Objective: To analyze communicative characteristics of voices perceived as feminine, masculine, and neutral by Brazilian listeners.
Methods: Recordings from 11 cis women, 11 trans women, 7 trans men, 11 cis men, and 7 non-binary individuals were evaluated for gender perception in voice (100-point visual analog scale ranging from very masculine to very feminine) by 101 cisgender participants. The categorization of voices as masculine, feminine, or neutral was based on applying a z-score to the auditory-perceptual judgment (neutral point (0) ± 1 standard deviation). The neutrality range was established with an upper limit of 27.6 and a lower limit of -27.6, masculine values were below -27.6, and feminine values were above 27.6. Communication and expressiveness assessments were conducted by two speech-language pathologists (with a master’s degree and voice specialization) using the Speech Pathology Expressiveness Observation Guide (RoFOE), which contains 28 parameters divided into two subcategories: initial communication impact (6 parameters) and expressiveness (22 parameters), with the latter subdivided into vocal aspects (5), verbal aspects (10), and non-verbal aspects (7). The chi-square test was used to evaluate the frequency of communicative characteristics (p<0.05)..
Results: Voices of cisgender men and women were consistently perceived as masculine and feminine, respectively. Trans women’s voices were more frequently perceived as neutral, while trans men and non-binary individuals had varied distributions between masculine and neutral voice perceptions (p<.001). Regarding prosodic factors, voices perceived as feminine did not score in the question “Does any expressive characteristic dominate communication?” compared to neutral and masculine voices (p=0.046). Feminine voices were more frequently perceived as pleasant compared to neutral voices (p=0.012), which were also less frequently perceived with a natural pitch (p=0.028).
Conclusion: Cisgender individuals' voices were consistently perceived according to their self-identified gender, while transgender and non-binary individuals’ voices were more often perceived as neutral. Feminine-perceived voices were rated as more pleasant than neutral voices, and neutral voices were characterized by an unnatural pitch. Evaluating individuals with neutral voices remains challenging, even for experienced professionals.