Interrogating the cisgender listening subject in the study of trans voices

Sociolinguistics has primarily analysed gendered language as the speech of cisgender women and men, with speakers being expected to conform to cisgender patterns to successfully index gender. Furthermore, most research on the transgender voice has been conducted by speech-language pathologists prescribing that trans women and men should conform to cisgender norms in voicing their gender identities. To explore whether nonbinary speakers conform to such binaristic models, we examine /s/ realisations in two gender-nonnormative communities (in San Francisco, California and Columbus, Ohio). Both communities exhibit patterns opposite to cisgender norms. This may lead analysts to interpret nonbinary speakers’ performances of masculinity and femininity as unsuccessful. However, such practices are ratified within the speakers’ local communities, where disrupting binaries is a central social goal. Situating linguistic practice within local norms serves to faithfully represent the goals of the nonbinary speaking subject and avoids reifying the perspective of the cisgender listening subject as universal.