Language and Transgender

This dissertation is based on a long-term ethnographic and sociophonetic study of 15 transgender people on the female-to-male (or transmasculine) identity spectrum. The focus of the study is the way these individuals’ voices change during the first 1-2 years of masculinizing hormone therapy, which brings about a drop in vocal pitch along with other salient physiological changes. Based on regular recordings of participants during a one year period, the analysis tracks changes in fundamental frequency as well as formant frequencies and the acoustic characteristics of [s], each of which has a different place in biology-driven theories of gender and the voice. In addition to ostensibly hormonally driven changes to speakers’ available fundamental frequency range, I present evidence that these speakers are engaged in various types of articulatory shifts as part of their gender role transition, which affect both formants and [s]. However, I argue that changes in all three of the phonetic domains examined here must be situated in both sociocultural and linguistic context, even where biology appears to play a significant role. The analyses presented, which include attention to both intra- and inter-speaker variation, draw on a multi-layered understanding of gender derived from transgender people’s own distinctions between gender assignment, gender role, gender identity, and gender presentation. My speakers’ metalinguistic commentary on gender and the voice further elucidates the constellations of phonetic features that combine to create their cohesive gendered speaking styles. Ultimately, I focus on the ways that changes in one phonetic variable, like pitch, can recontextualize other elements of a speaker’s linguistic style, like the acoustic spectrum of [s]. This connection drives home the necessity of considering the relationship between linguistic characteristics, rather than treating them as entirely separable variables. Attention to stylistic wholes, over individual variables, points us toward the notion that transmasculine individuals do not engage in across-the-board masculinization, but rather bring together acoustic characteristics acquired from disparate sources in order to construct phonetic styles that reflect their complex affiliations with manhood, maleness, and masculinity.

This article demonstrates the importance of considering transgender speakers apart from gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, even where there is significant overlap in the linguistic practices of these groups. Through an analysis of transgender coming out narratives, it is shown that previous accounts of this genre, which have focused on gays and lesbians, do not extend to the entire LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. Coming out as transgender differs from coming out as gay or lesbian primarily in that there are two distinct ways a person can come out as transgender: before and after a change in gender role. The dissimilarity of coming out before such a transition and afterwards presents a challenge to previous characterizations both of coming out and the narratives that result from this practice. Ultimately, the coming out narrative genre reveals itself as a venue for making sense of stigmatized identities in community-specific ways.

Sociophonetic inquiry into sexuality and the voice has often focused on the perception of men's sexuality on the basis of disembodied voices. However, inconsistencies across these studies limit our ability to unit their findings into a cohesive model of gay-sounding speech. This paper focuses on variability among gay-sounding speakers by analyzing the voices of female-to-male transgender individuals, or trans men. Trans men who make use of testosterone typically experience a significant drop in vocal pitch, yet may maintain stylistic traits acquired while living in a female social role. An acoustic and perceptual analysis of trans and non-trans men's voices reveals that even as trans men may be perceived as gay-sounding, their sociolinguistic styles also differ from those of gay-sounding non-trans men. These findings support the notion that gay-sounding speech does not constitute a single phonetic style, but rather numerous deviations from the hegemonic norm.

Recent theorizations of trans embodiment have brought attention to the ways neoliberalism limits the productivity of non-normatively gendered bodies. This paper deals with the discursive framing of embodiment and sexual desirability among trans men and other transmasculine persons negotiating internet-mediated homoerotic spaces. Micro-level analysis of discourse structure and macro-level analysis of socio-political context together show how trans men navigate homonormative sexual economies by linguistically recuperating their bodies’ sexually productivity. Instead of undermining claims of embodied masculinity and homoerotic value, potential sites of exclusion—i.e. trans genitals—become sites of flexible accumulation that enhance, rather than detract from, their bearers’ desirability.

In this essay, I draw on my experience as a trans, Francophone, feminist researcher to share my reflections on the difficulties encountered within Francophone contexts in the development of knowledge that moves beyond “the familiar and overly simplistic dichotomy often drawn between an exclusionary transphobic feminism and an inclusive trans-affirming feminism” (Call for papers, TSQ). Without reducing the work of the few Francophone researchers interested in trans/feminisms, including mine, to the fight against exclusionary, transphobic feminist theories, policies, and practices, I demonstrate how problematic it is to articulate our work in terms other than the exclusion/inclusion of trans people within feminism. I offer as a case study the 2015 edition of the 7e Congrès international des recherches féministes dans la francophonie (7th International Conference of Francophone Feminist Research), currently the world’s most important Francophone feminist conference, to illustrate the near total silence that reigns on trans issues in Francophone feminist communities.

Link: http://tsq.dukejournals.org/content/3/1-2/40.abstract

Recent years have seen a substantial change in how children who challenge gender norms (referred to in this article as ‘‘Gender Independent’’) are regarded by professionals, by their families and by the public at large. Pathologized and treated for decades as a mental illness, childhood gender non-conformity would seem to be imbued with new meaning, as evidenced by a growing number of public voices claiming gender variance as part of human diversity. Call it a paradigm shift: from disorder to diversity, from treatment to affirmation, from pathology to pride, from cure to community. This commentary article reflects on recent shifts in language, shifts in identity options, and shifts in the focus of intervention with gender non-conforming children. Drawing on existing research and public discourse, I consider what the field of human sexuality can learn from ‘‘Gender Independence.’’

Despite the importance of gender differences in the voice, sociolinguists have not paid sufficient attention to the sociolinguistic processes through which phonetic resources are mobilized in the construction of a gendered voice. This article argues that gender differences in the voice—including those influenced by physiology—are best understood as elements of sociolinguistic style rather than static properties. With a focus on transgender speakers in the early stages of masculinizing hormone therapy, the analysis demonstrates the complex interrelationship of the gendered meanings attributable to characteristics like fundamental frequency and /s/. Trans speakers challenge systems for categorizing voices as female or male, which assume that different aspects of the gendered voice will pattern together in normative ways. Yet a voice's gender is not a unidimensional feature, but a cluster of features that take on meaning only in context with one another, leaving them open for re-combination and change through stylistic bricolage.

Language for transgender people and transgender talk. Or how transgender individuals are shaped and shape themselves in language.
Special Issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language (IJSL) De Gruyter Mouton
Editor: Emilia Di Martino (Università di Napoli Suor Orsola Benincasa) ; Co-editor: Luise von Flotow (University of Ottawa)

Discussion about the language of transgender is rare. There has been little systematic study of the relationship between transgenderism and language. Episodes such as the backlash against tweets that was directed at Catherine McGregor on the Australian talk show Q&A (October 2014) have recently brought the issue of trans-etiquette to the fore. In a culture moving  beyond  mere  tolerance toward embracing diversity, the focus could now be on how transgender individuals, who have chosen a multilayered and flexible identity, shape themselves in language. This issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language  invites contributions that explore transgenderism and the permeability of boundaries from the perspective of language, focusing on how transgender individuals are constrained by language other people use to talk about them but also on how they manipulate those constraints when talking about themselves or using language to engender others.
Theoretical reflections as well as analytical explorations of newspaper and magazine articles, Internet groups discussions, interviews, films, TV series, documentaries, and other written and/or audiovisual materials connected with the themes identified and produced in English-speaking countries are encouraged. Intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches are most welcome.

Drawing on discursive psychology, this book traces the historical development of psychiatric constructions of ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ gender expression. It contextualizes the recent reconstruction of gender in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and its criteria for gender dysphoria. This latest diagnosis illustrates the continued disagreement and debate within the profession surrounding gender identity as ‘disordered’. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on the conflicted history between feminist and transgender
communities in the changing context of a more trans-positive feminism, and the implications of these diagnoses for these distinct but linked communities.

This dissertation is based on a long-term ethnographic and sociophonetic study of 15 transgender people on the female-to-male (or transmasculine) identity spectrum. The focus of the study is the way these individuals’ voices change during the first 1-2 years of masculinizing hormone therapy, which brings about a drop in vocal pitch along with other salient physiological changes. Based on regular recordings of participants during a one year period, the analysis tracks changes in fundamental frequency as well as formant frequencies and the acoustic characteristics of [s], each of which has a different place in biology-driven theories of gender and the voice. In addition to ostensibly hormonally driven changes to speakers’ available fundamental frequency range, I present evidence that these speakers are engaged in various types of articulatory shifts as part of their gender role transition, which affect both formants and [s]. However, I argue that changes in all three of the phonetic domains examined here must be situated in both sociocultural and linguistic context, even where biology appears to play a significant role. The analyses presented, which include attention to both intra- and inter-speaker variation, draw on a multi-layered understanding of gender derived from transgender people’s own distinctions between gender assignment, gender role, gender identity, and gender presentation. My speakers’ metalinguistic commentary on gender and the voice further elucidates the constellations of phonetic features that combine to create their cohesive gendered speaking styles. Ultimately, I focus on the ways that changes in one phonetic variable, like pitch, can recontextualize other elements of a speaker’s linguistic style, like the acoustic spectrum of [s]. This connection drives home the necessity of considering the relationship between linguistic characteristics, rather than treating them as entirely separable variables. Attention to stylistic wholes, over individual variables, points us toward the notion that transmasculine individuals do not engage in across-the-board masculinization, but rather bring together acoustic characteristics acquired from disparate sources in order to construct phonetic styles that reflect their complex affiliations with manhood, maleness, and masculinity.