Starfish 4/24

Yesterday’s little experiment proved to be very interesting. I noticed many different things. When the women in the room were the only ones allowed to talk, different women who never spoke up that much in class before had a voice. They participated in the conversation and added a lot of solid contributions. I wonder why they spoke so much now, and not during regular class periods. Did it have to do with the men not being able to have a say? Did they feel more comfortable with just talking to women or did they feel obligated to say something since the men could not contribute to the discussion?

Another thing I noticed was how many of the men in the room reacted to not being able to speak. Many of them seemed bored and others seemed angry or anxious. Many of them wrote down messages, but some of the men in the room’s comments were not valid contributions to the conversation. It seemed that they were writing silly or stupid comments just to get attention back. Was it really that hard for them to just sit there, and listen without being immature? A couple of the men in class stated that women should not complain about not being heard because in today’s society they have just as big as a voice as men do. I wish this was the case but it is not true all the time. I have felt like my voice was not as important as a man’s before and I am sure many other woman can think of one time they felt the same way. I think this exercise really allowed the men to know what women in the past and present have had to go through to get in a word here or there. “Every woman has known the torture of beginning to speak aloud.” –Cixous. Some of the men in the room got the chance to endure that “torture” as well.