I have never let anyone silence me. Don't you let anyone silence you. Go back to your long postings. Say what you think. Just because you are female and middle class doesn't mean you don't have feelings, and strong ones at that! And furthermore that you can express those feelings in poetry.
And be sure to tell people who want to give you a hard time that they are full of shit. They are probably just jealous because they can't write poetry like yours.
You can tell them that from me.

I always love it when other people presume to know my heart and the depth of my hurt or heartbreak or whatever adjective you want to use to describe the emotions we each feel individually.

What this young man and the gay bartender lack is empathy. I can never KNOW how someone feels, but I can certainly UNDERSTAND and appreciate those feelings because I've had feelings, too. And I certainly wouldn't want someone to judge something I personally felt and experienced. Perhaps you should ask your student if he knows what empathy is and if he might not be a bit less judgmental and a bit more generous in allowing that FOR YOU, your feelings are genuine and valid.

I agree with Hattie: don't let this kid silence you.

I think even if you did tell those two guys they are full of shit, they won't care. People like them tend to be unable to view anyone else with empathy or sympathy because it's all about them and their feelings, and nobody else matters. It's sad, really. Your feelings do matter. Your heartbreak is just as valid as theirs.

Hi Everyone--thanks for the support, but you don't need to worry about my letting anyone silence me. I wrote the post in pique and defiance, not submission and acquiesence. It's a technique I've found fairly successful: if someone declares a particular term or rhetorical strategy off-limits, I can often just substitute another, preferrably one that's stronger/ more aggressive. If somone tells me I can't talk about righteousness (because only people who go to church are righteous), I say, "Fine, then I'll talk about ethics." If someone says I have no right to talk heartbreak, I'm willing to talk instead, as I say, about what grief does to the rest of the body. Heartbreak is a very polite euphemism compared to a frank discussion of the physical symptoms of severe depression. I don't lose much by ceding those terms.

Of course, there are other terms and rhetorical strategies I am not willing to give up, and if someone tells me I can't use them, I just say, "Fuck you."

What's most interesting to me is that at times, no matter what vocabulary I use, what I say just doesn't register with some audiences. I always find it remarkable. Not quite sure what to do it about--not quite sure I care even to do much. But it's interesting.

And by the way, my posts have gotten shorter not because I feel censored or censured, but because I'm very, very busy.

Exactly, it won't register as they can't see beyond themselves or their own experiences. Sad.