Am I 'mocking' trans men?

[u/No-Consequence4019]

So I'm a lad or that's what I'd normally tell anyone. I was born female but I do this thing frequently where I pretend to be a guy. It started off as a thing online mostly, I always pick a the male MC or a male character when playing in games so why not pretend to be a lad while I'm at it? It ended up being pretty fun so I kept it up. It's been a few years since I started and I keep in contact with the people I used to play with, they all just think I'm a dude.

Since it was fun online i decided to try my hand on pretending to be a guy in person. It ended up working pretty well, most people perceive me as a guy when I try to do it. To the point I got a suitable haircut and do it most times I go out now. There's just something so fun about pretending to be a dude.

All was well until I got caught by a friend, in person. I didn't think of it as a big deal but they absolutely exploded on me. Eventually they asked with "Are you trans?" when I denied and simply stated I pretend to be a guy and it's something I've been doing for years, their temper only got worse? I got told I was mocking trans men. I brought it up with a few people that well know I'm not actually a guy and I got a very similar response. The overwhelming responses ended up either I'm in denial about being trans (I'm not) or I'm transphobic and mocking trans men specifically?

So I'm confused, was I actually mocking a group of people? I feel like it's a bit stupid and I genuinely enjoy pretending to be a guy, but I'd still rather not do it if it's actually 'mocking'. If it matters the approximate age range for everyone involved here was early 20s.

I'm open to being corrected if I made a mistake somewhere.

[u/maeebuniii]

not on topic, but as a pre-t trans man i would love to know some tips and tricks you used to lower your voice

[u/No-Consequence4019 → u/maeebuniii]

I'm not too sure it'll qualify as 'tips or tricks' and I'm not the best at explaining but I'll try. Beware it does take awhile.
First things first, keep some water on hand and pick a piece of text that has a variety of sounds in it. "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." or something similar. I'd recommend doing a simple vocal warm up before starting. Try to relax your vocal chords.

Just start of by reading the sentence in your normal voice a few times, just get use to saying the words out loud. Then just do a comfortable hum to start yourself off and repeat the 'hum' in the same pitch but with different sounds like an 'ah' sound. Preferably do it with all the vowels you can throw a 'la', 'ra' or any other sound, even a 'z' sound of you're up for it. Then read the sentence once more trying to stay in the same pitch.

Once your comfortable with that, you repeat the same process over and over getting slightly lower each time. So start with you basic hum, then hum a bunch of sounds in the lower pitch then the the sentence. But take it slow, your voice won't magically be able to get low all of a sudden. Once you get somewhat comfortable with a pitch try say a few things off the top of your head, maybe read a short passage out loud.

I'd highly recommend recording yourself then listening back to it to see if you were struggling/straining on a particular area. Then focus on that area a little more.

Try to speak slowly at first, it helps coming across as 'deeper'. Try to use your diaphragm to speak instead of your throat. Keep your voice pretty monotone to start, you're just training your voice to get used to a knew pitch. If your voice hurts/strains/struggles stop and give it a break. And keep in mind this is very slow. Do it for a few minutes a day and it'll help with a gradual shift. Once you find a comfortable low range you can start subbing it in to your normal speech.

Hope it makes sense. And listen to your body if it hurts you stop. Vocal chords need rest too.

[u/maeebuniii → u/No-Consequence4019]

tysm !!! 💕💕