knew where a feed store was. (It was about a quarter mile farther down the highway) His car was about ten feet away and he was talking to me through the passenger side window so that put him about eighteen feet from me in an outdoor, somewhat noisy environment. In order to be heard, I had to project my voice, which meant that all of the tricks I use to give a facsimile of feminine couldn't be used. I gave him the information he was seeking. I expected that he would pull back onto the highway and get on his way. But he stayed to talk in a flirtatious manor smiling all the time. I finally told him that I needed to finish rinsing my bus and turned back to the job. To spite my voice and the masculine cut of my jaw, he had decided I was a woman when he saw me from the back with my hair being the only indicator of that idea and my masculine voice and lack of make up wasn't enough to change his mind.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Hugs Patricia
It's nice to be acknowledge in one's chosen life choices. The gentleman accepted you as you, obviously you were projecting female.
Like you, my CDL is M but the funny part it isn't my legal name nor legal gender. However Oklahoma refuses to change it along with my birth certificate to reflect my legal status. Legally the courts register me as Barbie Jean Lee F and Oklahoma Vital Records refuses to acknowledge the court. I carry a conflicting amount of official IDs and honestly think it's funny. She doesn't look anything like he if I ever get pulled over. Legal Lambda and ACLU have filed separate lawsuits in Federal Court against Oklahoma. I'll let everyone know if anything changes. I'm applying for a passport tomorrow, name and gender change is allowed by court order. The same with SS card which has my legal name. The VA was quick and easy but one wouldn't believe the legals and IDs held up by that CDL and birth certificate. Gov Stitt has made me what he hates, I'm male not female via Okla records, I'm not a male but a female via court order. I can't change car titles, property ownership, DEQ isn't budging along with a dozen other agencies. Oklahoma Dept of Transportation didn't have any problem with permits but I can't change CDL with them. I'm not Gary by court order but I'm not Barbie by Stitt's exec order. I don't exist. Wonder if I can convince the IRS I'm not here?
Hugs Patricia, have fun with life, it's too short to take it seriously
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
There's a bright golden haze on the meadow
Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry!
O-k-l-a-h-o-m-a!
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Don't hide
don't wear my lingerie
don't steal my corselette
People will say I'm a trope
Love, Andrea Lena
My voice
has changed since my stroke, deepening but no one seems to care, the local shops all know what happened a month ago and seem pleased to see me, or at least take my money. The rest, well they couldn't care anyway and neither do I. As I've lived and worked as female for nearly forty years I don't think I have anything to prove, and they all think I'm a nutty scientist, which is true and they know I'd rather be talking to dormice.
Angharad
Voices
My school biology teacher had a quite harsh sounding and very low pitched voice, which could easily be taken as masculine. Nobody that I know of saw it like that, she was however regarded as an eccentric science bod. My belief is that apart from voice mannerisms, it is timbre and resonance which tends to characterise voice gender rather than pitch.
Teri Ann
"Reach for the sun."