Who gets heard, who gets listened to? The ones who are sanctioned to be loud, who are permitted to speak the longest. This licence is not given to all, only to those who have been emboldened by their loud histories that give permission to matter. Often without reason believing their ideas are important, that they ought to project them
into the world, that they will be listened to, that they have weight. Loud stories affirm this belief, no matter how erroneous. The rest, the vast majority, of us are educated and cultured into believing that our ideas are inconsequential, that they ought not be told, that they will never be listened to, that they carry no importance.
Loud stories are the ones we hear. Loud stories force themselves on our listening, entangling us in their
narrative.
Loud stories are not always worthy of our listening, they chronicle privilege and take no note of, nor care for, the
experience of others.
Loudness bullies and obliterates nuance. When nuance is lost, only the stories of the few survive.
By: Claudia Molitor