It's kind of a shame to admit that this speech, although often ranked one of the top 100 speeches ever given in American history, isn't more widely known. It's not a catchphrase like Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech, or teased like JFK's "Ich Bin Ein Berliner." It seems to resurface every couple of years as a benchmark in amazing speeches, or as a reminder that the women's movement hasn't come a long way since the 1980s.

So if you mention "A Left-Handed Commencement Address" in conversation you're likely to get blank stares outside of a few elite circles.

You're most likely to be exposed to this amazing piece of American rhetoric through school—and probably college-level courses, where you're more adequately equipped to understand the mature ideas and themes Le Guin so masterfully presents. This wasn't a speech that was designed for mass appeal, it was geared towards a specific audience: female college graduates. So, it's most likely those female college graduates, or literary-minded feminists, who are the ones comprising those few elite circles we mentioned.

Which is really a bummer, knowing how awesome it is.