Hailey Kroischke

Smith

English IB HL-1

4-29-2021

Persepolis Final Project

GI Category:

Politics Power and Justice

GI Frame of Focus:

The impact of gender discrimination on professional athletes.

Brief Background:

In the past few months, the US Women’s national team has become famous and well-known for

their lawsuits against US soccer. Most believe that their battle is for equal pay but that is only

the tip of the iceberg for this team. They feel that the United States Soccer Federation has not

treated them fairly and is not recognizing their accomplishments. The fight for equal pay was

merely the most clear representation of the sexism that goes on behind closed doors and the

success rates of the women’s team compared to the men’s team leaves many people

questioning such inequalities.

Thesis:

In America, discrimination and sexism in even the national levels of athletic competition harm

the salaries of many women, making them seem less important than the men representing the

same country.

Authorial Choice #1: Icon (panel 13+14)

The money bag and stars on the US jerseys are both icons that emphasize the inequality

portrayed in the chapter. The size of the money bags themself will indicate to audiences around
the world that the two athletes were not being paid the same amount. Additionally, the stars on

the uniform are a common symbol of championships won by a country. Most individuals could

easily spot the difference between the 4 stars on the woman’s jersey compared to the men’s

jersey with no stars. This emphasizes the narrator’s main point that the teams’ salaries do not

accurately represent their success and the women deserve more recognition.

Authorial Choice #2: Speech Bubble (panel 12)

The jagged lines of the speech bubble show the exclamation in the narrator’s voice to

emphasize her anger and state of confusion about the situation at hand. She does not agree

with the gender discrimination she is seeing and is frustrated that her father does not

understand her point. The fact that it is a speech bubble rather than a thought bubble also

shows that even though her dad is not in the room, she is still talking to herself to release her

built up anger. It can be inferred that her dad did not go too far and if she is yelling then he

would be able to hear her.

Authorial Choice #3: Emanata (panel 6)

The emanata lines behind the dad show that he is walking away from his daughter and

dismisses her claims. While she is trying to make sense of the situation, he is indifferent to her

opinion and speaks to her in a condescending tone, constantly looking down upon her. This

shows that he believes he is more educated on the subject and she is too naive to understand

what is actually going on. At the same time, we see later that her points are reaffirmed by the

information given to her from the TV. Because of this, we see that she was actually correct and

her father’s dismissal of her ideas just reflects his ignorance as a male.

Authorial Choice #4: Panel Depth (11)

By depicting the narrator in the background of the picture, our attention focuses on the empty

space in front of her. This emphasizes the fact that she is alone and her father has left the room

without her knowing. His timing is very ironic because he only heard the parts of the news report

that supported his initial claim and was able to leave before his point was disproven. Since this
is the second time he has left the room after talking to her, we can see that he doesn’t care

about the situation and chooses to ignore her rather than educating himself on the topic. This

further stresses his ignorance and strengthens the narrators point of view on gender

discrimination that causes inquality.

Authorial Choice #5: Non Sequitur Transitions (panels 12-15)

The quick transition between panels 12 and 13 switches quickly from the narrator’s perspective

to a representation of her ideas in the next two panels. Then after the 13th and 14th panel, it

transitions again back to the narrator. This quick glimpse into the situation for the male and

female athletes gives readers a clear visual representation of the inequalities between the

teams. Additionally, by placing them between 2 panels with the narrator’s internal conflicts, it

makes it seem as though the images of the athletes are in the mind of the narrator and readers

can clearly see what she is thinking and connect to her more deeply. The insight into the

narrator’s mind allows readers to see why she is so confused about the situation and clearly

shows the inequality troubling the narrator throughout the whole chapter.