Communication is far more complex than the one-size-fits-all approach I was accustomed to prior to college. Many voices were silenced, omitted, and ignored throughout my early education, and it wasn’t until my experience in a class called “Female Gothic Literature” that I realized just how much my education lacked in the acknowledgment of female voices and interpretations. My outlook on life was forever changed as a woman and communicator because I gained the ability to see from multiple perspectives and I was able to further develop my own point of view as a woman. I had read plenty of gothic literature before this class, but the female gothic opened my eyes to a hidden and silent world of women’s experiences that existed long before me and will probably exist long after I am gone based on historical patterns. The distinctions between the male and female gothic helped me develop a new understanding of women’s voices that I had been blind to as a woman myself, and it reinforced further development in my knowledge and awareness of women’s issues and gendered inequalities as well as how the female voice is communicated and understood. 

          Many of the same gothic elements can be found in both male and female gothic literature, and yet the two communicate entirely different messages. Where the male gothic represents domination, power, and violence, the female gothic represents cooperation, community, and serenity. Where the male gothic emphasizes female virtue, the female gothic emphasizes female intelligence and integrity, and where the male gothic emphasizes pleasure at female victimization, the female gothic emphasizes resistance to ideology that imprisons women. The two different interpretations of the gothic style are exemplified in my first artifact, an essay titled “The Femme Fatale as Rebecca,” in which I analyzed the book, Rebecca (1938), by Daphne Du Maurier, and identified the perceivable differences between male gothic and female gothic messages. 

          Rebecca was a ‘femme fatale,’ a symbol of danger, seduction, control, mystery, and promiscuity, and as such she was a threat to male power and essentially a sign of evil in the male gothic view. In contrast, from the female gothic view, Rebecca represented the societal oppression that women faced during that time and the masculine power that women were subjected to – but forbidden to attain – as Rebecca is deceased for the entirety of the book because her mere existence violated the customs and rules of male-dominated society, and destruction was all that could become of such a powerful woman. On the surface, Rebecca tells the story of a couple in love haunted by the evil presence of a deceased ex-wife, but it is nothing more than a façade to convey and highlight women’s oppression and extreme gender roles during that time that put many limits on women’s rights. 

          My educational experience with female gothic literature broadened my perspective to recognize women’s oppressed voices and concerns as a problem of the past and present, and pathed the way for me to identify similar issues involving more intersectional qualities. I continued my journey into understanding women’s voices within communication over the next several years, and that included one class called “International Women’s Rhetoric,” for which I wrote a critical analysis essay titled, “Patriarchy and Capitalism: Jointly Reinforcing the Oppressions of Women Internationally.” Among other things, I analyzed how male-driven communication and objectives has been able to manipulate many women into what was termed “feminist consumerism” because of how it deceptively adopts faux feminist ideas for the sake of making money in a patriarchal society. I speak out on the problems and issues that different women face on behalf of those who cannot, such as social inequalities in the work sphere, underrepresentation of women in politics, poverty, economic marginalization, and fostered gender discrimination and inequity. 

          There is a need for women’s voices to be included and understood, and for women’s issues to be represented rather than neglected or silenced for the sake of men. Female gothic literature has greatly educated and influenced the way I think about communication and the way I practice it as a woman. By developing my perspective beyond the male-centered point of view that I had been force-fed in my early education, my communication abilities have evolved to become more inclusive and intersectional, and I have developed better skills to decipher meanings, decode messages, and promote the female voice that is often drowned in the endless sea of male voices.