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99% Invisible

Melanie Speaks

99% Invisible

SiriusXM Podcasts and Roman Mars

Design, Arts

4.828.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The story of a voice training VHS tape that helped trans women at a time when other resources were hard to access.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is 99% invisible.

0:03.0

I'm Swan Real.

0:05.0

What makes you sound the way you do?

0:10.0

Maybe you've been told that you speak like your mom or that you laugh like your uncle.

0:17.0

Maybe you sometimes slip back into an accent that reveals something about your past.

0:22.0

Maybe you have... an accent that reveals something about your past.

0:24.0

Maybe you have a habit of matching the ways that other people speak

0:28.0

when you want to make them more comfortable.

0:32.0

Maybe you haven't thought about your voice, or maybe you think about it all the time, because you have to.

0:42.0

Voices are fascinating to me. The way a person's voice changes over time feels like a simple and overlooked act of magic.

0:52.0

Whether intentionally or subconsciously, our voices are products of our environments as much as they are part of us.

1:00.0

Today we're featuring a series that I'm excited to share with you. It's called

1:04.8

Sounds Gay, a show about queer culture, community, and music. This is an episode

1:11.0

that they did about Voices, about a videotape, and about sisterhood.

1:17.0

And after the episode, Roman is going to join me for a special conversation.

1:21.0

I hope you dig it. Hi, I'm Melanie Ann, and in the next 30 minutes you're going to get everything you need to develop a more feminine voice.

1:44.3

There's seven major areas I've found to be real tools and we're going to cover them all in great detail.

1:51.7

If you're a trans woman in 2023 and you want to change your voice to sound

1:56.0

more traditionally feminine, you have options. There are apps, YouTube videos,

2:01.5

even online voice coaches. But if you were a trans woman in the 90s and you wanted to change your voice, you'd want to get your hands on a videotape like Melanie speaks. Over the course of her 45 minute tape Melanie offers

2:16.0

tips, vocal exercises and plenty of encouragement and she points out that there are many ways

2:22.0

to sound feminine.

...

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