February Blog

Taylor Alpaugh

COMM 160

February Blog Post

3/2/2017

Courage and the Fear Behind it

            Out of the readings we have done so far, a quote that stuck out the most was, “Courage is never the absence or avoidance of fear; it is the deep inhalation of it­ – a frightened, shallow breath turned into a powerful shout or belted song note.” This quote is directly from the reading Fear by Andres Gomez that we had to read in relation to the course. This quote stood out to me because when one is to have courage to stand up for what they believe and/or etc. fear plays a large factor which can allow yourself to stand out have a more powerful voice.

            Being the literal definition, courage is the ability to do something that frightens one. Relating to the course content, when discussing the waves of feminism, women including Susan B. Anthony, Gloria Steinem, Eve Ensler, and Tess Holliday being from each wave. They all had to have the courage to be able to stand up to what they believed in and let their voices be heard. Especially when it came to Susan B. Anthony who fought for the women and their right to vote. I can guarantee that there was fear involved when fighting for the right. People have always been told to do what their told and follow rules, when rules are unfair, there is fear that follows that people don’t want to face head on and takes a large amount of courage to have their voice heard and therefore be powerful.

            After the resent election, a large amount of the United States was very upset to who had won and has now become a 45^th president of the United States. Those people who were in support of President Trump hide in fear of being judged and/or targeted and put in a negative spot light. What people need to realize is that we all have our own thoughts and opinions and that is what allows us to learn more and even grow. After reading this article, ‘You Focus on the Good’: Women Who Voted for Trump, in Their Own Words, I thought it took a lot of courage for these women to share why they gave him the vote and their opinions. I do believe that it is awfully sad how many people feel the need that they cannot share their opinions or thoughts out of fear of being against the majority.

            Courage is something that someone cannot just act on, it takes passion and the motivation to allow you to overcome fear to allow your voice to be heard and therefore be powerful. From the quote I chose I loved that Gomez said, “A frightened, shallow breath turned into a powerful shout or belted song note.” Though fear can drive people away from sharing and/or fighting for their rights, when fear is overcome it allows your message to be not just heard, but he powerful and connect to those around.

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/us/women-voters-trump.html?_r=0