Do you try to feminize your voice when interacting en femme?

[Elizabeth G]

Hi All,

I was out last week fully dressed for the first time in years (I had a great time btw) and for the most part my interactions were with people I knew (shop owners at shops I frequent) so I didn't worry about my voice. However at one point I was approached by a stranger, a polite gentleman who was about my age or perhaps a few years older, and I had no choice but to speak with him.

It went well enough but I felt like since I was presenting as a woman I had to try to sound like one too the extent possible, I guess in my head, for safety reasons.

So, for those of you who go out, when you interact with strangers do you try to feminize your voice?

Thanks,
Beth

[bridget thronton]

I due not - I do find myself limiting my talking and trying to talk more softly but I M not skilled enough to pull off a fem voice

[BillieAnneJean]

I do feminize my voice and speak softly. Plus all the other visual attributes.

I LOVE going OUT enfemme in the general public.

SUCH FUN!
Billie

[FrannGurl]

I tend to be very aware of how my voice sounds when presenting as a female, especially when talking on the phone to men that are interested in dating me that I am getting to know. Most times, it comes naturally, but other times, I have to work at it.

[karla2016]

I try my best however I know is not enough. Last trip to Vegas I was playing next to a woman for about fifteen minutes or so. She was in her business and I was in mine. Then my girlfriend approached me and asked me something, when I answered her the woman next to me almost put her eyes out their sockets watching at me, realizing I wasn't a GG.

[Cheryl T]

I try, but I don't always sound very feminine. I try to soften my voice, change the inflections and raise the tone.
I don't practice it, I just do it when needed in public though like most I try not to engage others unless it's necessary

[S. Lisa Smith]

I do and am told that I do sound like a woman. I don't sound like a woman to me, but I do alter my voice.

[Krisi]

I try not to put myself in a position where I have to interact with people because I don't go out often and don't get a lot of practice. Obviously, if someone passing on the street says "hello", it would be rude not to respond so I try to sound like a woman when I reply.

I'm sure I wouldn't be able to carry on an extended conversation as a woman. Again, not enough practice.

[Elizabeth G]

Thank you all so much for all of the input and responses. That's why I love this forum - the collective knowledge and support her is very much appreciated.

Thanks again,
Beth

[TrishaTX]

I tried and quit lol! Instead I speak softly at least...which does not do the trick

[michelleddg]

Of course. As for many others, trying and succeeding are not entirely in sync. However, I have a pet theory that if you're presenting well your voice is ultimately not that important. If you watch enough youtube video you see all sorts of drag queens who, when they speak, sound female but, if you close your eyes, they sound like a dude. Hugs, Michelle

[Jenniferathome]

Not really. I try to raise the tone a little and eliminate the really deep tones, but I think it is worse to sound like minnie mouse.

[Micki_Finn]

I'm with Jennifer here, soften a little but I feel like straining my voice to create some bad charicature of a female voice feels more obvious than just going natural (and I've got a fairly deep voice to start with).

[aprilgirl]

Personally, I don't attempt a feminine voice, and just speak in quieter tones not to be overheard outside the conversation. I figure that I've given off plenty of visual clues to anyone who is close enough to interact with me. Kim

[Lexi_83]

Not really. I try to raise the tone a little and eliminate the really deep tones, but I think it is worse to sound like minnie mouse.

Lol.
Best I can manage is a whisper.

[ellbee]

I talk in my deepest, manliest voice possible -- just to really freak 'em out.


Actually, I don't do that, LOL.

Though I think the absolute worst is to try to fake a female voice, having it come out as some kind of falsetto or something. In which case, you're way better off just "softening" your regular male voice a bit, and leave it at that.

[Pat]

I love to talk to people when I'm out and about. Generally I keep my pitch a step or two higher than my "FM announcer" male voice, but not especially higher. The biggest thing I try to do is keep the resonance out of my chest by keeping my voice in the mask area. But if I get into a long convo I'm going to forget at some point. I just accept that's me. Usually by then the focus has shifted from me to the conversation so I'm not too worried about spoiling my look.

[Jilmac]

My natural voice is baritone but I can raise it to tenor when en femme, and it sounds passable because there are a lot of females with tenor, and very male sounding voices that have been mistaken for male just from the way they talk. Tenor works fine for me and doesn;t sound fake.

[Ceera]

Absolutely! As Ceera I virtually never use the same voice in public that I use as my male identity. I do it well enough that a lot of strangers have talked to me extensively and not realized I wasn't born a girl.

Within minutes of putting on my makeup and wig, my voice shifts up about half an octave to an octave higher, and becomes softer and more feminine. The way I phrase things and the tempo and modulation of my voice is also carefully different in female mode, mimicking the speech patterns of women I know well. I don't even have to think about it any more. It tends to stick that way for half an hour or more after I dress down again to male mode, too.

I spent three months watching you-tube videos and studying audio and video course materials on how to feminize a male voice, before I ever tried to go out en-femme at all. To me, having a feminine voice is as much a part of my presentation as my wigs or my breast forms. I've been asked when out en-femme to allow my friends who know I'm transgender to hear my 'guy voice', and it's actually getting difficult for me to do it any more. When I do, they can hardly believe that voice came out of me. As a male, I sing base to tenor. But Ceera's voice is a definite soprano.

I realized that a lot of MtF drag performers and CD's don't bother to change their voices. And that's fine, if that is how they want to present to the world. But to me, speaking in a male voice while trying to appear feminine is as jarring a disruption as a Shakespearean actor performing in Hamlet or some other period play stopping in mid-performance and answering his cell phone, in a New York accent! My goal when I go out is to be the woman that I feel is a part of me, and to be accepted as that woman, to the extent that I can manage it. I can't do that if I speak, and people are looking around to see where the burly football player is hiding, behind that pretty girl.

[Rachael Leigh]

The only thing I do is try and soften it a bit, I'm a soft talker anyway so I raise the pitch just a bit but doubt it sounds very
feminine

[Jane G]

No not at all. I do however get told of by my wife for talking like a girl when not dressed.

[Kandi Robbins]

Do I feminize my voice? While it's not deep, it is distinctly male and I really couldn't without sounding like Minnie Mouse.

Now I do try and speak a bit softer and use language a bit more feminine (like not using the f word as much!), but heck, I ain't fooling anyone. I've found being "me", open and honest, has worked well and made me much more easily accepted everywhere I go.

[Alice_2014_B]

Of all the times I have been out en femme I have only interacted with strangers one time, that was going to a comedy club to do stand-up on open-mic night.
I did not try to feminize my voice at all, from getting carded upon entry, doing my stand-up jokes, and leaving.
It is something I may practice though.

[carhill2mn]

Yes, I do. Fortunately, my voice is not one that is extremely "male". I have learned and continue to practice feminine speaking patterns. I have also learned to not project my voice as I would if presenting as a man.

I received what I think was the ultimate compliment from a woman who is a friend of a woman friend of mine. I had spent at least 20 minutes in a one-on-one conversation with this woman. She knew that my friend was big supporter of CD/trans people. This woman asked my friend if I was the Carole that she sometimes met for dinner. My friend replied that yes, I was. This woman then said to my friend that "she" is a GG, right. My friend replied no, but she will be very pleased to hear that you think so. The woman then said that "she certainly has all of the mannerisms down pat".

[Nicolesmyth]

I take the voice up just a notch. I know I don't fool anybody, but it seems a little easier for folks to interact with me if I am trying to present myself as a lady. Of course I don't go into the high pitched realm, because even that makes me giggle.