Changing voices: A study of transfeminine vocality

This thesis examines how the voices of trans women are produced and experienced. I explore the various social forces that affect the production of voice, how voice affects trans women's ability to move through the world, and the steps that many trans women take to change their voices. I also examine how some trans women feel about their voices, the social systems that influence those feelings, and how that in turn affects the ways in which they speak. I argue that the social nature of voice and vocal practice can advance an understanding of trans body modification that is less concerned with medical intervention or the choices of individual trans women to pursue or reject normative standards. To do this, I use voice as an example of an adaptive and dynamic process that has high stakes for trans women and is always inseparable from its social context.