Written by: AC Goldberg / Transgender Voice / May 26, 2021 / 10 minutes read

Let’s talk about the gender feedback loop as it relates to voice. The gender feedback loop is a cycle in which a person is given input on their behaviors, presentation or other elements of their persona based on what the other person perceives their gender to be (Goldberg 2021). This results in babies/children whose gender is assumed “male” receiving more input and reinforcement for “masculine” behaviors, and vice versa for those assumed “female” and “feminine” behaviors.

This starts even before babies are born. People interact, even with unborn babies, using words and vocal tones they believe match their ideas of the child’s gender (if they have what they perceive to be enough knowledge to make these assumptions in the first place). This results in babies assumed “girls” hearing more high pitched tones and statements like, “look at this delicate little flower,” as opposed to babies assumed boys hearing lower pitched tones and statements like, “this is a big tough strong guy.” Most people have engaged in this behavior.

Babies and children learn from adults around them. Because everyone is naturally seeking positive feedback, children inherently model their vocal and social behavior around what they believe adults expect of them. When adults react positively to a child’s behavior, the child mirrors back everything, from tone of voice to choice of activity, to receive positive reinforcement. This is the nature of human behavior, it is intrinsic and inseparable from who we are as a species.

If you’re someone who has ever tried to modify your voice, you know that it is more than just your resonance and pitch that causes others to gender you. People gender others based on their prosody and “tone.” The melodic contour of your voice is something that is a learned behavior, and has nothing to do with any kind of endogenous puberty or other characteristics based on sex assigned at birth. 

Gendered expectations and feedback influence our vocal presentations from a young age. There are many layers to this learned behavior, the first being conditioning, which is the process of training or accustoming a person (or animal) to behave in a certain way or to accept certain circumstances. Whereas this is how it begins, the element of social learning plays a more important role in the ongoing reinforcement of these stereotypical behaviors. Social learning is defined as learning through the observation of other people's behaviors. It is a process of social change in which people learn from each other in ways that can benefit wider social-ecological systems, like the gender binary as seen as “expected behavior.” Different social contexts allow individuals to pick up new behaviors by observing what people are doing within that environment. Social learning emphasizes the dynamic interaction between people and the environment in the construction of meaning and identity (wikipedia).

The process of learning a new behavior starts by observing a behavior, taking the information in and finally adopting that behavior. Examples of environmental contexts that promote social learning are schools, media, family members and friends.

If learning is to be considered as social, then it must:

1. demonstrate that a change in understanding has taken place in the individuals involved;

2. demonstrate that this change goes beyond the individual and becomes situated within wider social units or communities of practice;

3. occur through social interactions and processes between actors within a social network. 

It is a theoretical system that focuses on the development of the child and how practice and training affect their life skills. (Grusec, Joan (1992). "Social Learning Theory and Developmental Psychology: The Legacies of Robert Sears and Albert Bandura". Developmental Psychology. 28: 776–786. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.776.) 

If we consider all of the places in which the gender binary is reinforced (socially, institutionally, interpersonally and from the lens of capitalism), there are virtually no situations in which a person is free of these expectations. When conditioning is omnipresent, there are no opportunities for anyone to develop a different lens.

From the sounds we make at babies to our verbal communication with children, we are interacting from a lens of what is “expected.” When something is unexpected, the feedback loop is disrupted. For example, we would never expect an adult to call a baby assumed female at birth “tough,” “champ,” or “slugger” and we would never expect an adult to call a baby assumed male at birth “delicate,” “petite” or “dainty.” Words are only one element of the first part of the loop. The other is adult vocal behavior.  When adults speak to children and assume their gender, they alter the pitch and tone of their voices as well. When babies/children imitate this behavior, the loop is reinforced. 

Vocal behaviors are not innate. They are learned. If you are interested in working with me on modifying your voice, click here!

To speak with one of the speech-language pathologists at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.