Final Project - Re: Silence

via Re: Silence

What I find most common is getting unpleasant stares or comments directed my way. When I told one of my guy friends: “those men in the deli have been staring at me and my friend for the past five minutes that we were standing here,” the reply I received was “but aren’t you used to that?” Used to that? That’s exactly the issue. Why do I feel like I am getting undressed in their mind and I can do nothing about it but feel uncomfortable? “Yeah, I can’t relate, so I don’t know how that feels like,” says my male friend. Most men don’t. This is why I put together this book explaining different scenarios of sexual harassment, uncomfortableness, or unfairness women face.

My ideal message is to show other women and young girls that they are not alone and be able to give them a voice to speak up about their experiences. I intend on a male audience to read this in hopes that they could understand how their actions may affect us. I am not speaking for all women, nor am I directing this at all men. I am also not purposely excluding other genders or sexualities in this work; I will only include the perspective(s) that I have background in. The purpose of the book is to spread awareness of the issues by discussing mine and others’ personal experiences; thus, I am also not attempting to claim that my experiences are more important or worse by any means than another person.

via Instagram user @iamlenaheadey

Therefore, this is why I decided to write Re: Silence! The concept came from the subject line in an email. This book was written in regards to silence and how I want to break it using my stories. I think poems are a fun form of self expression and leave things open for debate for their readers. My goal was for my poems and my stories to capture some instances of a women's day that are hidden away in our mainstream media and that may not feel serious to people that are strangers to sexual harassment.

Works Cited

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Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books, 2008.

Bornstein, Kate, et al. “Identity, Schmidentity.” Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, Seal Press, 2010, p. 55.

Doyle, Sady. “Why Do We Still Treat Even the Most Powerful Women's Bodies Like Public Property?” ELLE, ELLE, 11 Oct. 2017, www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a44172/public-womens-bodies/.

Headey, Lena. “Instagram Post by Lena Headey • Oct 12, 2017 at 1:20pm UTC.” Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/BaJkEKYBKtH/.

Headey, Lena. “Instagram Post by Lena Headey • Oct 18, 2017 at 1:06pm UTC.” Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/BaY_QAxhOR6/.

Kirkham, About Alli. “How Society Polices Women's Clothing (No Matter What We Wear).” Everyday Feminism, 18 Apr. 2016, everydayfeminism.com/2015/04/policing-womens-clothing/.

Lorde, Audre. “Poetry Is Not a Luxury.” Women Confronting and Creating Culture.

Lorde, Audre. “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.” Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, Crossing Press, 1996.

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP, 1999: 833-44

Stack, Liam. “After Barring Girls for Leggings, United Airlines Defends Decision.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Mar. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/03/26/us/united-airlines-leggings.html.