Exploring Different Expressions of Feminine Speech

There are many different things that make up what is typically considered feminine by the general public. Feminine speech is a spectrum and there are always exceptions so its important to follow whatever helps you feel the most comfortable and authentic. There may be occasions where you may shift your voice to be safer and that is valid. Most cis gendered people have a long time to figure out how to use their voice and explore it without facing heavy critiques. It’s important to explore and make mistakes. After exploration even when you know how to achieve a voice that feels more like you it takes time to integrate it into everyday life and to become your natural voice using muscle memory rather than thinking about each individual sentence. 

Moods may affect how you speak and it may require processing that emotion and learning different grounding tools to make speech more consistent with certain moods. A music therapist can explore emotions and speech through music- that could look like lyric processing, songwriting or singing/recreation around the mood that is hard to control. 

There are some trends of what is considered feminine. In general, feminine voices are often more melodic with more pitch variance. Excited feminine speech tends to speed up and grow slightly in pitch variance. With the pitch variance the speech is often bouncier and it can be helpful to notice how other feminine individuals shape their sentences. Some people like using apps on their phone that shows the pitch range of their speech. Soundcorssett app shows the pitch in Hz (what is often used to measure pitch) as well as music notes. Some apps show the speech pattern as well in line form going up and down with the pitch. A cisgender woman often speaks on average 133-330Hz. The neutral range in pitch is 147-220 Hz. In the neutral range how you speak is more important for perception than the highness of the sounds.

Feminine voices often sit in different spots in the voice. Some individuals prefer to speak using a forward voice that is often similar to speaking while smiling. Some like to add gentle tone and others breath. Each voice is unique and there are often exceptions for voices. Voices also often represent the cultural background of the speaker. 

One important tool for shifting your voice can be to try the extremes of new things without feeling any pain and start to notice how it all feels in your body. While speaking you can feel vibrations on your chin, nose, lips and jaws with your hands to notice the way it feels. One way to practice this is to try singing on certain vowels. Notice how “eee” and “aaaayyy” are often smiley and near the nose while OOO is more towards the back of the throat or jaw. Most people sit in the middle but this provides a starting point to learn how to shift your voice to fit into what you are hoping for more of.

References:

Mills, M., & Stoneham, G. (2017). The Voice Book for Trans and non-binary People: A practical guide to creating and sustaining authentic voice and Communication. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Soundcorset Tuner