English IO

Global Issue: How sexual harassment and abuse of a woman by an overpowering

authority leads to impassivity

Field of Enquiry: Politics, power and justice

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Literary text- Pygmalion’s Bride
Non-Lit text- ‘Not My Idea of Fun’ cartoon by Liza Donnelly

Good morning, the global issue I will be presenting for my individual oral today is ‘How sexual
harassment and abuse of a woman by an overpowering authority leads to impassivity’. This will be
understood under the field of enquiry ‘Politics, Power and Justice’

My literary body of work is an extract from ‘Pygmalion’s Bride’ in ‘The World’s Wife’, a collection
of poetry written by Carol Ann Duffy published in 1999, in the United Kingdom. Through her poems,
Duffy explores the experiences and perspectives of women who have been marginalised or
overlooked in traditional narratives. The poems mostly include redefining older myths while
implicitly presenting global issues that are prevalent today.

My non-literary body of work is a cartoon by Liza Donnelly published in November 2011. Donnelly
is a cartoonist best known for her depiction of social and political issues such as women’s rights.

I chose these two works because they clearly depict the global issue while displaying different
circumstances of the women but still retaining the main message which is the impassivity caused by
sexual harassment and abuse. Each text shows different authorial choices such as sarcasm, colour,
caption and symbolism to explore this particular global issue.

Beginning with my Literary Work which is a poem named ‘Pygmalion’s Bride’ by Carol Ann Duffy.
Pygmalion was a sculptor in Greek mythology who carved out a statue named Galatea who
represented his ideal woman. He later fell in love with the statue and a Greek goddess Aprodite
brought his sculpture to life as he had prayed for. Duffy redefines this myth and depicts a global issue
of sexual harassment of women through it. This poem is in the form of a dramatic monologue as there
is an implied presence throughout the poem, suggestively Pygmalion himself.

In line 1 of the first stanza, the narrator, Galatea, says ‘Cold, I was, like snow, like ivory’ which is the
first depiction that she is devoid of any emotion. She reflects that she is made from ivory which is a
hard substance but beautiful at the same time. Ivory and snow are both white in colour which stands
for innocence and purity of Galatea. She proceeds to think ‘He will not touch me’ in the second
stanza, where ‘He’ stands for Pygmalion and where it is implied that she does not wish to be touched
by him. She believed that he wouldn’t touch her sexually but she was proven wrong immediately. As
seen in the second stanza, Pygmalion proceeds to kiss her lips without any consent of hers.
‘Stone-cool lips’ display her state of apathy and she lies still as though she had died throughout this
unconsented act, reluctant to show emotion or resist the act itself. Pygmalion stayed which implies his
obstinacy and continued to exploit his power over her regardless of her consent.

We can see the repeated use of ‘He’ until now which is syntactic parallelism, an authorial choice by
Duffy that signifies his authority over her and how she has to comply with his needs and wants
regardless of how she feels. The phrase ‘blunt endearments’ is an oxymoron and implies that he only
cares about his own sexual needs and pursues it with Galatea rather than wanting to know her as a
person and genuinely love her for who she is. As she says ‘my ears were sculpture’, she refers back to
her reluctance to show emotion or react to however badly Pygmalion continues to sexually or verbally
abuse her. The fact that Pygmalion was the one who sculpted her into the way he wanted her to be
depicts how he is sexually and even physically abusive.

As we further read the poem, the phrase ‘he ran his clammy hands along my limbs’ strikes us. The
author’s tone is unequivocal in this particular line and is open to different interpretations by the reader.
The word ‘clammy’ indicates unwanted sexual advances by Pygmalion and how he uses his hands to
sexually satisfy her. She ‘didn’t shrink’ suggests that she doesn’t feel comfortable with this kind of
sexual touch but resists herself from being pleasured by him. She plays ‘statue’ while he continues to
sexually abuse her and she isn’t able to resist as she is overpowered by him and forced to give in to
his needs.

He continues to touch her without consent and it progressively gets more sexual, suggested by ‘he let
his fingers sink into my flesh’, in hopes to find a response from her to his sexual advances, most
probably her pleasure. She says she ‘wouldn’t bruise’, logically speaking as she is a statue made from
ivory, a hard material. As we interpret this metaphorically, it actually implies that she refuses to be
pleased sexually by him as he is exploiting his power over her without taking any consideration of her
thoughts and feelings, only in hopes for her to be pleasured by his sexual advances.

This portrayal of sexual abuse is not only seen in this particular poem but also shown in the poem
‘Medusa’ in the collection where she was raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple and was later
punished for it in the form a curse. She was the victim but faced punishment by her master as
Poseidon was an overpowering authoritative figure and couldn’t be punished by Athena. This led to
self hatred and her turning into a heartless monster.
Moving on to my Non-Literary extract which is a cartoon named ‘Not My Idea of Fun’ depicting how
women who wish to voice out sexual harassment refrain from doing so and remain impassive as they
will be vilified for false accusations to the abuser. The cartoon shows two women in a casual setting,
sitting at a dining table. They are sipping on glasses full of wine each while they engage in a light
conversation on how talking about sexual assault and abuse will lead to ridicule and hate in this
modern era.

Donnelly predominantly uses a white backdrop in this particular cartoon as it is symbolic of the
innocence of these women conversing about a very serious issue in our society. Donnelly uses
humorous language with a sarcastic tone to signify how humiliating it is to accuse someone in a
position of power and obstacles that come with it.

The author employs a long caption in her cartoon that allows her to disseminate knowledge about the
accusations of sexual assault and harassment by Herman Cain who was a member of the Republican
party. In this particular case, the cartoon talks about how a victim of Cain’s sexual assault, Sharon
Bialek. She had approached Gloria Allred, who is an American attorney, to voice out her experience
of sexual misconduct while she was applying for a job under Cain himself. After she was done with
her job interview, Cain sexually advanced by groping Bialek underneath her skirt and pushing her
head towards his crotch without any consent. When she asked him what he was doing and asked him
to stop, he replied with ‘You want a job right?’, showing how Cain abused his power over Bialek
without any worry of facing the consequences.

She came forward with these allegations of sexual misconduct in 2012, which is exactly 15 years after
the actual incident. This clearly shows that women who have been abused are impassive and refrain
from speaking about their harassment due to an overpowering authority. She wanted to come forward
with these accusations so other women who had been in her position could also come forward and not
remain impassive just because Cain acts as an overpowering authority.

As we read the title of the cartoon itself ‘Not My Idea of Fun’, which shows the authorial choice of
capitalization. This has been done by Donnelly to provide emphasis on the fact that this idea of going
on national television while pretending to be a republican so that they can speak up about their sexual
assault encounters, is not a ‘Fun’ journey whatsoever but a cruel and humiliating one. In the caption
of the cartoon, Donnelly states ‘pretend to be republican’ which already makes it clear that she would
need to fake being a republican just to get on a stage to come forward with her accusations of sexual
assault. This statement itself gives us a reason why a woman may choose to refrain from talking about
her abuse and remain impassive as no one would give her a platform to speak unless it is something
related to the agenda of the authority overpowering her itself. Even if the woman manages to speak on
her abuse, she would be vilified and face scrutiny from the general public and followers of the
authority which is Herman Cain in this case.

Bialek faced online death threats, conservative pundits who were republicans assailed her character as
well a group Christian female supporters went to her doorstep and harassed her in plain sight. This
also derailed her progress to find a full time marketing job for almost three years. Bialek faced all of
these consequences to encourage other women to come out and talk about them getting harassed by
Cain, which she did achieve, but it also hampered her career and her public image.

We can also see the portrayal of this particular issue with women voicing out their concerns in another
cartoon by Donnelly as shown here. It consists of a huge message cloud saying #MeToo which is a
movement for women to come forward with the abuse they may have faced and kept quiet about in
the past.

Both the texts I have chosen for my individual oral have portrayed my global issue effectively yet
distinctively with the help of various authorial choices. Duffy redefines a myth to depict sexual abuse
and the state of apathy of Galatea while being abused whereas Donnelly uses context of an incident
that has occurred previously with the help of a conversation between two women with a sarcastic
tone. Both authors displayed how an authority can do anything they want without facing any
immediate or future consequences as they are in a position of power, and which leaves the abused
individual in a state of impassivity.