Читать книгу Silenced and Sidelined - D Lynn D Arnold - Страница 17

The second theme from the research is the metaphor of dying and isolation. Here, silenced women describe their organization, industry, or environment in multiple life-and-death terms. She may mention that when she is not fighting, it feels that she is being eaten alive, crushed, or strangled on the vine.

She may equate her silencing experience to suffocation, strangulation, drowning, or being out on a limb all alone. Each silencing encounter is described as a form of poison that slowly erodes her sense of self. Her language may include references to her heart, soul, mind, and body. She refers to heartbreak and bone-crushing pain. She protects herself by putting on a metaphoric armor, and she tries to develop a thick skin—this phenomenon of feeling silenced bleeds into all her domains.