“An entrenched irony of public expression in American democracy is how individuals who endure systemic oppression (women, the LGBT community, people of color)—who might have the most reason to shout—tend to be the same individuals who are urged to keep their voices down, to stay calm, and to laugh a little (or ‘smile,’ as Joe Scarborough and others have advised Clinton),” writes Assistant Professor of Music William Cheng in a TIME opinion piece about what’s behind the long history of calling women “shrill.”
