Culture, Identity and Community

Thesis statement:

1. religious and governmental  power affecting identity  
2. society values affect identity 
3. identity is created by external factors

Texts chosen

Literary choice:  Persepolis 

Non-literary choice: social media campaign  dove link

• Need to discuss Persepolis as a whole
• How does the chosen extract relate to the whole book→ like how did it for the veil.
• eg: Persepolis is not about war but it is about how people were impacted by the political power and how they changed their identity

Non Lit– how does this video relate to all other rest of the advert by Dove and Twitter like how #speakbeautiful relates to #realbeauty and other adverts …

conclusion – “to conclude, both the texts…”

Introduction—  I will be analysing my  Literature text Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi page 213 and my non-literature text Social Media Campaign #speak beautiful by Dove. both the texts  shows the importance of identity, being proud of who you are and listening to our hearts. so I came up with my thesis question “to what extent is  identity affected by external factors such as society and power?” 

Answer to your global question 

In both texts, people have been influenced by the external factors like religious and governmental power, society values; that made them forcefully change their identity just to fit into society and be loved but it depends on the individuals whether they want to push back the external factors that is making them change their identity or accept the factors that is pushing you to change your own identity and create one that does not show who you are and being the fake one never brought happiness nor trust. 

 context of the author: 

• dove soap was emerged from product development research into ways of treating burn victims during WWII and the 1950s, it was finally launched by Unilever in the United States as a moisturising soap. this shows that beauty and skin care was given importance since world war 2. the Dove brand was found by Lever Brothers in 1957 and till now they have  used real women whose weight and looks were not typical for beauty- industry advertisement. dove has consistently shown interests in supporting women’s issues like self esteem and confidence. thus this has brought them respect and brand loyalty. the brand is committed itself to help women realise their personal beauty potential by creating products that deliver real care. 

 context of the text-

• according to Dove’s research 82 percent of women surveyed feel the beauty standards set by social media are unrealistic and 4 out of every 5 negative tweets about beauty and body image are written by women critiquing themselves. this reveals the fact about how beauty is reflected to women on social media.the advert is trying to break beauty stereotype like any other campaigns by dove for example #Real beauty and encourage them to use more positive online language and habits. it aims to fill twitter with messages of support and positivity. Also, the ad is urging women everywhere to join Dove and Twitter to turn negative tweets to positive one.  however, some people feel that the ad was outstandingly bad and wasn’t effective compared to #Real Beauty as it presumes highly intimate one-to -one relationship with women who didn’t want anything to do with the company. 

Macro analysis : purpose, audience and reception 

dove and twitter working together is social media marketing 

• this advert targets women of all ages as they easily get influenced both positively and negatively by social media. women post negative tweets about their beauty and physical appearance which affects their mindset when they are on or offline. like even in this ad, the negative comments like “I am ugly, gross, disgusting” made by women due to feelings of insecurity made by society values and lack of support. connecting with my global issue, the identities of most of the women are being created by how they are affected by society and power influential. for example someone with high power can mentally bully someone by criticising her physical appearance which can lead to change in her own identity due to lack of support and advice from no one. in addition to that in 2014, women posted 5 million negative tweets about beauty and body image. thus to change this reality, in 2015, Dove and Twitter worked together to inspire behavioural change and ignite a cultural shift in beauty conversation on social media by encouraging women everywhere to #speakbeautiful. 

• as the negative words appear, the fonts becomes bigger and bigger with the number of likes and comments increasing as well. this shows that the person is growing hatred internally or hated by others for not being good and pretty enough. 

Micro analysis

• the advert is medium shot and most of the time the background is blurred, focusing on the dialogues on the screen because those are the words that can change someone’s identity in a better or bad ways and it allows viewers to easily understand and feel them. 
• the angle is eye level not only in this advert but in most of the Dove’s campaigns. this  puts the audience on the same level with what is being described on the screen as they may be facing a similar problem and they encourage them to be more confident and optimistic about their beauty  

• the whole colour of the texts and background of the advert is the colour that shows the dove products are made up of and symbol of twitter on social media. (yellow/ gold colour, blue and white). both had flying birds as a symbol which shows peace, freedom, gentleness and purity. therefore the combination shows how one who is filled with hatred about her own appearance can free herself by getting support from Dove, 

• women are the targeted audience by the advert thinking that women are the only ones who want to care about their skin and looks in the society but in reality, half the population of the men are also obsessed by their looks and how they can have real natural beauty. research has shown that more than 70% of Asian- American population which also includes men spend more time and money on their skin care around the world. 

• at 0.17s, the advert is showing how one can change his/her perspective from being sad, lonely, misery, hate, insure to beautiful, happy, love and like which is clearly telling us that it is in our hands to whether to accept the external factors that is controlling your emotions and change your identity or let it go  and be who you are and creating your own happiness

literature-  Persepolis first published in French in 2000

context of the author

• Marjane Satrapi was nine years old when the Islamic Revolution started in 1979 where they reintroduced a religious state in Iran. Her life changed dramatically under the new regime and they were downtrodden by Muslim Fundamentalist who took power. Marjane Satrapi, the author wrote Persepolis,  graphic novel based on how she spent her childhood in Iran and how she grew up living in another country. during her youth, she had to face different challenges and brutalities of various rules and religion and were forced to follow them and if didn’t follow, they were executed which led to change in their identities and self destruction. 

context of the text

• the text was set between the years 1976 and 1994 which was also during the Iranian Revolution and it was really chaotic during that time. the people of the country  drastically changed from living as one of the western influenced citizens to a religiously oppressed people. 
• I will be analysing page 213 as it connects more on my global issue about identity and my non-literature. The text shows how Marjane starts to feel insecure of her beauty and body image as she grows and especially in this text when she thought that her boyfriend was going to leave her

Macro analysis: purpose, audience and reception 

• the text mainly focuses on how the identity and culture of Iranian were affected due to political and religious power and  at the same time society values as well which connects to my global issue again

target audience –  the author targets the younger generation and thus she writes in the genre of a graphic novel. Marjane wanted the new generations to understand how one should protect their own identity and culture and push away from all the external factors that are making them to change.  the novel was written in flashback and first point of view which shows the reality that the author had faced. on top of that more personal approach is used in order to convey the deep sorrows of war and how they lost their freedom. this brought them unhappiness and felt more or less like a real person in their own country

Micro analysis

• the veil was a symbol of oppression, of the limitations imposed on the people. people were forced to wear it and thus it changed their identity but in this text, Marjane doesn’t wear it and it shows that she doesn’t want to follow another identity which is not hers. she risks her life but she is proud to be an Iranian. 

• In Persepolis, one’s physical appearance becomes pivotal and the author also becomes really stressed by the way she looked because no one wanted her or ever loved her properly. this relates to non-literature text where I also talked about how women feel so insecure about their body image due to external factors and eventually it led to change in their identities and personalities. the same thing happened with the author as well. she starts commenting negative things about her body image and feels insecure when she thought that her boyfriend doesn’t want her anymore.  

• shot : the first row is medium shot and it focuses on the characters interaction and we can also see characters emotional face clearly. here the angle is also eye level and it puts the audience on the same level as the character. in this text the character is reflecting on herself and commenting negative things which is exactly what happens in reality as well when you feel like no one wants you. 
•  the second and third row is a long shot and it stresses the surrounding of the main character where a girl named Ingrid whom the main character is jealous of is shown. and Marjane feels insecure about her body image at the same time mad at her as clearly shown on 1st and 3rd Image of 2nd row. In the third row, it  is low angle making the male character seem more powerful than the main character. thus he is actually dragging her when she doesn’t want to go which seems like he is forcing her to do something that may lead to change in her identity because she is afraid that he might leave her. on the other hand, the low angle also gives the audience a sense that they are sharing the character’s perspective, so here the main character is not speaking but she is really thinking deep inside and looking up. 

conclusion 

• to conclude, both the texts focuses on young teenagers especially women  easily feel insecure about themselves and this happens especially due to effects from external factors like social media, religious and governmental power which can change ones’ identity. thus there are showing support and encouraging them to be optimistic of their looks and protect our own identity because that shows who you are no matter what 

positive symbols 

• cigarette- the symbol of growing up  and a larger symbol of her rebelling against the oppressive religious state, but also against her mother’s control. In the novel, Marjane is dealing with the constant fear of living in a country that watches everything, and that if she chooses to be herself she is risking losing her future or even her life. This constant worry about her future pushes her to make reckless choices like smoking. 

• Bread Swan – The swan symbolises her uncle funding finding bright moments in the little things, despite a desperate situation. It shows that people can choose how they live their life no matter their experiences, you can choose to be angry or sad, or you can choose to be happy.

• Marji’s bed is where she does a lot of her thinking within Persepolis. It symbolises her mind and her thoughts, because it is there we see her thought processes and her moments of change as she grows and matures. On the bed she creates her own world, a world she believes would be better. In some ways the bed also symbolises a better life for Marjane and her family.

question pattern example : how does the text connects to his or her global issue.? 

if there is not proper time management then ask the question on the texts where she spoke less.