Deliberately Unspoken

For the past year, I have been thinking about selectiveness, how most women around me were intentionally being selective with their voices, and how, in turn, I began to be selective with mine. But what does it mean to be selective with one’s voice, and how much does it have to do with fearfulness at the thought of being called “too political” or “too radical”—knowing very well the implications of such terms. At a time when everything is observed, recorded, exchanged, and screenshot, we often wonder, how will these words that we string together on a page be held against us later on, and are we better off being silent?