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March 14, 2007 Privacy: The Cost of Free Speech 
I meant to post this last week for International Women's Day, but got distracted by my similarities to a fictional TV character. Priorities, I know. Chances are you've heard Audre Lorde's quote, "My silence did not protect me. Your silence will not protect you." But have you read the speech it came from? It's called "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action," and I think it's a particularly pithy and apt conclusion to all those posts about honesty, privacy and the public sphere from the last month: "In becoming forcibly and essentially aware of my mortality, and of what I wished and wanted for my life, however short it might be, priorities and omissions became strongly etched in a merciless light, and what I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid? To question or to speak as I believed could have meant pain, or death. But we all hurt in so many different ways, all the time, and pain will either change or end. Death, on the other hand, is the final silence. And that might be coming quickly now, without regard for whether I had ever spoken what needed to be said, or had only betrayed myself into small silences, while I planned someday to speak, or waited for someone else's words.... What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?... And that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength. Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak. We can sit in our corners mute forever while our sisters and our selves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned; we can sit in our safe corners mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid." (off-topic language-geek aside: mute as bottles! What a beautiful metaphor.) Free Speech has never been and will never be free. Whether or not you choose to exercise that right, there is a cost. Posted by Andrea at March 14, 2007 6:46 AM under Female Trouble EMAIL this entry (comments fields are below this section) Comments Very well said. Posted by: Kyla at March 14, 2007 8:25 AM
Wow. Much food for thought, and ditto what Kyla said. Posted by: Jill at March 14, 2007 8:27 AM
I adore that speech. Lorde was so brilliant, and passionate, and stirring...when I read "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" in my second year of university, it was like a searchlight into my brain, illuminating everything that I had thought was true about myself. Three years ago, when I decided that I was a writer and was going to actively pursue my craft, I had "my silence will not save me" tattooed on my back between my shoulderblades. Her work is transformative. Posted by: Karla at March 14, 2007 8:40 AM
Thank you for posting that. I really needed to read it this morning. Posted by: Casey at March 14, 2007 9:49 AM
Wow. Just wow. Posted by: Sue at March 14, 2007 1:44 PM
Nice. And I am. The trusting of oneself takes much practice. And it fits along w/ my favorite Audre Lorde quote "when I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid". Posted by: jen at March 14, 2007 3:10 PM
I've never read this speech or these words, but they really resonate with me. I started blogging at time of extreme vunerability; writing didn't make me any less vunerable, but it did make me stronger and not as much afraid of my fear. Posted by: Suz at March 14, 2007 6:41 PM
It's absolutely correct to know that freedoms come with sacrifice. It is the same with freedom of speech. You can say what you like, but be prepared for the responsibilities that come along with them. Posted by: fluttercrafts at March 14, 2007 9:40 PM
“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.” Just thought I'd share my particular favorite Audre Lorde quote - it's been sustaining me recently. A few weeks ago, a group I belong to wrote a statement about the racism, internalized sexism, and classism we see happening in the sexual assault movement in our state. We disseminated it widely and asked for collective responsibility and problem solving. Holy crap, we were bruised and misunderstood all over the place! The cost, however, was/is worth it. Even though it's been really hard and discouraging, we named it, and no one can pretend they didn't hear us. Posted by: Zany Mama at March 15, 2007 11:36 AM
Zany, I've been there too. IT's very, very painful, but you're right--it's better than the alternative. flutter, too true. I think what people often forget, though, is that there is also a price to be paid for *not* speaking, and responsibility to be borne for remaining silent. Karla, that's awesome. Posted by: Andrea at March 15, 2007 11:42 AM
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Change is God (Octavia Butler, Parable Series) "If the writer is a socially privileged person--particularly a White or a male or both--his imagination may have to make an intense and conscious effort to realize that people who don't share his privileged status may read his work and will not share with him many attitudes and opinions that he has been allowed to believe or pretend are shared by 'everybody.' Since the belief in a privileged view of reality is no longer tenable outside privileged circles, and often not even within them, fiction written from such an assumption will make sense only to a decreasing, and increasingly reactionary, audience. Many women writing today, however, still choose the male viewpoint, finding it easier to do so than to write from the knowledge that feminine experience of reality is flatly denied by many potential readers, including the majority of critics and professors of literature, and may rouse defensive hostility and contempt. The choice, then, would seem to be between collusion and subversion; but there's no use pretending that you can get away without making a choice. Not to choose, these days, is a choice made. All fiction has ethical, political and social weight, and sometimes the works that weigh the heaviest are those apparently fluffy or escapist fictions whose authors declare themselves 'above politics,' 'just entertainers,' and so on." Ursula le Guin Email Frances! frances AT athenadreaming DOT org You can email her mother too (that's me):
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