I am a post-mastectomy woman who believes our feelings need voice in order to be recognized, respected, and of use.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of expressing one's emotions and experiences for validation and healing.
Audre Lorde, a prominent feminist and activist, highlights that the experiences and feelings of those who have gone through challenging situations, such as post-mastectomy women, deserve to be expressed and listened to. By voicing these feelings, individuals not only seek recognition and respect but also empower themselves and others, turning personal struggles into a source of strength and communal understanding.
In practice
During a support group meeting for cancer survivors to highlight the importance of sharing experiences.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.
Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger may bring and to channel them into nonviolent outlets. It takes strength to face our sadness and to grieve and to let our grief and our anger flow in tears when they need to. It takes strength to talk about our feelings and to reach out for help and comfort when we need it.
In the face of this approaching disaster, it behooves men and women not yet overcome by war madness to raise their voice of protest, to call the attention of the people to the crime and outrage which are about to be perpetrated on them.
I do not kill with my gun; He who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart.
I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death.
But we have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen. I regret only for the women we leave behind.
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