The University of Connecticut, which received state and federal funding, has a program to teach men who want to be pretend to be women how to talk like girls (and vice-versa, of course -- no discrimination there!).
You would think this would be something easily accomplished without classes, but I guess like thespians, they want to learn from professionals!
Sylvia Wojcik was making reservations for a beach getaway in Maine when the receptionist on the other end of the line called her "ma'am." Nothing could have delighted her more.Wojcik, 66, is transitioning from male to female. For her, that proof that she sounded like a woman was an important moment.
Wojcik has undergone several years of voice therapy, the past 18 months at the University of Connecticut's Speech and Hearing Clinic, one of a growing number of clinics with programs to teach transgender people how to sound more like the sex they identify with.
They learn not only how to change the pitch of their voice, but also its resonance (males speak more from chest, women from the head) and delivery (men tend to be more staccato, women more fluid).
It involves a lot of voice exercises - humming to find an ideal pitch, naming five words that start with the letter "T."
Five words that start with T? That sounds like the Damon Wayans "Men on Films" gay parody skit from "In Living Color!"
Roberts, a freelance copywriter, has been attending sessions since February. She expects to participate for at least another semester.
As a man, Roberts was a radio personality, voiceover artist and actor. She is now returning to the stage as an actress and doesn't want her voice to impede her winning roles.
A voice actor who will never be seen, who can still easily use a man's voice in his work, still wants his voice changed so he sounds like a girl? No irony there!
It's ridiculous that taxpayer supported foundations are being used to perpetuate people's delusions that they can change gender. This article from the Associated Press is especially Onion-like reporting, given that men can easily raise their voices and women can lower them. The kind of training they are looking for is at the level of spies trying to make their foreign accents sound believable, which makes the entire endeavor even more preposterous.
On the other hand:
The clinic also has served some people who are not transgender, such as men who wish to sound less effeminate -- a topic explored in the new documentary "Do I Sound Gay?"
This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.
Thomas Lifson adds:
I am baffled. Here, the feminists have been telling us for decades that gender stereotypes are invidious relics of the past. But now, the cutting edge of the movement, the transgendered crowd, is striving to emulate those same gender stereotypes.
