IB ELP

Angie: Frightening.

Marlene: Angie, what’s the matter? Everything is alright little pet? Just go back to bed okay?

V.O: Oh no, was Angie awake? Is she okay? I hope she didn’t hear anything. I think I should tell Angie. She’s already 15 years old, she’s grown up. She has the right to know. 

Little pet, you okay? Come here and lie down with me. Everything is alright there Angie.

V.O: What am I going to tell Joyce? If she realizes that Angie knows. What is going to happen between them? Will they be alright? Angie. Oh dear, I cannot imagine what she is going through. Angie, oh dear. I’m so so sorry my dear. 

Angie, you’re a big girl. Ignore what your mum said. She doesn’t know anything. You are a strong, independent woman, Angie. You will be just like me. You can visit me one day at the employment agency and I will show you around the building. Is that alright Angie? Your mum is just speaking nonsense, she doesn’t know what she is talking about. Don’t listen to her. Everything will be alright pet, your mother and I just had a small argument about some things, probably had one too many drinks. Just some adult things which don’t really matter. Just go back to bed okay pet? 

V.O: Oh no, what would happen to Joyce if she ever hears about this. If she realizes that Angie heard the argument, what would happen to them? 

Come on now Angie, get some rest. I need to go to bed because I have a long journey back home tomorrow. I’m sure I will come to visit you again sometime soon. If not, come by the office with your mum and you can stay in my apartment. Is that alright Angie?

In this political cartoon it is talking about the issue of sexual harassment and rape which are very big issues. This cartoon shows 2 young girls which we can assume by the innocent setting of playing with toys and the play room. At this day and age, women have to face the problem of not being believed when it comes to allegations of sexual harassment due to being looked down upon by society. There are many labels which society calls women due to their sexual activity whether there was consent or not with examples such as whore, slut, hoe, b*tch and so on. All those words are degrading and women are labeled those if they decide to speak up about those things. Unlike men, when men are sexually harassed or raped by a woman, they are normally congratulated or praised due to society creating stereotypes that men just want sex. This is the complete opposite when it comes to women because when women are sexually harassed or raped, they do not want to speak up because they do not want to be shamed by society and it’s labels. The humorous aspect of this cartoon is mainly just the way the cartoon is the drawing/painting style where small things suck as facial features and are exaggerated but in this case does not have any context.

Without any context, this political cartoon would not exactly make sense to someone who does not know about the apparent issues. Someone could just think “why wouldn’t her rape allegations be believed?” which makes us think about the real problem at hand, if people know about this issue.

What values/stereotypes/attitudes are being conveyed? How are representation and Identity conveyed?

The message that these two advertisements are trying to convey of the domestic role of women in a household. 

Then: In the ‘then’ image, it is showing a woman trying to remove the lid of a ketchup bottle which is known to be easy. The main line in this ad is “You mean a woman can open it?” asking the question if women are strong enough to open something as simple such as a ketchup bottle. At the same time the lady in the image seems to be very delicate due to the way her hand is positioned next to the bottle. Also showing how she has to present herself for the men of the household though how her hair, makeup and nails are done.

Now: This image shows an egg covered in colourful lines. The main line of this advertisement being “Be a good egg. Treat your daughter for doing the washing up” showing that it is a girl’s job to do the dishes. Even at such a young age it is told that it is a woman’s role to do the household chores. At the same time, the way that they portray the girl as an egg with the connotation that the girl is fragile or sensitive due to the fact that eggs are easy to break whilst showing they are more than just an egg due to their colourful ‘shell’. 

How are the adverts similar/different in conveying this?

Other advertisements are using the similar idea of representing a woman through an object or something else. In general representing anything through an object.  Many adverts today like to convey people as other things which have a similar connotation to the demographic of people that they are trying to convey. An example of this would be any given Snickers advertisement where they show that before someone eats a Snickers bar, they are restless or more like an animal, and after eating a Snickers bar, they are more civilised and calm.

How do they provoke thinking about global issues?

In a day and age where the fight of equality is still going on even after centuries, this makes us really think if we are actually progressing. Both the ‘Then’ and ‘Now’ images have both connotations that women have to do things for men in terms of being put together for them, being fragile or weak, and do domestic chores. So it really makes me think, are we really progressing in the way some men see women in terms of men thinking they are superior. I would say this would make you really think about the global issue about identity as adverts like this is what sets men to think that this is the identity of women.

When it comes with representing people through literary texts or film/movies I would say it really depends on who is representing those groups of people. An example of this would be how the movie “Crazy Rich Asians” represented asian culture. There are many tweets online of peoples opinions about how Crazy Rich Asians mainly used American Chinese actors to represent Singaporeans. At the same time, the Twitter community commented on how the movie only represented the Chinese asian community. In my opinion the movie is called “Crazy Rich Asians” not “Every Asian” so I would say that it is fair that they would mainly focus on a specific group of “Wealthy Asians” rather than the entirety of asian culture.

In terms of representing a group, I would say that those who are directly involved in that group should have some sort of say when it comes to representing the group of people. For example, the writer of Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan, is a local  Singaporean and knows about the whole general idea when it comes to the whole culture of Singapore. At the same time if someone else were to try convey a culture that they are not familiar with it would be different or sometimes even factually wrong when they try represent that culture. An example would be if I were to try represent Filipino culture I would be able to pretty well because I am Filipino and I grew up around filipino culture, but if I were to represent Japanese culture, it would be weird for me to represent Japan when I know nothing about their culture.

https://beta.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/08/10/is-crazy-rich-asians-asian-enough/?noredirect=on

The article above goes into deeper depth about how Crazy Rich Asians represent a specific group rather than the entire asian culture. – Linking it to the first paragraph.