My field of inquiry:
Culture, identity, and community
How men are considered to be superior to women.
Possible text/work 1:
Title: Medusa
Author: Carol Ann Duffy
Connection to global
issue/content: This work is a
feminist representation of the
mythical character Medusa to
connote that male
indoctrinated ideas of beauty
and youth are universal
Connection to global
issue/style: Poem
My global issue:
Possible text/work 2: Body of work (BoW):
Title: Marriage CAN Stay Title: Series of vintage soap
Romantic advertisements
(https://docs.google.com/doc
ument/d/1CukxQR1l8xXdOZ_
wqfHkIxD5jsN_cf0aQJpkFV-
QfJ0/edit?usp=sharing )
Author: Palmolive company Connection to global issue /if
any:
Connection to global
issue/content: This work taps
into the insecurities of women
losing their youth by
romanticizing their marriages
Connection to global
issue/style: Advertisement
Outline: 5 points for each of the texts - with evidence- all points need to be connected to
global issue:

Medusa:

1. Deep-rooted double standards on infidelity are represented by Duffy in the verse

“Wasn’t I beautiful? Wasn’t I fragrant and young?” In this verse, Duffy makes use of
rhetorical questions to indicate how women must fulfill the expectations of being
“beautiful, fragrant and young” to preserve a monogamous relationship with their lover.
However, men do not.

2. Duffy points out how women are objectified in the verse “Your girls, your girls” The
repetition of ‘your girls’ implies Medusa’s lover’s numerous past, promiscuous
relationships. These ‘girls’ are not differentiated, implying that he saw them as objects.
He evidently valued none of the women he meddled with, including Medusa.
Moreover, the use of the second person possessive pronoun “your” reflects society’s
and medusa’s implicit belief that women are male possessions.

3. The verse “I stared in the mirror” insinuates how Medusa is criticizing her
reflection. Duffy implied that the desirability of women is dependent on their
physical beauty and this notion is perpetuated in society. In order to be
perceived as beautiful, women must conform to unattainable beauty standards,
otherwise, their partners will leave them.

Palmolive advertisement:

1. The use of the word “guard” in the headline has connotations of protection from harm,
implying that women have to be extremely vigilant in protecting their complexion and
have to remain as shown in frame 4 “the little bride” forever. The use of extreme
diction such as the word “guard” implies that a woman has to continue to strive to fulfill
the requirements of beauty that are expected of her throughout her life as it is what
determines her self-worth.

2. The advertisement leverages a woman’s fear of losing her physical youth and that if
she does not conform, her marriage will be unromantic. The advertisement features an
older, more experienced woman adopting the male perspective by reinforcing
stereotypes as shown in the tagline of “soft, smooth, young skin.” This shows how
deeply-rooted is the masculine perspective of beauty standards, which has been
running through generations.

3. The women in the advertisement are wearing dresses that reduce the waist and
accentuate the bust. This asserts the standards of femininity that is expected of
women in the audience and this further dissemanties the notion that women have to
appear beautiful to be respected in society.

4. it is men, not women, who are the root cause of the world’s ills.
LAL component requirement:
Literary work
Language/non-literary text
Extracts (maximum 40 lines)
Final outline of 10 bullet points
Refinement of global issue:
Based on your final choice of texts, are you
able to refine or narrow your global issue? Is
your initial global issue reflected in your texts
in a more specific way than you had
previously imagined?
(For example, the original idea- racism in the
workplace, final idea- discrimination against
indigenous cultures in the workplace)