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.
Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage
I learned to love who I am despite what anyone would say about or to me. This gave me the courage to really stand up to anyone or any obstacle in my life.
There are deaths in public places on the grounds that the victim is gay.
I headed towards the mountain, which was an almost irresistible beacon to my storm self. It glowed with heat, pressure, and turbulence—everything a little dust devil like me could want.
Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love.
Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back upon himself.
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