Program at the U of M helps transgender women…sound like women…:
“Every time [“Alice”, the transgender woman who is one of this story’s subjects] called [her grandmother] in high school, she would say, ‘Oh, your voice is getting deeper, you sound like you’re growing into such a nice man, you’re going to be like your dad,'” Alice said.
Those were painful words to hear [of course they were – Ed]. Alice remembers artificially raising the pitch of her voice to thwart her grandmother’s comments.
It wasn’t until years later that Alice realized she was transgender. She started to publicly transition during her senior year in college. She’s 23 now and recently graduated from a speech therapy program that helps transgender people safely adjust how they speak, so they can sound more like themselves.
“I’m at a point where for like 90 plus percent of the time, I’m happy with how I sound and how I’m perceived by other people,” Alice said. “This is something I never expected to be in a position of. And it’s really exciting.”
…but only the kind of women they approve of:
Alice did adopt some behaviors, such as using her hands differently when she spoke. But she refused to fall in line with gender norms she thought were antiquated or offensive.
“I am a feminist. I’m going to act like it. Just because this is a typical feminine behavior, if it is just a very patriarchal, like trying to silence and subdue women, I’m not going to do that,” Alice said. “It’s not worth it.”
Wait’ll the Progressive Powers that Be learn that people think they can turn their intesectional triggers on and off.
She’ll never do lunch in the Warehouse District again.
I went looking for some more information on this program. Not that I want to change the way I talk, but who’s it available to? Who pays for it? Sounds like it’s funded by (what else) a grant. https://cla.umn.edu/slhs/news-events/story/program-helps-transgender-people-find-their-true-voice
I think University extension programs can be great. Developing Honeycrisp apples, helping farmers know about new/better techniques, etc. If I recall, it was part of the whole land grant universities that were established. But, think about those programs – farmers are growing our food. Programs like this benefit society with crops better suited to climate (oh, those horribly genetically modified apples and corn). While I don’t personally and directly benefit from the public money spent on that program, I’m good with it. At the root, the program is designed to benefit our society by making a resource more easily available.
The speech/hearing/language extension program seems to have started nicely. Let the students get some experience, and help out people that likely couldn’t afford those services. Got it. But I wonder if some kid with a cleft lip or something won’t get help so that a human that decides the way they talk doesn’t fit their “gender identity” can have happy feelz about themselves.
A line from Tool keeps coming to mind – “The only way to cleanse it is to flush it all away”
True voice? I guess you could teach people to speak in a more believable falsetto, but once those vocal chords are lengthened, it’s still going to be a falsetto, and it’s going to be hard to change that with even surgery. Never mind that even if you did shorten the vocal chords, it’s the combination of vocal chords, esophagus, mouth, nose, bronchial tubes, and lungs that actually give it resonance.
So even if you were able to shorten the vocal chords, it would be like putting a trumpet mouthpiece on a tuba. The effect will be, needless to say, somewhat different.
It’s insanity alphabet soup. Dig in, it’s gooood!
Every time I read one of these tranny stories, I think of Bob hugging Tyler Durden into his massive man milkies.
Then I laugh and laugh.
Men who believe that they are women need mental health help, not voice lessons.