Right to Silence

As with sschurtz, Tuesday’s class left me thinking about the ethics behind my silence, and where I feel I fall. Initially, I was going to make an impassioned post about how no one has a right to my thoughts, and that the right to choose silence is equally as feminist as the right to speak. When I sat down to write it, however, I was struck with an overwhelming feeling of deceit. It was the exact same sensation I had when a teacher in high school told us to write a paper advocating the opposing side to our beliefs on allowing teaching Creationism in public schools—forced, negligent. Although I haven’t exactly been “practicing what I preach” I do lie more on the Audre Lorde side of the argument. Silence has a place, and it should be treated respectfully, but its arguments are not necessarily accurate. The case that silence allows one to be free of misinterpretation is flawed; simply remaining silent does not keep one out of the conversation, for mere existence means that judgments, preconceptions and prejudices will surround one’s every move. And since silences are as open to inferences as speech is, ownership of words is the only way to avoid such misrepresentation. Silence stifles, speech elucidates.