August Blog

Samantha Sadler

Christina Ivey

Comm 160-001

4 September 2018

Reading the article titled Between Speech and Silence by Anne Russo, really got me thinking about the aspects of the way we communicate. Not only within the feminist society, but with everything we do. Russo continuously states that active listening is very hard to practice and is one of the most important aspects of communication. If you are not contributing to the conversation, it makes the sender feel as though the message is not important enough to the receiver. There needs to be messages sent back to the sender from the receiver whether its verbal or nonverbal. It helps to further the conversation and keep both people engaged. When a professor is giving a lecture, they are sending messages to the students but at times, it can be hard to tell if the students are actually receiving the verbal messages. Teachers and professors can combat this issue by weaving activities and discussions into the lectures in order to communication more transactional where messages are sent and received from both sides of the conversation. Silence is another action that Russo brings to light in her article. Silence is a rhetorical strategy. With reference to the “Me Too” movement, creating connections through speaking out may be beneficial to a certain point, “it may also serve to obscure the ways our experiences, perspectives, and actions are differentiated because of where we are located in the standards of oppression and privilege” (Russo 40). Everyone's experiences shape who they are as a person but as upper-middle and middle class white women continue to speak out about they are treated unfair, they are undermining the minorities in the sense that many groups of racially different women are treated much worse. Being silent in this regard means taking a step back and allowing those women to voice their injustices as it tended to be harder for them to deal with. After going to Boise’s Women’s March this year, I was able to see multiple, racially different women coming together to achieve a common goal. The feminist movement is an important in today’s society but that requires women to put all other differences aside almost similar to the pitfall to listening known as enthusiasts infatuation. This means ignoring differences between people and focusing on commonalities. In this situation, realizing that everyone is equal makes more a better and morally correct society. Ignoring differences to an extent is fine as long as we do not avoid mentioning the things that make us all unique. Silence allows us to learn about others experiences and see how it has shaped the person that they have become.