your average cis ally seems to think that the voice is feminized by estrogen & oh to live in that worldβ¦.
cis ally was far too generous actually. ur average non transfem seems to believe this
do the people embarrassing themselves by admitting this shit realize that they don't have to say this out loud, or do they genuinely think it's funny to be ignorant about trans women's lives?
hi everyone! OP here!
When i made this post, i was expressing FRUSTRATION with this exact type of behavior. i do not think it is funny. i do not think it is cute. i think it betrays a stunning level of self-absorbed, navel-gazing idiocy that you should not feel comfortable admitting to me, let alone as though it's a joke we're both in on. Your ignorance of transfeminine hormone therapy is something you should be ASHAMED of. No investigation, no right to speak!
This breaks the flow of the post, but it was so egregiously wrong that I had to single it out. This is not true! This is not an 'amab/afab' thing! Higher testosterone levels, especially during puberty, leads to the lengthening & thickening of the vocal cords, along with expansion of the larynx. The larynx still expands during an estrogenic first puberty, but not as much, and the vocal cords do not thicken and lengthen in the same way. This is WHY trans women have to voice train- estrogenic second puberty does not undo this. Instead, we need to physically train the muscles in order to produce the desired sound.
The notes on this post broadly split into two camps- the first of which being fellow trans women commiserating the difficulties of finding and accessing voice training, how often they've heard this from TME people in their lives (multiple girls were asked when their voices would raise by their ENDOCRINOLOGISTS. horrifying), etc etc. Nothing but love to all of you, and I'm so sorry we're all going through this. A few girls have expressed that they found out through this post, and again, I'm so sorry. To put it in no uncertain terms, you were failed. We all deserve better than this. Here's a compassionately written (and in my experience fairly accurate) guide to estrogenic second puberty. And for good measure, here is transfeminine hormone therapy 101. I recommend reading both of these to familiarize yourself with what you can expect, and what you should be getting from your medical providers.
As for camp 2- the TME people on this post proudly proclaiming their ignorance. I'll repeat myself. No investigation. No right to speak. As @estrogenesis-eeveeangelion put it in her own post-
"if you can understand why "cishet man is proudly ignorant of and openly disgusted by vulvas/menstruation/menopause" is not just rude but has an intensely political dimension that is about power and oppression, but you are a queer person who declares out loud in public with no shame that you don't know how feminizing HRT works and have never learned[...]" - you are engaging in transmisogyny. Ask yourself. Why don't you know this? Why did you never bother to learn? Are there trans women in your life? Do you talk to them? Often? Read the above links, and for fuck's sake stop lining up in front of me to tell me you find it that you didn't know this. We're not laughing. Take the hint.
