The taxpayer-powered CBC released a video on Wednesday featuring a "gender-affirming voice teacher" who teaches people how to shift their natural voices in order to fight off "persistent gender dysphoria" felt by her students.
Renee Yoxon of Montreal is featured in the video, and provides a vocal exercise designed to help people change their natural voice to a higher or lower pitch.
"Today, I'm going to prove to you that you already have everything you need to create a speaking voice that you love using one quick exercise," she says in the video, before going through a voice drill that teaches how to "masculinize" or "feminize" your voice.
"If you're trying to masculinize your voice, I want you to say that big relaxed 'oh,' and then memorize that shape, and use it when you say 'key'," Yoxon says.
"Now if you're trying to feminize your voice, I want you to say that small and cute 'key,' memorize that shape, and then hold it when you go and say 'oh.' Creating a speaking voice that best represents your gender identity is something that everybody can do," she says.
In an article by Yoxon, she says that her goal "as a gender-affirming voice teacher is to reframe the voice as simply another mode of expression, like hair, makeup and clothes. While there is still much stigma around unmitigated gender expression through hair, makeup and clothing — especially when a person is using these to express femininity when femininity is not expected — the modification of voice carries a particularly unexamined stigma."
She continues: "There is a persistent belief that the habituated voice (the voice acquired in childhood) is a person's real voice, and anything else is fake. However, it is my belief that it is not inauthentic to re-habituate your voice for any reason. One of the privileges of autonomy and personhood is that you should be able to choose your clothing, your hair, your makeup — and your voice."
"I've come across a wide variety of reasons why a person might want to modify their speaking voice. For a lot of trans people, the voice is a source of persistent gender dysphoria. Learning to speak in a new way can alleviate the distress that can come from speaking with a voice that does not feel like your own. There are also trans people who are happy with their speaking voice the way it is but decide to learn to speak differently in certain situations where their voice might compromise their safety."
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