Guest Contributor: Breanna Parker
- SPEAK Staff
- Aug 15, 2014
- 1 min read
BRIEF BIO
I am a Chicagoan and a junior at Mizzou. My majors are Psychology and Sociology with a minor in Social Justice. I serve as SPEAK's Co-Director of Outreach/Intern. In addition, I work at the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center. I like helping people, so I plan on going to grad school to get my masters in Social Work. My favorite things to do are listening to old school music and retail therapy.
WORK
The mask represents how as a society we try to masquerade or hide from truths. Also, as individuals we tend to hide behind a mask to protect some of our identities that may cause us to have an injustice placed on ourselves.
In one of the pictures, I am strangling myself and suppressing my voice. We fear that we will be socially ousted, embarrassed, or feel discomfort if we SPEAK up. Therefore, we stop ourselves from SPEAKing out.
The strangulation is metaphoric for cutting off the words (like cutting off oxygen) that could have been spoken. The tape over my mouth represents a constraint as well. These unspoken words can make a difference and change lives. About five seconds of feeling embarrassed or discomforted will not kill us as a society. But, never SPEAKing will.
Instead of addressing the societal issues written on my body, we turn our back or put our heads down. The conclusion of my project is once we confront these barriers and remove the tape from our mouths, we can SPEAK UP, SPEAK OUT and SPEAK Proud!
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