A shocking wake up call? I dont' know, either.

[Guest Lizzie McTrucker]

So I've been doing this girl thing for close to a month now. I haven't worked on my voice much aside from raising it up a bit to a place where I still feel comfortable talking, yet have some range for inflections in speech and whatnot. I've recorded myself and of course that never helps because I hate the way I sound (some things never change).

Well I've been using this voice since I started doing the girl thing not really knowing if it's bad, okay or good enough. So I found myself in Albany GA tonight at a Pilot truck stop. I'm putting fuel in my truck, minding my own business, cleaning the windshield, wondering what I just stepped in..you know, the usual.

So a fellow company driver walks up to me and asks me a question. I remind myself to use "that voice" so I answer him and his immediate reply was, "Woah, I wasn't expecting that kind of voice."

You should have seen the look on my face. It was that look where you realize you may have just accidentally outed yourself. Dead-pan shock, I guess is another way to describe it.

In hindsight I should have should have should have asked him what he meant. That would have given me something to work with, but alas all I'm left with is speculation. Of course once I got back into the truck I went into super-paranoia-mode and started frantically doing voice exercises and pitch changes and holding notes and then trying to talk in a monotone with said note.

About an hour later I got to thinking..maybe he meant he was expecting a much higher voice and what I gave him was a lower, yet within female range, voice. Then off I go again into paranoia-mode and started playing around with higher, squeakier voices.

Another hour later I concluded that out of all the people I've talked with over these last couple weeks, that's only one person who said anything. One person out of....many. Statistically speaking that would mean he fell into the 1% and everyone else either were polite and didn't say anything until I was far, far away or didn't think anything unusual about the voice.

In the end, I decided to try and keep my voice inflections from dropping too low but there will always be that lingering question if my voice has gone from typical male, to stereotypical gay male and isn't quite up to female. Of course my friend (and fellow member here) Elena says there is nothing wrong with my voice at all. Then again I think she did artillery in the military.

I'll run it past mom and get her opinion and ask her what she thinks and her ideas on what I should change. Liz, that sounds like a plan. I love it when I come up with solutions on my own, it makes me feel brilliant. Now if Liz can just stop herself from referring to herself in the third person, that would be great....

[Michelle 2010]

Hey Liz, sometimes we shake it off and keep going,huh? I had a gay 50 yr old male who is pretty tight with the local drag queen scene tell me not to quit my Day Job when I showed him a picture of me. Only knew me in drab. 15 out of 16 approval rate is still a good average, lol!

Michelle

[JJ]

Liz I suspect he had this picture in his mind of the high pitched sweet little Southern Belle voice. You were in Georgia right? My mother made me practice for hours and each time I opened my mouth it had to be in that Southern Belle tone or repeat what I said till it was when I was around 11 and 12. And I was female bodied! So many girls down south pitch their voices up even above normal female range Or so it was in Texas and I have observed it when traveling through other states in the deep south. They just pick it up but not seeing myself internally as a girl I had to be forced to it.

Anyway I suspect as blunt as he was he would have said "Whoa! You sound like a dude!" if that was what he meant. You just surprised him by having a different female voice than the one he had in his head. Probably having that little girl Southern Belle voice wouldn't actually be an asset in your profession either. Makes you sound like an easy target

If there was a problem with sounding female you'd have gotten feedback before now. I bet it's just fine. Unless you do that Minnie Mouse thing again

Hugs

Johnny

[KathrynJulia]

Good morning Lizzie:

You may have had a dry throat that made your voice sound croaky and raspy. When I get up in the morning, I hate my voice, a cup of coffee to go, my vocal CD in the CD player and 15 minutes later, I love the sound of my voice. But until I hydrate and loosen up my voice doing voice excercises, I'm not going to fool anybody with my voice. I'm just not that good yet. I suspect he caught you with your vocal chords just not ready to play nice.

Hugs Lizzie As Mary Tyler Moore theme song "We're going to make it after all". Katheryn

[Guest Lizzie McTrucker]

Unless you do that Minnie Mouse thing again

Every time I pull on to a CAT scale I remember that night and I do a quick vocal check before pushing that button.

[Guest Ney'ite]

Lizzie, here is a suggestion another trans woman said she did when she was working on her voice. She would call different large chain bookstores and ask if they had such-and-such title in stock. Yes, it is over the phone and not the best sounding, but you will know instantly how at least one total stranger on the other end, who has no visual of you to gender you and no clue about your past, will address you if they should happen to use any pronouns.

[Guest Amelia]

What a jerk! I'm surprised a stranger would have the gall to even say that. But I do agree that he was likely expecting a higher voice because of your cute appearance, but what he heard was just a lower voice still in a female range.

Love,

Jessica