She may have feminine appearance, but Caitlyn Jenner admits that still having a masculine voice bothers the former Olympian. Jenner listened to her acceptance speech for the Arthur Ashe Courage award given by ESPY and found that there is a disconnect between her looks and sound.
The stepfather of Kim Kardashian wrote in her blog Caitlyn.Jenner.com: "While I felt like I looked great and that the gown looked fabulous, I still have a voice issue. It's not quite right compared to my feminine appearance. That bothers me a bit."
But Jenner hopes that people, rather than listen to her voice pitch, would instead hear the message she is sharing. Another issue she shared in the blog was all her children and stepchildren turning up at the ESPY award, worried that she might upset them with her transition to a woman, although she has gone public through a TV interview and a Vogue cover.
She wore a Donatella Versace white gown from Italy. Commenting on her attire, Caitlyn said, "It was like every fantasy of my life come true.
However, while gender reassignment surgery could help them make their fantasies come true by providing males with breasts and female genitals, it excludes changing their voice pitch. But there is hope through Eva, a mobile phone app for transgender people who want to lower or raise their voice pitch by a series of breathing and pitch exercises.
Kathe Perez, designer of the app and a speech language pathologist, shares, "What I often hear is, 'I could pass for a woman until I open my mouth.'" Perez adds that many transgender women refuse to talk when they are in public and usually ask their companions to order for them when dining out.
"They're afraid to open their mouths because the sound that comes out doesn't match the person that's sitting on that table," she explains. Perez estimates it takes six to 12 months of daily practice using Eva to permanently adjust their voice. To help them further, there are online coaches who work through on-on-one sessions with transgender men and women.
Lorelei Eresis, a transgender woman who is trying out the app and a columnist, agrees that voice is a real liability since there are large parts of the US where it is dangerous to be a transgender. "It could be a matter of life or death," Eresis says.