This Is Your Voice on T: Sonic Transition Timelines and Narratives of the Natural

Trans bodies and lives—and by extension, voices—are at the forefront of contemporary cultural, legislative, and political discourses in the United States and beyond. In this article, I apply a disability lens to concerns about exogenous testosterone (T) and transmasculine vocality, as well as larger anxieties around the transmasculine body as constructed or even irreversibly damaged. Inspired by the use of bodymind as a term in disability studies and activism, I propose bodyvoice as a term in vocal studies to express that the body, voice, and perceptions around them are often interdependent. On social media, the photographic transition timeline constructs a stagnant, binary, before-and-after narrative in contrast to the more fluid sonic transition timeline, in which trans people on T record and display a series of vocal changes, either spoken or sung, over time. The sonic transition timeline functions as a vital way of sharing embodied transvocal knowledge in an increasingly hostile climate.