Abstract
This essay presents the case for the analytic of "sonic transness" as a way to understand the gendered deployment of voice in the construction of racialized transgender subjectivities. Through a close reading of Christine Jorgensen's vocal performance in the 1962 Philippine film Kaming Mga Talyada (We Who Are Sexy), which includes autobiographical monologue, celebrity impersonations, and songs performed in English and Tagalog, this essay examines the place of Jorgensen's voice and sonic practices in her self-constitution as a global, aspirational, and cosmopolitan white trans subject. At the same time, by listening to the ways in which her voice fades in and out of broader trans histories, this essay's focus on Jorgensen's performance in the Philippines makes audible the global production and extraction of value from trans and gender-nonconforming voices.
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