Blog #2

Blog Post #1

Shane Layman COMM 160-1070

“The Most Important Sentence”

                For this blog post, I chose a quote from The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House by Audre Lorde. This quote was on page 111 and said, “Interdependency between women is the way to freedom which allows the I to be, not in order to be used, but in order to be creative. This is a difference between the passive be and the active being.”  

                This statement not only holds a massive historical significance but also holds a personal significance for many women growing up in the early 1950s through the 1980s who were the victims of oppression. Audre Lorde’s point was that all forms of oppression towards woman were interrelated and in order to create change, a public stand was required. Interdependency defines into the dependence of two or more people or things on each other. Audre Lorde was calling for all women to stand together to overcome the oppression that was overtaking them. When hasn’t a situation of oppression been defeated by the “Interdependency” of a group of people. Historically, the oppressed do not always end up staying oppressed. Now with that being said, many times the oppressed stay oppressed but I’d like to focus on the victors rather than the defeated. Combining not only strengthens numbers and creates a united front but working together allows a multitude of different ideas to be shared from peer to peer with varying influences driving behind these ideas. Ideally, this can be seen in classroom projects. As I stated earlier, “Ideally”, the classmates get together to discuss topics and bounce ideas off of each other to create a solution to the project at hand.  

                The next part of the quote I’d like to look at is the part when Lorde said, “…freedom which allows the I to be, not in order to be used, but in order to be creative.” Lorde is making a statement about the creativity that lies dormant within many of the oppressed women of her time. With freedom to think for themselves, who knows what these woman would be able to create. An example is Rosalind Franklin, whose images of DNA proteins led to the discovery of the double helix model of DNA in the early 1950s. “The I to be” is a statement about changing the purpose women had previously had in society. Instead of just being there as an I, they become a being. Something capable of creation and innovation in society to the betterment of society as a whole.

                The final part of this quote I’d like to look at is, “This is a difference between the passive be and the active being.”  Hamlet said it best, “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Taking this quote completely out of context, by combining together the oppressed women of society can change from being passive (be) and active (being) and change society for the betterment of themselves.