Secret language is part of every group’s discourse. Those with power over others develop this discourse as a tool of oppression. But those who are oppressed cling to it as a survival tool.

It is the discourse of the oppressed that I want to explore. Although I truly master no language, my familiarity with a few of the secret languages is more than just casual. In fact you might say I am part owner/creator of some of these languages. Don’t know what I mean? Surely you must, all groups that are discriminated against, or marginalized by others, develop these secret languages as a way to get by. Codes, special signs, symbols, poetry, and music are but a few of the ways we communicate. We need these tools because; we are afraid, we are lonely, we feel pain, we want something to be "ours", we want to live.

Proficiency of any secret language develops over long periods of time. These languages are rarely published, or formerly acknowledged, but they do exist. A secret language cannot really be written. It is, fluid, dynamic, and ever evolving. Secret language, once revealed, becomes part of their language – the oppressors.

Interested in mastering one of these languages? No problem, just join the group!! It happens everyday! Lose your job and class privilege, learn a new language. Marry someone outside your own ethnicity, learn a new language. Profess a non-hetero sexual orientation, learn a new language.

I am in the process of learning one of the oldest secret languages in the world, the language of women. This is one of the hardest, and easiest tasks, of my transition from manhood to womanhood. The difficulties in mastering this language arise from a lack of experience and first hand knowledge. Intellectually I have glimpsed the language, but as I transition I begin to actually feel the language. The cataracts on my eyes are beginning to dissolve as I see tones of women’s secret language everywhere. In our art, body language, verbal discourse, written language and throughout our private world.

Women’s secret language is there for all to see, but can only be properly decoded by its members. As an infant in my journey towards womanhood, I am just beginning to learn that this is not only a language of loneliness, despair, and sorrow, but a language of hope, and the secret language spoken by the majority of humans on earth.

BUSINESS
Editor's Letters - Anna Diaz and Sarah Bouchard
It's A Major

LANGUAGE
Poem - Jessica Mann
Custom Made - Erin Nichols
The Berlin Wall - Araminta Matthews
What is Blue - Marge Adams
Secret Language - Tiffany Maiuri

NEED TO KNOW
FACES Update
Calendar of Events
Credits

RETURN
Women's Studies Web
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