Year: 2019

Moment: Joyce getting angry at Marlene for not visiting and leaving all of the mother duties to her.

Joyce: “I can’t believe you would just leave me for six years. Why do you have to have such a heavy focus in your life for the work you do. You are so close-minded and never leave space to think about us in the lower class. You left me Angie, I sacrificed my very own baby for her upbringing and now look at what our relationship has become, she doesn’t even like me. I had to play the role of a mother before I was even my own mother, all of these years in my life I served you. My husband even cheated on me and you gave me little-to-no sympathy, for all I know you didn’t even know it had happened. That’s what sisters are for, to help one another out when they re down. I was at my lowest of lows at this point left with a daughter that wasn’t mine a doesn’t even like me. What did you do? Nothing.”

• How does the language each character uses reflect their personality and the back story that they represent? Use evidence and analysis to support your interpretation.

Every character has their own story coming from very different points in history. Churchill is able to manipulate each character’s use of language in order to better contribute to their portrayal of the character as a whole. For example, Dull Gret is often seen to have a short and small periodic input. This contributes to her somewhat lower-class background. Churchill’s use of monosyllabic words through Gret such as “Soup” “Sad” “Big Cock” allows for a greater understanding of who this woman really was and what it is that she is representing. Churchill understands that the same degree of attention to these details is required among the other women in order to allow the audience to have a greater amount of engagement with the characters hopefully evoking more emotion and reflection.

• What is the effect of Churchill using interruptions and simultaneous speech in this Act?

The various interruptions allegedly contribute to the fact that these women seem to have nothing in common due to their different times in history. It actually does the opposite. The tricky conversations allow for emphasis on the times when these women find things they have in common, shedding a light on the similar issues they have faced in their own times.

• What is the effect on the reader of the way that the scene ends? Why do you think Churchill has ended the scene in this way?

Towards the end of Act 1, we notice that Pope Joan begins talking in a different language and it seems to be understood by these other women further contributing to the commonalities that these women actually have. Furthermore, Gret suddenly has a long monologue for the first time in this act. This could be interpreted as a character change, however, the language she uses still comes across as quite basic.

• What is interesting about the character of the Waitress in this Act? How is she presented? What do you think Churchill wants to show us by using this character?

Churchill’s use of the waitress could suggest the reality of women outside of this play. Although it may seem that these 6 women are thriving, the reality is that over time, not all women have progressed. The waitress is seen to be ignored in most of Act One thus contributing to the importance of recognition of all women in society.

When looking at Liza Donnelly’s work I realised most of her political cartoons are to do with the pressures that women face to achieve a certain politically or socially constructed idea on a day to day basis.  I noticed a common theme through some of her cartoons that they tended to consist of young girls thinking about what they want to be when they grow up.  Firstly, girls shouldn’t be thinking about these things when they are that young. Secondly, the thoughts that the girls had circulated the ideas of being a slut, being scripted, etc, and that shouldn’t be the case.

I think Humor in political cartoons is a really clever way of delivering and expressing the truth to an audience. It is likely that the truth you are suggesting is quite controversial, so in order to dampen the effect of this new perspective, humour plays a really key role in political cartoons. We did notice though, that a lot of Liza Donnelly’s Cartoons aren’t really that funny. We believe this is a way for her to express how serious the issue is as quite often problems like these can be ignored. Political Cartoons should be somewhat understood without political or historical context and I feel it is very easy for someone to understand what the points are that Liza Donnelly is trying to raise through her drawings.

In me and my partner’s political cartoon, we noticed the contrast between a lifestyle in other places in the world in comparison to Singapore. We realised that both of us are living in a bubble. Juxtaposing the political cartoon, my partner said she feels comfortable to wear whatever she wants outside without fear of being judged. Whereas my teacher, having had experience growing up in London says girls have to be conscious of what they are wearing. Through Donnelly’s techniques, the girl in the cartoon seems to be “trapped” by these “circulating” bubbles “surrounding” her. I feel this is because Donnelly is trying to convey the debatable issue of the perpetual thoughts that a woman faces on a day to day basis regarding how she looks. Furthermore, everything is posed as a question, suggesting that everything is subjective, “how short is short?” “how push-up is push up?” further relating back to the Artist’s issue.

In these two ads comparing “then vs now” it is quite evident that over time women often were described as sexual objects. The word “blow” was used in both of the adverts suggesting how sexual references have largely stayed the same over the course of time. Both adverts the woman seem to be receiving whatever is given to them as if there is an expectation for them to accept whatever is given to them. Through the use of various inuendos, the adverts were able to suggest hidden meanings. As a male, I noticed that on the bottom of the “now” ad, “7-inches” was written. To me, this showed a flipside of the expectation of men and their sexual organs. Both of these ads explore the development of how sexual expectations and how they have developed over time. Previously, just women were required to “do themselves up” and be presentable all the time. Although now it is required for men too. This could perhaps suggest how women are becoming more equal in societies nowadays more than ever before.9

In the screenshot above showing a product from Swedish Brand ‘H&M,’ there is a picture of a black boy wearing a hoodie that states “Coolest monkey in the Jungle” To me, this advertisement didn’t seem too “thought-provoking” at first, in fact, I thought it was quite a cute hoodie. But with some deeper reading about the reactions to this advertisement released by H&M was when I realised the possible issues caused by this.

As you can see on the left, in the one articles of many, there was a bit of controversy regarding the company’s intentions. To me, the biggest surprise that arises from this is that people would assume that H&M has performed this action deliberately.

If I’m being honest, whether it is because I go to an international school or whether it’s just me, I have to say that I didn’t even consider the child’s skin colour. I recognised it, of course, but to take that as one of the biggest parts of the picture didn’t really occur to me. The main attraction in my eyes was the hoodie.

I realised that different people may see this in different ways. I will try to tread carefully here… As a current minority in some places, black people may take offence to this image and instantly try and find what’s wrong with it.

Overall this advert/image made me realise that many people can see different sides of things and that when trying to do anything that represents a group of people it is crucial to recognise a majority if not all of the outcomes that may arise from it.