Written Task Two: Practice Intro

How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

  The opinion column, “Give Me Your Tired Arguments” by Ann Coulter, focuses on the topic of President Trump’s “Muslim Ban” that was signed in the year 2017. This ban had involved seven known majority-Muslim countries and had stopped their citizens from being able to travel to the U.S. for any purposes. In the column, Coulter enforces the image of Muslims being destructive and dangerous believers of their faith through the use of the negative stereotypes already found within the lives of U.S. citizens, such as from news articles and shows and social media. Such stereotypes are utilized by Coulter to ensure that the ban, as discriminating as it is, can be fully supported and justified. This is due to how the victims are, in her eyes, only the largely misrepresented Muslim community that are seen as enemies to the U.S. and its ideals, which strongly follows U.S. conservative beliefs and bias on Muslims and other religions and cultures.

Style Analysis Homework

Passage #1

    Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they

come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, nev-

er out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in

resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of

men.

    Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember,

and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the

truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.

    So the beginning of this was a woman and she had come back from

burying the dead. Not the dead of sick and ailing with friends at the

pillow and the feet. She had come back from the sodden and the

bloated; the sudden dead, their eyes flung wide open in judgment.

    The people all saw her come because it was sundown. The sun was

gone, but he had left his footprints in the sky. It was the time for sit-

ting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and

talk.

Passage #2

    nothing she could do to discourage her completely. She felt honored

by Janie’s acquaintance and she quickly forgave and forgot snubs in

order to keep it. Anyone who looked more white folkish than herself

was better than she was in her criteria, therefore it was right that they

should be cruel to her at times, just as she was cruel to those more

negroid than herself in direct ratio to their negroness. Like the

pecking-order in a chicken yard. Insensate cruelty to those you can

whip, and groveling submission to those you can’t. Once having set up

her idols and built altars to them it was inevitable that she would wor-

ship there. It was inevitable that she should accept any inconsistency

and cruelty from her deity as all good worshippers do from theirs. All

gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering

without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through in-

discriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emo-

tion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods

are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.

   

Passage #3

    The time was past for asking the white folks what to look for

through that door. Six eyes were questioning God.

    Through the screaming wind they heard things crashing and things

hurtling and dashing with unbelievable velocity. A baby rabbit, terror

ridden, squirmed through a hole in the floor and squatted off there in

the shadows against the wall, seeming to know that nobody wanted its

flesh at such a time. And the lake got madder and madder with only its

dikes between them and him.

    In a little wind-lull, Tea Cake touched Janie and said, “Ah reckon

you wish now you had of stayed in yo’ big house ’way from such as dis,

don’t yuh?”

    “Naw.”

    “Naw?”

    “Yeah, naw. People don’t die till dey time come nohow, don’t keer

where you at. Ah’m wid mah husband in uh storm, dat’s all.”

Passage #4

    The pistol and the rifle rang out almost together. The pistol just

enough after the rifle to seem its echo. Tea Cake crumpled as his bullet

buried itself in the joist over Janie’s head. Janie saw the look on his

face and leaped forward as he crashed forward in her arms. She was

trying to hover him as he closed his teeth in the flesh of her forearm.

They came down heavily like that. Janie struggled to a sitting position

and pried the dead Tea Cake’s teeth from her arm.

    It was the meanest moment of eternity. A minute before she was

just a scared human being fighting for its life. Now she was her sacrifi-

cing self with Tea Cake’s head in her lap. She had wanted him to live

so much and he was dead. No hour is ever eternity, but it has its right

to weep. Janie held his head tightly to her breast and wept and

thanked him wordlessly for giving her the chance for loving service.

She had to hug him tight for soon he would be gone, and she had to

tell him for the last time. Then the grief of outer darkness descended.

Watson's Theory and Their Eyes Were Watching God

  Wallace’s theory of moving away from ‘default mode’ can only be done once a person acknowledges and processes experiences shared by or read about other people’s lives. This ties to Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God because this story follows the experiences of a young girl who, in the pursuit of finding love, finds many hardships in her path that she learns to move on from and learn from. Hurston describes how a person may feel trapped in their own body by social norms and ideals, which is shown through Janie’s bullying and Nanny’s talk to her about how black women are never safe. From this, the audience is able to understand the hardships of a black woman in that era when blacks had just gotten out of slavery. Even though people in this era do not understand those struggles, Hurston provides us the information to begin to see the world in a new light. For example, in many abusive relationships, the woman is usually seen as weak and too forgiving of her lover. Although, Hurston, through Janie and Jody’s relationship, gives us another perspective of how women in these abusive relationships are not actually weak, but may have grown up with ideas and people who have warned them against doing things the ‘wrong’ way, like Nanny and Killicks did to Janie, or even the women do not want to ‘ruin’ their relationship so sacrifice their freedom to try to stay happy with the one they had fallen in love with. We see Janie’s journey of struggle in this particular relationship as she slowly becomes silent and obedient to her husband, leaving behind her old, bright self. Then, at his death, we see how free she feels, as though it was a blessing her husband died. This experience alone gives the audience the idea of how suffocating abusive relationships are and how hopeless they seem to be. It is from this that we see Wallace’s theory of drawing away from our ‘default mode’ to instead begin to understand others, even if they seem to not understand you.

Summer Blog Post #2

  In my summer holiday, I also visited New York City. The stark difference between the towns and cities of Alaska and downtown New York was the abundance of cultures found in the city. Even in the crowded streets surrounding Times Square, there were always restaurants, shops, advertisements, even artworks that had been inspired or taken from other countries or were inspired by the history of New York City.

  One such artwork was in Midtown, painted by Eduardo Kobra, a Brazilian artist. At first people were skeptical as this artwork did not seem like it was painted, but rather, an image printed onto the wall. But, upon closer inspection, the outline of the bricks could be seen with the rough and uneven surface of the building itself, adding to the idea that this painting, this part of New York’s history, truly was an integrated and real part of the city’s history, just as that building was a part of Midtown. It had the bright red and blue of the US flag with the firefighter, wearing a uniform in a kaleidoscope of colors, staring down on the very stars they’re kneeling on. It reminded me of how it was the duty of the fire department and law enforcement and healthcare system to protect the people of the US from harm and save them from disaster. So seeing that firefighter kneel on the stars, or rather, kneeling to the stars, or states, that they are sworn to protect was, to me, the very image that expresses how far these people would go to save others; even giving up their own lives, as had happened years ago.

Image Source: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/a-giant-mural-of-a-firefighter-was-unveiled-in-midtown-on-9-11

  To put perspective into this piece of artwork, this firefighter represents the many firefighters who lost their lives trying to save the victims of 9 / 11. The hatchet from the painting is a tool used by the fire department to try to break away debris to save victims trapped under the rubble of the buildings. Almost 3,000 people had lost their lives with 343 of them being the very same firefighters that died that day trying to save them. Now, 200 more have died throughout the years after the attack due to the illness or illnesses they received while trying to save victims of the attack.

  It is from this that I was able to see how New York values its history, even if the events are dark and sorrowful. New York City brings them to life with the many cultures the city inhabits, allowing the city to grow and to celebrate its uniqueness. Even at the memorial for the Twin Towers, I saw people of every culture, every race and every religion giving their respects and appreciating the history of the city, showing how rich the history and how diverse the communities of New York City are.

Summer Blog Post #1

  When in Alaska, the first thing many people would see are the mountains reaching towards the sky or the endless forests. For me, I saw the deep culture of those inhabiting the towns, mainly the language. Throughout my trip, in every group I was in, our tour guides would be young people who grew up with their native tongues while learning English at their local schools. Even when speaking, they constantly switched out common phrases like “Yes” and “No” to their native alternatives, explaining to us that such a switch in their tongues was normal for the inhabitants. They had their own tribes within the towns, such as the Crow tribe or the Bear tribe, that, although spoke slight variations of the local languages, had lived side by side for generations, praising the younger generations for learning and using their languages. I saw this throughout my experiences in Alaska where even young school children could be heard switching from English to their native tongues.

  One of my first group guides had driven our bus to our canoeing site. Throughout his explanation of the local history, he began explaining the five types of salmon caught in their waters. There was the Dog salmon, the King salmon, the Silver salmon, the Red salmon and the Pink salmon. Although, that’s not what he called them. He instead called them, in order, the Chum (Dog) salmon, the Chinook (King) salmon, the Coho (Silver) salmon, the Sockeye (Red) salmon and the Humpback (Pink) salmon. ‘Chum’, ‘Chinook’ and ‘Coho’ meant ‘Dog’, ‘King’ and ‘Silver’, respectively, while the Sockeye and Humpback salmon got their names from their appearances. The Humpback especially from the salmon’s back shape during the mating season, making local fisherman call it the ‘Humpback’ salmon instead of the ‘Pink’ salmon. Even in times of the extinction of local languages, it is communities in cities like Alaska’s salmon capital, Ketchikan, that teach their young generations to both carry on their native languages and learn the international language of English.

Lang. and Lit.: Things Fall Apart Thesis and Topic Sentence

  Chinua Achebe, through his novel Things Fall Apart, which was written in 1958, introduces the importance of duality and flexibility in beliefs and expresses the importance of applying both when developing or creating a new nation, connecting to the context of the nearing independence of Nigeria. Achebe, himself, values his dual-nature of being a member in both the Igbo religion and of Christianity and expresses this through his novel, Things Fall Apart, where he portrays how having this duality allows situations to be seen in a different perspective, alike how Achebe expresses the positive aspects and the flaws of both Christianity and the Igbo culture. Although, the opposite can be said of Okonkwo, the main character in Things Fall Apart, as he is a stubborn and highly religious figure of the Igbo culture in his village of Umuofia. When the British came to colonize his village, Okonkwo was an avid rebel against his self-believed tyrannical rule that the British held over he and his village people. His consistent struggle against the British rule causes him to lose the faith of his fellow village men, causing Okonkwo to lose the respect he spent years to regain after his father’s failures. Even though it is always encouraged and is considered advantageous to hold on to one’s beliefs and religion, Achebe aims to express how there must also be a mutual understanding of being flexible between cultures, specifically within the context of colonization and the creation of national identities, and that duality must be a prized and accepted trait amongst cultures throughout the world to allow any one culture to be not disregarded or be belittled by other, more widespread cultures.

Topic Sentence #1:

  It is important within all cultures to hold on to fundamental beliefs and ideas to be able to pass on the values of that culture and to be able to connect to other cultures.

Topic Sentence #2:

  Duality and mutual understanding between cultures has long-term importance as it allows cultures to evolve and to be able to adapt to new technology, ideas, events or even to other new cultures.

Topic Sentence #3:

  In the context of colonization, it is important to share ideas and beliefs to compare and connect said ideas and to create relationships between possibly opposing cultures and to be able to create a nation that values both of these cultures.

Okonkwo Character Analysis

    In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is largely significant to the development of not only the story’s plot, but also the development of characters and the understandings in the story. In regards to the story’s plot, Okonkwo’s characterization is highly stubborn in terms of its ability to evolve and adapt. Okonkwo, through his stubbornness, hangs on to his culture’s values and traditions in his all-consuming fear of being seen as weak alike his unsuccessful and title-less father Unoka. His stubbornness to not change causes conflict between the people in his village, Umuofia, to a point where he is seen as extremely violent to his first son, Nyome; enough so to cause him to convert to Christianity when the British missionary arrives. As well, he is banished from the village for 7 years through his careless acts of violence such as beating one of his wives in the Week of Peace and killing the 16-year-old boy accidentally with his gun. This conflict leads to the village trying to fight off the British but, in the end, Okonkwo loses his followers and finds that he is alone in his fight. Due to his stubbornness, he did not put the safety of the village and its people first and caused the British to fight back through their self-imposed law to a point where the people were too fearful to want to fight the British. Okonkwo, at this realization, kills himself in despair. It is through this that Okonkwo symbolizes manliness, violence, loyalty and how he represents his culture.

    Okonkwo’s character is the embodiment of Umuofia’s cultures and values: protective, strong, loyal, violent, non-explanative and barbaric in its beliefs. Okonkwo, through being the embodiment of his village’s culture, has the purpose of showing how the culture and, in turn, the people of that culture live and struggle in their lifestyles. Okonkwo struggles with his confidence as he finds that everything he does must lead to success or that he will be seen as weak in both his mind and body to a point where he will be labeled and seen as someone alike his title-less and unsuccessful father, Unoka. This fear pushes him to become violent to women, who are title-less from birth as they are women, and to men and boys who are lazy, alike his first son Nyome. He is shown to be disappointed in his son until Ikemefuna, a boy from another village put under Okonkwo’s care, pushes Nyome to start working ‘men’s’ jobs and become more productive, to Okonkwo’s delight. Although, against the village elders’ advice, Okonkwo joins other men in his village when they take Ikemefuna to be killed as instructed by the Earth goddess. He gives the killing blow and returns to his life in the village to only be banished for 7 years a ‘womanly murder’. When he returns, he rises up against the British and their laws and religion: Christianity. In this, he is the embodiment of the Igbo culture fighting against the new-coming British and Christianity. Okonkwo begins to lose those around him to the British: his son, Nyome, to Chritianity, and his fellow tribes people to the British when they do not rise to fight with him. When he realizes that they have given up on the Igbo culture, Okonkwo commits suicide, a sin to the culture. This personifies the defeat of the Igbo culture by the British and betrayal of the Igbo people to their own culture. Through his story, Okonkwo contributes to big ideas, the first being that things, like cultures, change throughout the centuries through the evolution of technology, laws, beliefs and ideals. The second big idea is that colonization of nations and cultures, such as the Igbo culture, can cause the downfall of cultures and a people in violent ways that can cause the culture to be left behind or allow the culture to be destroyed from the foundations where the people of that culture destroy what is left of their past cultures. The third big idea being shown by Okonkwo’s character is that, for cultures to survive alongside other cultures, understandings must be shared and cultures must each adapt their images of other cultures. An example is where the British saw the villagers as brutes while Okonkwo and other men in the village saw the British as enemies.

TFA - Key Moment Ranking

Moment #1: Intro to Okonkwo’s fear of failing and being a failure like his father

  The first important moment that I have chosen from Things Fall Apart is the scene in Chapter Two when the novel describes Okonkwo’s true fears and how his whole life revolved around them. As said in the novel, “[Okonkwo’s] whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. . . It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala.” It is from this scene that we are given insight into what Okonkwo’s character is: proud, stubborn and fixated on his image. From this cemented characterization of Okonkwo, we are able to understand the beginnings of his inner conflicts of aiming to be unlike his father in every aspect, even as to go so far as to aim to never fail in his life in any task, from as big as planting a field to one of his matches.

Moment #2: Okonkwo killing Ikemefuna and afterwards

  This second important moment that I have chosen is when Okonkwo, after being told for his own good to not come with the village men to kill Ikemefuna, came and gave the killing blow to Ikemefuna after, as stated in the novel, “He heard Ikemefuna cry, 'My father, they have killed me!' as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his matchet and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.” This moment was important as it further emphasized Okonkwo’s character of fearing the image of being weak and showing how much he would sacrifice to keep his strong and successful image. Even to go so far as to give the killing blow to the child he raised and had called and thought of him as a father. This connects to the context as well of how some of the rituals performed by the Igbo villages were brutal and sometimes barbaric as innocents and bystanders were placed in harm’s way to appease the gods and goddesses that they worshiped and listened to.

Moment #3: When Okonkwo killed the head messenger and realized that the tribe would not fight the white men

  The third important moment that I have chosen in Things Fall Apart is when Okonkwo killed the head messenger where, as stated in the novel, “'The white men whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to stop.' [said the head messenger.] In a flash Okonkwo drew his machet. The messenger crouched low to avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo's machet descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed body . . . Okonkwo stood lookingat the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape." This moment shows the conclusion to both the external and internal conflicts that Okonkwo is subject to. The external struggles of fighting to keep out the white men and their beliefs and rules from the Igbo culture and villages make Okonkwo violent in nature and give context of how the village people of the lands that now create Nigeria were once hesitant and, at some times, violent and enraged by the idea of being forced into the law and belief system of the outsiders, otherwise known as the British. The internal struggles can also connect to this context as many of the people who were part of the revolution had to be able to find balance in their minds and hearts to see how to truly free themselves from the British rule, abandoning the idea of keeping the separate villages, which was a great sacrifice to their individual cultures, and instead moving to creating an independent country of Nigeria. By Okonkwo killing himself, we are able to see the novel’s theme of how, alike the title reads, ‘Things Fall Apart’ or, things don’t last forever. In this case, the brutal and somewhat backwards law and belief system of the Igbo villages is what could not last forever as, with everything from cultures to countries to technology to ideas, things never stay the same and are always changing. With Okonkwo killing himself, we are able to fully view the process of change from a man that once despised those who failed or lacked the effort to not fail to someone who committed the worst crime and had chosen to not put the effort to not fail. From this drastic change, we are able to be given an image that represents the theme wholly.

 

TFA Context Post

  Achebe has chosen to set his novel prior to and during the arrival of the colonial administration rather than during the context of production to, firstly, give an unfiltered, non-historically factual and ‘accurate’ description that could lack the understanding and emotional connections that can be felt and expressed by the characters. An example of such emotions could be the fear felt by the village women as the ritual of the spirits (when in reality they are the village men) commences. In this, we are able to feel the fear that these women feel as well as how they respect and admire the beings that have, as believed, taken over the bodies of the village men. When taken into historical and modern terms, these emotions may not be expressed as richly due to the need of giving large amounts of historical context within novels based in the modern era. For example, instead of expressing the fear of the women, if the novel were written in the context of production, the situation may have been described, instead, as “due to the village people’s sacred beliefs of spirits and other mystical ideas, village women largely feared encounters or visits from such creatures, even with the knowledge that the bodies were of the village men living among them.” This alone lacks the emotional understanding that Achebe achieved when, instead, setting the novel prior to and during the arrival of the colonial administration. From this, we can continue to the second point which, by reaching this emotional understanding, we can also understand the turmoil found in the village when outsiders become powerful and when villagers turn to the colonialist’s religion of Christianity, a foreign and unaccepted concept by the village people. From this description, we are able to also understand Achebe’s possible internal struggle of being both Igbo and Christian, two conflicting cultures that may have affected how he perceives things such as each culture’s celebrations, beliefs and traditions. This alone allows the audience to understand how complex and, possibly, confusing Achebe’s combination of two separate cultures are as well as how complex the less well known Igbo culture is. To move on, there’s also the arrival of the colonial administration in the village that causes large amounts of turmoil and frustration in the village. The village people are seen as barbaric and less to the British when, in reality, the Igbo have their own culture with their traditions and beliefs and celebrations that they hold dear to their hearts. With the British radically changing the Igbo culture through their actions of defilement, in regard to building the church and making the outsiders powerful, as well as implementing a system of laws that differ greatly from those created and followed by the village people. With this, we are able to see just how invasive the arrival of the British is to the soon-to-be-named country of Nigeria and how the locals, at the time, felt trapped and forcefully placed into a confusing and frustrating system by outsiders of unknown origin. From this viewpoint shown in the book by many of the village people, we are able to understand Achebe’s ideas and emotions of the arrival of the British and how he aims to get their influence out of Nigeria, which ties to how he was part of the movement for a British-free, independent country of Nigeria.

Word Count: 560

Annotated Passage (Act V sc. i)

Updated Theme Statement - The Tempest

  Shakespeare implies that forgiveness is a naturally occurring, sub-conscious desire that can lead to the moral salvation of any person when acted upon and expressed in the face of the greed for power.

Theme Statement - The Tempest

  Through one of Shakespeare’s last plays, the Tempest, Shakespeare aims to portray to the audience how close those of power and the even-more-powerful acts of forgiveness truly are. This is shown through how the magician Prospero, the most powerful character, has an epiphany at the end of the play and decides to spare those who wronged him in favor of forgiving them for their acts of cruelty to him. He slowly understands how valuable forgiveness is from his experiences, alike the ones from his only daughter, Miranda, when she finds the love of her life, the prince and son of the wrong-doing king of Naples, Ferdinand, who Prospero decides to allow Miranda to marry. Prospero also learns forgiveness from his spirit servant, Ariel, a powerful being who Prospero had freed from the curse put on him by his former master for disobeying orders in favor of his own morals; those very same morals were shown in the end of the play when he tries, and succeeds, at convincing Prospero that the ones who wronged him should not die but should be forgiven, showing how Shakespeare closely ties those with power with the even-more-powerful acts of forgiveness.

Context in an Ad ~ Nivea 'Smooth Milk' Body Shea Butter

  In this visual ad presented by Nivea, a primarily skin-care company, to the general Indian public, the main conceptual understanding mainly derives from the slogan of the ad itself, "For visibly smooth and touchably soft skin", the need for intimacy from the attractive man holding the main 'character', the female whose implied to have used the skin product, closely as though they are in an intimate relationship as well as the logos used from their statement, "100 years of skincare for life". From both the slogan and the use of logos, the message, or understanding from this ad is that, by using this product, Nivea's 'Smooth Milk' Body Shea Butter for Dry Skin, you will get the man of your dreams and look as beautiful as the main ‘character’.
  This visual text reveals possible contextual information by using a famous Bollywood actress for the main ‘character’, showing how this is an ad targeted at the general female population of the country of India, where Bollywood is the most prevalent, popular and, in most cases, influential on a person’s decisions, relating to the use of celebrities for ethos. This visual text also reveals, through the use of the Nivea logo, that this is a skincare product as this company is known for their specialty in the field of skin care products, already allowing the general public to understand just who this ad is for, women who wish to improve their skin conditions or wish to be better than they already are.


  By understanding the context of the ad, already, the analyzers are able to understand how certain techniques used by advertisers, from the placement of a hand to the direction the main ‘character’ is facing can completely change the audience type, the message or conceptual understanding taken from the ad and the overall ‘feel’, ‘aura’ or visual ad type (i.e. more romantically-driven, becoming famous, becoming ‘more’) that the advertisers have made this ad into. From this, we are able to discern the target audience, what needs the advertisers aim to ‘hit’ or target, what the message is, or rather, why one should purchase the aforementioned product or service, how it benefits the customer, whether short term or long term, and appealing to pathos, logos and ethos to make it seem like the product or service is ‘too popular and great to pass up’.

'We Believe: The Best Men Can Be | Gillette (Short Film)' ~ Analysis

  In this advertisement, called “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be” by Gillette, there is a large sense of the appeal of the need to nurture for the targeted audience. The audience is men, as the product is directed at men (Gillette shaving products for men), but this advertisement is not only for the general male population, rather, it is mainly directed at fathers, elder brothers, older children in older grades, influential figures or friends as the need to nurture is directed at how men in these positions have the power to shape the attitudes and thinking processes of the younger, more influential generations of young boys. This advertisement mainly uses ethos, more specifically the use of the emotions of guilt, shown through what happens when men don’t stop the destructive, stereotypical actions of younger boys, and fear. Fear from, firstly, showing how men pull the ‘boys will be boys’ card and allow young boys to become violent and disregard the respect that they should show to everyone –  even women. Fear, as well, is shown through the multiple news stories of sexual harassment, stories of bullying shown through clips and the clips showing how destructive stereotypes are shown in everyday life, such as the man disrespecting a woman in a show set while an audience laughs at the act. The need to nurture is especially shown through how, in every real-life story clip, a young boy is shown to be exposed to these destructive and stereotypical-like acts, showing how they are now learning that these actions are acceptable. In a twist, the men, in the end, stop others from carrying out these destructive acts and clips are shown where they stop another man and tell them that it isn’t the right thing to do. Especially in the last scene where a father stops other boys from bullying a young boy in front of his own son, who watches with wide eyes, eyes that are known to learn and grow from experiences. This connects directly to the values of the advertisement and, in theory, the general public of the 21^st century who do not believe the worn-out term ‘boys will be boys’ and, instead, place their values in the unity and equality of people of all genders, ages, nationalities, races and religions. This ad specifically concentrates on how wrong the culturally stereotyped version of men are in this world and, unlike in the past, the images that, historically, show what a ‘man’ should be are not be followed or taught to be followed. The stereotypes shown in the ad are how men should see women as equals, not objects, all men should be images for their kids, whether they are fathers or elder brothers or school seniors or friends, men should see violence as violence, not some sort of play, men should see that they are allowed to express their emotions, not be robots that run on nothing but brute force, men should see that bullying is not accepted, even if the other is so ‘weak’, and men should know that conflicts aren’t solved by violence but, rather, by cooperation and discussion. The context of this ad is the sudden influx of sexual offenses brought up by victims around the world which have taken to the news to a point where the general population has started to look into what else is ‘put under the rug’ due to men around the world stating that men and boys do what they do because ‘boys will be boys’. Because of this, men now feel threatened as, even though they know some of their actions are wrong, the stereotypes are still valued and they feel ‘weak’ if they do not express them or act upon them. That is why this ad aims to tell all men that these stereotypes are wrong and that they need to be taken out of our lives, in other words, teach the younger generations of boys to be different, be ethically stronger and be better than those before them.

A Sexist Littering Ad

The Men's Ad

The Women's Ad

  This is a campaign run in Essex by Love Essex in September, 2015 featuring a female and male counterpart of a littering poster in bus stops. The female poster, aimed at the female population in Essex, is highly sexist where the woman is in an objectifying, submissive position with her legs crossed, body tilted and hand brushing back her hair. This is further developed into a sexualized image through the use of a short dress. Although, another stereotype used is that women are uneducated and focus only on their physical beauty that others perceive. The quote used for the advert “BIN YOUR LITTER / It’s a PRETTY Quick Thing To Do” specifically points at that stereotype as the bolded word “PRETTY” instead of the male counterpart’s “SMART” creates the image that women focus on looking beautiful through sexualized clothing, perfume and make up, which the woman is wearing, being submissive and the ‘second’ in a relationship, which is shown through the woman’s posture, and how important it is for a woman to be perceived by others as beautiful in their looks and actions, which is implied by the quote saying that it is “PRETTY” to throw away one’s trash right.

Advertisers Have a Moral Duty

  Just as it can be said that parents have a moral duty to become the positive images that their own children learn from to become and to exceed, it can be said that advertisers have the moral duty to create images and ideas that are ethically correct and that aren’t destructive to our already fragile still-building images of our varied races, religions, genders and nationalities. Advertisements aren’t just viewed by the educated minds of open-minded adults, but are viewed by the younger, more influential generations of teenagers, children and toddlers whose views can so easily be manipulated to believe the stereotypes they are exposed to. These advertisements are everywhere from the billboards found on the sides of highways to the ads found in your nearby bus station. It is because of how frequently we are exposed to advertisements, whether they create destructive stereotypes or not, advertisers have total control of how individuals around the world ‘see’ those of different races, nationalities, genders or religions. Advertisers hold the paintbrush that paints those pictures and, if done wrong, images can become hurtful. For example, the image of women in advertisements for decades have been detrimental to the constantly developing equality between both women and men. In many advertisements, such as one of AXE’s commercial for their body spray, the woman in the advertisement is given a decorative portrayals and, additionally, she is heavily sexualized with high heels, a shorted and tight skirt and an exposing and body-tight shirt. She is not seen using the product, the body spray, and, even though she is a woman, she is involved in an advertisement for a product that is focused on men. She has no involvement with the product and yet, she is involved not as a person or potential customer, but a by-product that is ‘earned’ when the product, the cologne, is used. Her sexual clothing, submissive positions and actions and a lack of a voice role make her an object, not a human. This can give a negative image for women and cause young men or teenage boys the idea that women don’t have a mind and are, instead, objects that they can treat as they like. This can be the cause or can lead to domestically abusive behavior in men when they get older. This is only one of the possible hundreds of effects that an advertisement can have if it creates a degrading and unrealistic stereotype for a certain group. It is because of this that advertisers have the moral duty to avoid making new stereotypes and, in the long run, destroy existing stereotypes.

Gender and Stereotype Inquiry

Ad #1 - 'JOY' by Christian Dior starring Jennifer Lawrence (Sept. 1st, 2018)

Ad #2 - 'J'adore' by Christian Dior (Oct. 28th, 2018)

Ad #3 - 'Parfums For Her' by Karl Lagerfeld (2014)

Analysis:

  Each of these selected ads above are quite recent depictions of gender portrayal in our world. The first ad is Christian Dior’s new fragrance ‘JOY’ introduced on September 1^st, 2018 and revolves around the actress, Jennifer Lawrence, as she swims around the pool and poses seductively for the camera. She is not seen using the product, the perfume, has no speaking role within the advertisement and wears a revealing swimsuit and dress. This allows the woman in the advert to have a decorative portrayal that is mainly submissive and sexually attractive. This emphasizes how, in this society, a woman is portrayed as beautiful with a thin body with clothing that is more revealing and, through this ad, advertisers are trying to express the message to women that if they purchase this product then they, too, can reach society’s standards of ‘beauty’. This specifically shows how important society has made this image of ‘beauty’ for women to follow rather than focus on celebrating all types of women, no matter the shape, size, color, nationality or even style. This message is also heavily conveyed through Dior’s later released perfume ‘J’adore’, which was released on October 28^th, 2018. It starts off with a golden-tiled bath chamber filled with multiple women in revealing dresses modelling around the chamber in submissive, ‘sexy’ poses while the main actress is seen within the bathtub. The main actress is focused on as she walks out of the bath and the chamber itself, followed by her entourage of women but is not seen using the product, the perfume. She, alike Jennifer Lawrence, is used as a decorative portrayal in the ad and is, therefore, turned into an object. Alike the ‘JOY’ ad, women are stereotyped as submissive and held to an impossible standard of ‘beauty’ by society. Although, this ad takes this image further to where the blond-haired female was seen as the ‘main’ whereas the brunettes and dark-haired girls trailed behind her as ‘backups’, showing how blond-haired females are perceived as more beautiful society. The last ad is by Karl Lagerfeld for their fragrance 'Parfums For Her', which is aimed at women. This ad poster was made in 2014 and, alike the previous ads by Dior, this woman is also a decorative portrayal of society’s standard of ‘beauty’. She, unlike the other ads, models with a male model who is shown as the ‘dominant’ in the photo with her in a submissive pose, showing how women are shown to be ‘weaker and more ladylike’. It is most likely that the advertisers for each of these ads had ‘effectively’, in their minds, used the role-product congruity theory where advertising effectiveness can be increased when ‘appropriate’ models are used, in this case, the thin, white and young females for the perfume ads. These women express the standard of ‘beauty’ in our society and help to keep gender stereotypes alive, no matter how insulting or incorrect.