Speak for Yourself

I've always been enthralled by the concept of a voice. Growing up, my favorite film was Disney's The Little Mermaid, a story about a girl who sacrifices her voice to find love. I was mesmerized by ventriloquists, who used their voices to deceivingly animate lifeless objects. I would often try to learn different accents; I remember spending weeks reciting family prayers in an English accent, to the annoyance of my family.

In many ways, the idea of a voice is still an important object of interest to me. How do writers adopt different styles? How do we say what we say? Do voices always resonate in a historical context, or can they transcend material culture? How, if at all, can voices escape their historical contexts? (On these last two points, I'm thinking specifically of Gayatri Spivak's "Can the Subaltern Speak?")

Stepping away from these larger theoretical concerns for a moment, two instances this past week have only deepened my interest in voices, though in a much more applied sense. In Tennessee, the House passed the infamous "Don't Say Gay" Bill, which will prevent discussion of homosexuality in schools, and the national House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held hearings on the new HHS rule that requires insurance to cover birth control with no copay without any testimony from women, aka: the people who actually use birth control.

In both instances we see government stripping its citizens of their voices. In Tennessee, the message is that homosexuals don't deserve the right to speak or represent themselves in the classroom and that homosexuality is not worthy of conversation. Similarly, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform blatantly denied women their right to self-representation when none were allowed to testify as to why birth control is necessary. To me, both of these instances are not only unjust, they're insane. We would not (or at least should not) prohibit students from discussing controversial subjects in the classroom. We would not designate an identity category like race, gender, or nationality "unspeakable". And we would not hold hearings on men's health without men to testify. More broadly, we would not hold hearings on any event without a primary witness of some sort.

If there is one thing of which I am certain, it's that voices are beautiful, whether they are tenor, alto, bass, soprano, male, female, black, white, asian, latino, old, young, gay, straight, bi, asexual, or anything else. To deny them their right to sing, speak, and be heard is shameful and barbaric, and I certainly hope that we as a nation can do better.