Your Voice is Art. Use it.

Judithe Hernandez, "The Unknown Saint," 2017, pastel on paper. (Museum of Latin American Art)

Voice is one of the most essential tools of power that exist in human society. Our voices are unique, personal, raw, and is our most basic way of making someone understand our needs and wants. Even babies have voices, screaming out for care when needed. If you can disperse your voice, you can gain power, spread your ideas, make change—sending your voice out in the wind to take root in far away places and have a consensus of global understanding.

The silencing of voice to ensure power for those with it is not a new concept. It has existed across centuries; barring people from voicing their concerns and being a part of the world. When it comes to marginalized groups, those in power will always find justifications for why their opinion does not matter, and tie ropes around their voices to quiet them, and remove them from places of power. It is our mission to find another way to make noise, together.

 In light of the #metoo movement, female voice became more prevalent in the discussion of sexual assault, something previously kept hush-hush in the interest of keeping men in power in power. If women did have the courage to speak up, insults, threats and mocking often ensued, with few allegations being believed, or even cared about. Women’s voices were not heard when it came to the policing of their bodies and health care, and are also not listened to when expressing concerns. Their voices were just simply left out. Women make up less than 20% of congress representatives, and all women were not given equal access to voting across the United States until 1984. The voices of minority women were prevented from being heard for decades after women’s suffrage had began, and is still being marginalized through voting access.

The infrastructural systems of power that go into removing voice are what keeps women from experiencing justice, proper care, and equality. To dismantle these systems is the ultimate goal, but is a daunting task. There are mountains of able bodies lining up with our current president-elect Donald Trump to work towards the policing of women’s bodies, and for men and the government to take away the voices of choice in the interest of theological values. They exist everywhere within society like a plague, darkening our homes with their toxic spores. However, women are determined to not lose their voice and control over their bodies. Spreading ideas is how they gain power, so women have found other ways than representation to use their voices— through art, action, social media movements—making a powerful statement and working toward being heard.

Michelle Hartney/Womens Health

Art in itself can be about anything, and it has never shied away from talking about the political or rights of persons. You can go literal, by making your own political cartoon that directly criticizes public policy, or you can go the abstracted route, and create art that reflects a problem you deem important. Art has a real power to reach people and make them feel, and also make the artist feel like they have a voice in the face of oppression. One such artist, Michelle Hartney, made a piece that commented outrage and shock on the quality of maternal care. She created a rack of hospital gowns, one for every woman who died in a hospital in childbirth in one year. The image was startling-- the emptiness and tragedy evoked in each gown, put together to mark the expanse of the whole. The U.S. is the most dangerous place in the developed world for a woman to give birth. The performance piece has popped up across the U.S., gaining attention for and awareness of the issue. 

In the popular women’s feminist health publication “Our Bodies, Ourselves”(OBOS) personal action and globalized expression of female voice are two of the most integral core concepts that make the books so powerful. The collective works toward the globalized education of women about their own bodies, tailor-made to fit each culture's unique needs and wants, lends a unique voice in the face of women's health initiatives and policy making. It EDUCATED women, in a way that made sense to them. OBOS noticed a gap that needed to be filled, and filled it. OBOS focused on being all-inclusive of voice, and making sure that what women needed and wanted was taken into account. In this publication, especially the earliest editions, voice was one of the most integral concepts amongst the displayed information. This kind of writing tailor-made for global use is what makes OBOS so powerful. Being a part of something, making it your own, learning, growing. This is how change begins. 

Demand Justice dressed in handmaid attire/Fortune.com

Group movements often navigating via social media have also served as a vital way for individuals to voice their concern and make a greater statement. An obvious example of this is the #metoo movement, that spread awareness of the vastness of the problem of sexual assault on women. There are also artistic demonstrations that women have used to voice their anger with policy and government—during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, a group of women silently protested Kavanaugh's outdated and oppressive views on abortion and other women's issues by dressing up as handmaids and standing outside the hearing room back in September.


Not only does this group bring female attention to the issue, but also connect it to a current big-ticket item in television that many women who care about women's rights know of. It packs a powerful statement-- what kind of world is our government making for its women? It seems eerily similar to that of Gilead from which the handmaids originate. Powerful, yeah? Obviously now Kavanaugh is on the front pages of most major news sites due to the many allegations of sexual assault against him (shocker, a man with overtly sexist political views being accused of assualt), and yet, this demonstration done by the organization Demand Justice still has acute power and relevance over a month later. Using art to protest and make waves in the media is one way to put your concerns on women's health policies in the spotlight. Thats exactly what these women did. 

More generally, another movement within the realm of art is the very well-known #metoo movement that I discussed earlier. Even being a part of that movement, raising your voice within the many, is just as valuable as making your own. Contributing your voice to the voice of others is another source of power. The #metoo movement became so widespread that it was impossible for anyone to ignore or not know about. Social media has this unique power. Being a part of this movement was one of the first times I felt like I could have a voice. Reminded me that my voice is important. Reminded all of us that our voice is important.

From Obberman Center for Advanced Studies

However, art as I have describe here is limited. It has the power to influence change, but does not have an immediate hand in actually making change. It may sway policy maker but it is not, inherently, a policy maker—which is the only form of voice really capable of immediate change. Voting and using your voice in such a way is the obvious form of taking matters into your own hands-- but as we know in the 2016 election, sometimes that just isn't enough. The ripple effect is what art and writing and movements rely on-- creating something so profound that it can make people feel something-- is where the voice and power exists within it. 

There are so many ways to contribute to the collective voice of women, individually or as a part of a group. OBOS proves this. Empowerment is its most powerful when it comes from within. So make things. Do things. Find your voice. There's one in all of us, and its the only one that can fight for the rights over our own bodies. Your voice is art. Use it.



Davis, The Making of Our Bodies Ourselves. Duke U Pr ISBN-13: 978-0822340669