The Power of Vulnerability
By Michelle Lin, written May 2021
Can vulnerability really be viewed as a weakness? Black lesbian mother warrior poet, Audre Lorde, argued that vulnerability is a source of strength that can be used to comment on societal issues and prevent a feeling of isolation (1). This is seen in how Lorde opened up about her experiences with the lack of inclusion she faced from White feminists while participating in a feminist panel, her struggle with acceptance within the Black feminist community due to her sexuality, and her ability to discuss her experiences as a cancer survivor.
As a Black lesbian feminist, Lorde demanded equality for both Black feminists and lesbians on several feminist panels, where Lorde spoke out about the divisions seen within the feminist community regarding race and sexuality. This is mentioned by Emily Bernard when she explored Lorde’s essay, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” (1), which called out White feminists for their lack of inclusion:
“And yet, I stand here as a Black lesbian feminist, having been invited to comment within the only panel at this conference where the input of Black feminists and lesbians is represented. What this says about the vision of this conference is sad, in a country where racism, sexism, and homophobia are inseparable. To read this program is to assume that lesbian and Black women have nothing to say about existentialism, the erotic, women’s culture and silence, developing feminist theory, or heterosexuality and power.”
Despite their efforts to stand up for equality, Lorde showed that White feminists only created one panel for both Black feminists and lesbians, thus portraying the lack of inclusion at the Second Sex Conference in New York in 1979 (1). By capturing this lack of inclusion, Lorde demonstrated that there were still divisions within the feminist community when addressing race and sexuality. Lorde pointed out that Black feminists and lesbians have just as much to say on the topics that White feminists addressed at their panels. To exclude women of different races and sexualities centers the focus of women’s rights issues on one particular group, thus leading to the inability to address issues that women of all different backgrounds and sexual orientations experience on a daily basis.
Lorde furthered her point that White feminists should recognize the inequality that they have imposed on people of color in her poem, “Who Said It Was Simple,” where Lorde called out White feminists for their oppression of people of color (2):
Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march
discussing the problematic girls
they hire to make them free.
An almost white counterman passes
a waiter brother to serve them first
and the ladies neither notice nor reject
the slighter pleasure of their slavery.
In this stanza of the poem, Lorde pushed White feminists to recognize those who work for them, and that their ability to attend the marches is connected to those who help them—people of color. When White feminists fail to recognize those who aid them, they are unable to see that they, too, play a role in the oppression of people of color. Lorde vocalized that the inequalities that people of color face are still present even during a women’s movement.
As a writer, Lorde also discussed the issues she experienced as a Black lesbian feminist who often received criticism from the Black feminist community for her sexuality: “. . . now walking into rooms full of / black faces / that would destroy me for any / difference / where shall my eyes look?” (1). The act of emphasizing her difference in the excerpt demonstrates that Lorde was unable to find any form of reassurance coming from the Black feminist community because she identified as a lesbian. By mentioning this point, Lorde amplified the fractures seen in the Black feminist community that prevents Black feminists and lesbians from unifying to fight against the inequalities that they collectively experience as women.
Along with sharing her experiences as a Black lesbian feminist, Lorde’s ability to be vulnerable with her audience is seen when discussing her experiences battling breast cancer in 1978, liver cancer in 1984, and later, ovarian cancer in 1987 (1). By addressing cancer in her writing, Lorde opened up the opportunity for others to connect with her to discuss the effects of cancer: “She knew that speaking out about her own experiences with cancer had the potential to liberate other women to talk about the effects of the disease on their own lives” (1). When cancer survivors, like Lorde, share their own stories, it allows others to feel less isolated in their struggles when dealing with the disease, and it also invites others to explore a topic that isn’t largely discussed (1).
The lack of representation of individuals addressing the topic of sickness is captured in Margaret Kissam Morris’ article “Audre Lorde.” Morris mentions that disease isn’t covered in society due to the prioritization of youth and healthiness (3):
“In mainstream American society, an obsession with youth has rendered the subject of aging, disease, and dying undesirable topics for public discourse outside of the medical, psychological, and religious contexts.”
Morris argues that the failure of representing those struggling with diseases in everyday discussion would naturally lead to a negative association to sickness. When an individual, like Lorde, discusses her experiences in a piece of writing within The Cancer Journals, that person demonstrates that fostering a conversation around the topic not only prevents the feeling of isolation that a patient may be experiencing but also opens up an opportunity for the public to recognize that sickness is a part of the human experience, thus reducing the stigma that was once associated with the topic.
Throughout the process of battling cancer, Lorde took a stance, sharing her experiences by refusing to wear prosthetics despite being told that her decision would result in her being viewed as unprofessional in a workplace environment: “Her objection to prosthetics was a rejection of another kind of silence and erasure and a defiant refusal to conform to the expectations of others when it came to the way she chose to move in the world” (1). By refusing to conform to the norm, Lorde commented on the cultural issues of how women should be presented in the workplace, making a statement to the medical community and women in general on how women shouldn’t have to conform to a norm in order to be viewed as professional. Through sharing her personal experiences with cancer, Lorde demonstrated that vulnerability can prevent the feeling of isolation as well as raise awareness on the ongoing issues related to women’s rights in both the medical and feminist communities.
By discussing these three issues in her writing—inequality within the feminist community in terms of representation of lesbians and Black women, fractures within the Black feminist community when discussing the topic of sexuality, and her experiences with cancer—Lorde communicated that the first step to developing understanding with and compassion to one another, is through writing and sharing the stories that weren’t previously told. Through reading about these experiences, Lorde’s audience will then be able to recognize and demand change.
As a writer, Lorde spoke to me because of her ability to tap into vulnerability as an opportunity to raise awareness of the issues experienced in her everyday life. Throughout my experience with coming out, I found myself actively searching for stories written by women who are LGBTQ+. One thing that I have noticed is that the stories and experiences that I came across, whether through videos I stumbled across on the Internet or in the novels and poetry books that I read, these stories were predominantly written by or told through the perspective of White women. In doing so, I found myself struggling to see myself within the stories that I was watching and reading. When a writer, like Lorde, speaks up about her own experiences, she not only opens up an opportunity for LGBTQ+ women of color to relate to the pieces she has written but also invites them to become a part of diversifying the narratives being told in the LGBTQ+ community.
(1) Bernard, Emily. “Warrior Poet.” New Republic 252, no. 4 (April 2021): 58–61.
(2) Lorde, Audre. “Who Said It Was Simple.” Poetry Foundation. Orig. from 1973. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42587/who-said-it-was-simple.
(3) Morris, Margaret Kissam. “Audre Lorde.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 23, no. 1 (March 2002): 168.
Michelle Lin was a senior at Towson University who graduated in Spring 2021. She had previously worked as the Online Poetry Editor for volume 69 of Towson University’s Literary Magazine Grub Street. Michelle currently lives in Lutherville – Timonium, Maryland. During her free time, she enjoys reading and writing poetry, and playing guitar. To read her writing follow her on her Instagram @m.l_writes.
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