Kirsty's Portfolio

• How does the text use parody to effectively achieve its purpose?
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• What global issue(s) does the text raise, promote or question?
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I find that the main aspect that is addressed within Penelope is the issue of women that base their personality and their lives based on their husband. This is supported by the lines, “who mourned him with his warm head on my knees” and “six months of this.” These two lines suggest that as she mourned the loss of her husband, she essentially lost all the things she could do. Perhaps these lines imply that without her husband, Penelope was nothing but a shell of a woman. Through the lines, “and when the others came to take his place” and “disturb my peace.” These lines suggest that it is considered standard for after a woman has lost her husband, it is only natural for somebody to take the husband’s place because how can a woman possibly survive independently? The line “disturb my peace” also suggests that these suitors coming to replace her husband did nothing but bother her. Not because she did not want any of the suitors but because she did not a husband in general.

 

The issue of growth is also quite prevalent in the poem. Evidence of this can be seen in the structure of the poem. How the lines go from “thinking to amuse myself” to “but found a lifetime’s industry instead” right after as well as, “my thimble like an acorn” to “pushing up through the umber soil.” The placement of these lines indicate a growth within Penelope. How she saw sewing as a hobby but it ended up contributing to the maintenance of her freedom as well knitting helping her grow from an acorn to an oak tree – very much indicating a large growth. The evolution of what she describes herself as throughout the poem is also significant. How she goes from “girl” to “maiden” to “widow” and ends at “woman.” This trend is also indicative of her growth from having her identity be to do with innocence and men to finally becoming her own person and giving herself strength. This is seen through how the term, “girl” is to do with vulnerability and innocence – suggesting that when you are just a girl, you are at risk because you do not have a man in your life to protect you from the horrors of this world. The term, “maiden” suggests sexual innocence. What a man once protected is now a man’s want. The term, “widow” also shows how now that her husband has died, her identity is based on the fact that she has lost her husband. All of these terms all have Penelope to do with men. It is only until the end when it is revealed that she is tricking the patriarchal systems through the line, “I tricked it” that the term, “woman” is used. This suggests that she is now her own person now that she has to husband or no man in her life.

 

There is also the aspect of self-control through the use of colour within the poem. The fact that Penelope selects what colour threads she uses to create her surroundings shows that she is in control of her life and chooses what goes and what does not. It is also significant that in the end, when she hears the “far-too-familiar tread outside the door” she does not halt the picking of the tapestry despite her husband possibly having returned. The fact that she licks at a “scarlet thread” is also significant. Throughout the poem, the colours of the thread are similar to that of the objects she is creating. If we go along with this idea, the “scarlet thread” could be representing blood – which then implicates killing, death, violence. Perhaps it is Penelope finally accepting her husband as “dead” to her and sewing almost the “crime scene” where she would be able to see that she really had lost him. While it would be a gruesome visual, it would be indicative of Penelope’s final acceptance of the loss of her husband.

 

Overall, the poem has a melancholic tone. It gives off the sense of melancholy through the way that it presents growth through the loss of a loved one. How you can completely change from losing somebody and end up happier and more independent than you were. While it may sound immoral at first, at the end of the day, all kinds of events can affect individuals in a variety of ways.

The first thing that came to mind when talking about SAINTHOAX was the topic of feminism. Just a quick google search of SAINTHOAX’s art campaigns and you would see several different artworks based around women. I found it very interesting that within my group, we all assumed SAINTHOAX was a man despite obviously showing their support towards the feminist movement. Perhaps this is because it has been unintentionally indoctrinated into us by the people that surround us that being so bold and brash is only acceptable if done by a man. The mention of this also brought forward the idea of men being feminists. Personally, I do not know any males that have explicitly said they are feminists, I even know some women who are afraid to say they support the feminist movement. I feel that this is because people have misunderstood what it means to be a feminist. On social media, I see many of posts that essentially imply (or even bluntly state) that women are better than men. I also noticed that many people have praised posts like such because they believe claiming something like how females have superiority over males is considered feminism. Many people of different ages who are feminists seem to have forgotten what the basic definition of feminism is. “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes” Is implying women are better than men align with this definition?

What techniques are used to appeal to the reader?

–  The advertisement has the image at a slight dutch angle, this supports the idea of there being a power imbalance between the man and woman. In terms of camera shots, the use of long shot helps establish the setting of the advertisement – it seems to be more of an office setting as you can see through the clean-cut edges of the building as well as the dark sophisticated colours of the image. It also shows the full appearance of the man and the suit the brand promoting this ad are trying to advertise. The advertisement also uses several aspects of the composition. Alone with the use of long shot, the ad also uses negative space to show that the two subjects as well as indicate sexual tension between the two subjects, if the ad was cropped to the just the man and the woman, it may give off the sense that the woman is trapped with the man. Something significant to mention is the placement of the woman on the steps to be the same height as the man. This could insinuate that a woman needs to be on “extra steps” to be on the same level as a man that stands on his own. I also find the framing of the man’s hand lifting the woman’s dress being in the centre is significant too. It could suggest that it is the main aspect of the ad that the brand wants readers to take into account and remember. Finally, the imagery of the ad is also used to appeal to the reader through the colours in the ad. Specifically, the contrast of colour between the man the woman. The way the man wears dull and darker colours suggests that he is more mature and serious, while the woman wears light blue that brings a more innocent and childish quality to her, the contrast supports the idea that the man is of higher authority compared to the woman. The setting is mainly dark colours too, this further suggests that the woman is out of place. Not only that, the body language and gaze of the man and woman are also significant. The man’s casual pose along with his cold and unimpressed gaze upon looking under the woman’s dress as well as the way he looks as though he is critiquing what he is seeing suggests that he is in control and in a position of power because he is not depicted as drooling over her. Meanwhile, the woman’s body language of lying back relaxed and her gaze that makes it seem like she’s in pleasure. This depiction of the woman suggests that she wants what the man is doing to her and that she cannot control herself around him.

 

What values does the text seek to make use of?

I find that the text seeks to make use of the idea that a man dressing in one of the brand’s suits would make them so powerful that they can make women swoon when they are not even trying. That can be seen through the way the text depicts the man lifting up the woman’s dress in such a casual way and her being so affected by it while the man remains unmoved.

 

How is this an effective advert?

It’s effective because it shocks the audience through the way it promotes acts that are generally seen as unacceptable. It is important to mention that it could be effective in the sense that it gets popular because it made a lot of people offended or mad. Perhaps it may not be the brand’s true intention but they may have purposely made the advertisement so controversial so they could get a reaction from audiences that could, in turn,  give the brand and advert more popularity and possibly more customers. Morally, it seems wrong because they are purposely trying to upset audiences. However, the only reason why people could still remember this ad from 2010 is because it created outrage within a large group of people. As wrong as it may sound, in media, one of the best ways to be noticed is to be controversial. We can see this through the way high-profile celebrities like Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton got their rise to fame through being the subject of controversies. Like Oscar Wilde said, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”