Summary
Purpose
Compared to transgender individuals, cisgender men and women perceived “male” and
“female” voices differently when using a forced-choice task with binary terms. Here,
we compared individuals’ perceptions of voice gender due to the influence of their
own gender and/or sexuality using a rating scale rather than a forced-choice scenario.
Methods
Fifty-five participants (cisgender, transgender, and non-binary adults) listened to
vocal recordings of four cisgender men and four cisgender women speakers (some recordings
were pitch shifted resulting in 12 unique voice conditions) and rated the voices on
a 7-point Likert scale ranging from masculine (1) to feminine (7). Likert ratings
and reaction time of responses were recorded and analyzed. For a small subset of recordings,
participants provided terms to describe the gender of the recorded voices.
Results
For the Likert voice gender rating task, there was a significant effect of gender
for two out of twelve conditions. There were no significant effects of sexuality on
any of the conditions. For reaction time (RT), there was no significant effect of
gender for any conditions. There was no significant effect for sexuality when one
subject was removed (for one condition). The number of vocabulary terms used to describe
gender was significantly higher for LGBT+ participants, who used significantly more
descriptive terms than those who identified as cisgender and heterosexual.
Discussion
Cisgender heterosexual speech-language pathologists working with transgender/non-binary
clients can be more confident that their conceptualization and perception of voice
gender are likely to align with that of their clients. Clinicians should utilize continuum
terms (masculine, feminine) rather than the binary terms (male, female). Training
of speech-language pathologists should include increasing awareness and knowledge
of the perspectives and terminology used by members of the LGBT+ community with the
aim of improving future clinician-client communication.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 02, 2022
Accepted:
November 14,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Voice Foundation.
