Throughout this unit, I feel that I have learned to be more meticulous in the sense that I have gained understanding in looking deeper into different bodies of work and comprehending them at more than a surface level. That being said a key concept that I have developed my thinking on was the role of women in media. Growing up, I never really noticed how blatantly sexualised or objectified women in advertisements were and through this unit, I have definitely learned to be more aware of what the media tries to promote to the general population. Not only that, analysing so many advertisements with underlying derogatory ideas conditioned me to even be more aware of what and how I see products being promoted in my very own day to day life. It was also interesting to learn about how complex the idea of representation itself was. With questions like whether a representation of a certain group in literature is problematic if the author has good intentions, it really proved how the idea of representation really is not just black and white.I find that a link between the two texts is the general theme of identity and how changes in your own identity or the identity of a group of people leads to an unsteady sense of self which can affect everyone around you positively or negatively which segues into our next unit, “Troubled Worlds: Change and Conflict”
