Rebecca Solnit, bell hooks, and the Power of Speaking Up
Growing up, I often felt like I was too much to be around. I was constantly nagged by male relatives, who complained that I was too shrill and that my speaking voice gave them severe headaches. As I grew older, although I loved to write and speak more than anything else, I felt embarrassed whenever I participated frequently in class. Even if we were discussing my favorite book in English, I could sense my peers sitting in the back of the classroom, snickering at my comments. Gradually, I grew less likely to assert my opinions and acquired anxiety towards speaking up in learning environments. I stopped writing and performing frequently. After reading Rebecca Solnit’s 2008 essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” I came to the realization that I have more anecdotes like this than I can even remember, and so do most women I know. Whenever I’m giving a presentation, I can’t help but wonder if I’m annoying my peers because of those relatives. It’s clear that women are, both consciously and subconsciously, influenced by the presence of men: I’ve noticed we adjust or soften our tone and often stop speaking altogether. “Talking Back,” a 1989 essay by bell hooks, also resonated with me, especially when hooks describes her experiences of being silenced during her childhood and how that impacted her as a writer. While examining the systematic oppression of women’s voices, hooks and Solnit bring different perspectives to the ways in which women combat silence throughout their lives. There is a constant pressure against women’s voices, especially if women are more naturally outspoken. This pressure exists regardless of privilege and background, and as both human beings and writers, women must work to prove that their voices must be heard.
From early in women’s lives to adulthood, there is pressure to be seen and not heard, especially from male authority figures. For bell hooks, sharing her opinions and “talking back” felt natural and essential when she was a child; hooks grew up surrounded by strong female figures who ruled the “church of the home”. However, hooks was often put down for her candor by the men in her life. “The punishments for these acts of speech seemed endless,” she writes. “Had I been a boy, they might have encouraged me to speak believing that I might someday be called to preach. There was no ‘calling’ for talking girls, no legitimized rewarded speech. The punishments I received for ‘talking back’ were intended to suppress all possibilities that I would create my own speech”. Later, hooks found a calling in writing, as did Solnit, but in both cases, men tried to undermine their urges to speak up and share their voices at times in their lives. In “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit explores the phenomenon of “mansplaining” (a term coined following this essay’s widespread popularity): when men feel a compulsory need to ignore, condescend, and/or explain things to women in deprecating ways. Solnit connects the need for men to patronize and silence women throughout their lives to other forms of systematic oppression against women, from street harassment to violence. In Middle Eastern countries, women’s testimony has no legal standing in a rape case. In our country, “about three women a day are murdered by spouses or ex-spouses”. One incident of “mansplaining” only scratches the surface when it comes to worldwide oppression of women’s voices.
The pressure from men to be silenced causes women to doubt themselves and their credibility. Solnit refers to credibility as “a basic survival tool”. In Solnit’s opening anecdote, a man she calls “Mr. Important” lectures her about a popular new book that she herself had written, “with that smug look I know so well...eyes fixed on the fuzzy far horizon of his own authority”. I’ve had similar experiences: on a recent trip to the hardware store, I was patronized by a male employee who asked if I was picking up things “for my boyfriend.” Although I had researched the supplies I needed, I felt that I’d have to listen to the man’s advice on what to purchase to feel confident, or for him to leave me alone. Solnit, who wrote the very book this man was rambling about, still began to think that someone else had written a book that year about the same subject. In her piece, hooks speaks describes stripping a women’s credibility as breaking one's spirit. If you were female, madness, not just physical abuse, was the punishment for making your voice heard. “Safety and sanity were to be sacrificed if I was to experience defiant speech,” she remarks. hooks describes hearing stories of women of color having nervous breakdowns or becoming silent and unproductive after publishing their work because they couldn’t bear the criticism from friends, family, and unknown critics. Men’s condescension can cause women to question their knowledge, accountability, or even their own work.
Men work even harder to repress the voices of outspoken women, especially writers. In her piece, hooks describes the way she struggled to refer to herself as a “writer” until she chose her pseudonym, which she calls “a writer-identity that would challenge and subdue all impulses leading me away from speech and silence”. In creating bell hooks, she had created a support system, an “ally”. Although Solnit is an accomplished writer, she acknowledges that her position is unusual and makes her more privileged when compared to other women experiencing oppression. “ Having public standing as a writer of history helped me stand my ground, but few women get that boost, and billions of women must be out there on this six-billion-person planet being told that they are not reliable witnesses to their own lives, that the truth is not their property, now or ever”. Even after writing nine books, Solnit was still having to prove her credibility as an accomplished writer. To women, in order to be a writer, you must first prove that you are worthy of writing, and then maybe a man will respect your work. Solnit describes this constant fight to prove your validity to men as a battle waged by all women, one that has trampled many women who had no position to speak out.
Men will continue to patronize and inflict violence upon women if we don’t change the way we react. Men speak differently to men than they do to women; in hooks’ piece, she describes how the women in her life spoke out around other black women with “intimacy and intensity,” but were silent when male authority figures were present. While Solnit focuses on using your voice to speak for others in her essay, hooks concludes with a focus on the need to empower those who are less privileged and do not speak out. Solnit dives into a long history of men silencing women, citing men’s arrogance as the main reason for its fruition and women’s acceptance of their behavior for its continuation. Men consistently silence women to remind them of their place: one of maternal care, one of submission. Solnit remarks, “men still assume I am, in some sort of obscene impregnation metaphor, an empty vessel to be filled with their wisdom and knowledge”. When men patronize women, they are confirming their belief that the world belongs to men. While Solnit chooses to use her voice to speak for those who cannot, hooks describes speaking out as a necessary act of resistance, especially for those oppressed, the colonized, and the exploited. Speech is “a gesture of defiance that heals, that makes new life and new growth possible”.
In their essays, both Solnit and hooks offer perspectives on women’s speech in the forms of writing and “talking back” as acts of defiance. These authors delve into the ways girls grow into women scared of madness and hysterics, imaginary symptoms of speaking up against men. In our current patriarchal society, men will continue to patronize women, and not all women will be able to fight back; it would be wishful thinking to assume otherwise. However, if more women use their voices to speak out, women can fight the systematic oppression of women, one small act of rebellion at a time. It’s incredibly important to give opportunities for marginalized women to speak out if those opportunities don’t already exist, as their voices as individuals could be more potent than they might realize. hooks makes an excellent case for bringing others up with you, especially those who come from marginalized groups. Both in the United States and worldwide, not all women will have the privilege to speak out because of the looming threat of violence and punishment. This makes it vital for women to consider the many levels and layers of privilege, especially when recognizing and speaking on the behalf of others who aren’t able to if it’s appropriate. Solnit offers a great example of using her voice without ignoring those who have experienced less privilege in their lives. If more women fight the system, even in the smallest ways, more women will feel credible and self-confident. I’m going to make small changes and try to stop adjusting my tone to become more feminine when I speak to men. Maybe next time I go to the hardware store, I won’t let that employee interrupt. Stopping one instance of “mansplaining” won’t fix the entire system, but it’s a place to start.
