Lit text-

Non lit text-

GI-
Introduction-
 GI-
Elaboration of GI- In the texts we see women
 Texts- Lit- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Editorial cartoon “Wrong responses to
rape” by Liza Donnelly
 Explanation of GI
 Thesis statement- words, expressions, characters
Intro to lit text-
 Summary
 What the text illustrates
 Why I chose
Point 1-words-
 use of harsh language and directly quoting what the men told her give the audience
an idea regarding the brutality and verbal abuse
 Use of scream bubble show panic
 Words used by fundamentalist tend to manipulate the audience into following their
 unreasonable norms leading them to believe it is for their own good
Point 2- characters-
 The protagonists’ mother who is a progressive woman
 Fundamentalists are stereotyped as bearded men
 In panel 4, her body language suggests helplessness (suspended)
 In panel six, her expression is the main focus sensitizing the audience about the
traumatic experience
 In this, the author uses Marjane’s mother’s western clothing as a symbol to imply that
she is a progressive woman. Whereas, the fundamentalists have been described as
“bearded men” to differentiate them from Marjane’s family.
(reference to other instances in the text)- find out dialogues of characters other than them to
bring out social voices
Into to non-lit body of work-
 About author
 What the text illustrates
 Why I chose
Point 1- Words-
 Repetition of the word “she” in every dialogue generalises the idea and represents
all women showing that this issue is not adhering to a single person.
 The difference in question mark and full stop shows that they are questioning a
woman’s choices however justifying what the man does.
Point 2- Characters-
 The author uses only women
 disregarding exclusivity by representing all races
 Expressions play a role showing their reaction to the rape. They seem unaffected
attributing the women’s actions to rape oblivious of the actual threats present in
society.
(reference to other instances in the BOW)
Conclusion-
 How are the text portraying GI similarly
 Differently
 How successful were they achieving their aim
SCRIPT-
I am going to be focusing on the global issue women facing atrocities due to their
progressive views and behaviour. To do so, I will be discussing “persepolis” by Marjane
Satrapi written in 2000 and “Wrong responses to rape” an editorial cartoon by Liza Donnelly.
Both these works illustrate how progressive women face a looming threat of getting abused
verbally and sexually due to thier choice of not abiding by orthodox societal norms which
restrict their progressivity. Due to the presence of misogyny in the society when women
resist to societal norms, they are considered immoral as their ethics are questioned. This
leads to men and other members of society linking progressive women to obscenity. Both
authors being from different backgrounds have portrayed this issue through different
geographic locations and time zones. The authors have illustrated these issues through
the use of text, characters and graphics.

Starting with persepolis, in the autobiography, the author describes her personal experience
of growing up in Iran during the Iranian Revolution. Her family is quite liberal and in favour of
modernization. Her mother strongly opposes the implementation of veil by taking part in
demonstrations fighting for her freedom which is mentioned in the previous chapters in the
book. In this extract, as a part of her resistance to authoritarian norms put forth by the
fundamentalists, Marjane’s mother does not wear a veil due to which she is verbally abused
and threatened to be raped by two of the said fundamentalists.

In the scene, Marjane’s mother is modestly dressed as her attire covers her entire body, it is
not enough for the fundamentalists to consider her a moral and respectable being. Solely
due to the absence of the veil in her otherwise modest attire, the fundamentalists did not find
her subjugated enough and forced her into submission.

Even though, the author has used minimalistic drawings, the shocked expressions
are profoundly illustrated in panels 3-5. Infact in the second panel, Marjane’s mother
appears to be flinging herself towards her husband while tears roll down her eyes as
she is scared and mortified by the audacity of the fundamentalists to verbally abuse
her in the middle of a marketplace. Her body language shows how she has
suspended her body in her husband’s arms showing her helplessness towards the
situation and lack of power in the society. Her expressions in the following panels
also suggest how horrified she was after she got accosted so much so that it
impacted her mental health. Marjane’s mother being sick and not going out of the
house for several days shows that the fundamentalists successfully incurred a fear of
getting raped in Marjane’s mother to supress her progressivity which led to shattering her
confidence, morale and will to fight for her rights.

Besides, Marjane’s mother quotes the exact words said by the fundamentalists like “fucked
and thrown in garbage” which are very harsh and disrespectful. These words shook her to
an extent where the only word she could think for the fundamentalists was bastard which
she kept repeating once she was safe with her husband. They also say that if she does not
want to be raped, she should wear a veil. This shows that the fundamentalists verbally
abused her only because she was not wearing a veil.

Furthermore, the use of scream bubbles shows the panic and fear incurred by the
fundamentalists in Marjane’s mom. This shows that the fundamentalists were successful in
extorting the woman to follow societal rules and restrict her freedom of expression.

The fundamentalist on news compares women who do not wear a veil to animals showing
how they try to undermine progressive women. He also clearly states that women’s hair
emanates rays that excite men thus directly exonerating men by giving them an excuse to
sexually abuse women incurring a fear of rape for her choice of not wearing a viel. Hearing
this, Marjane’s parents comment on the fundamentalists being perverts who lay the blame of
their distorted conduct on woman as a result restricting their freedom.
This issue can be seen in another section of the book when Marjane grows up and becomes
a woman. In the scene, Marjane is seen walking down the street wearing a viel drinking a
cola when a Kuwaiti immigrant asks her “how much” which suggest he thinks that she is a
prostitute while her uncle explains to her that women in Arab countries are so deprived of
rights that when a woman is seen drinking cola, she can be nothing but a prostitute. This
shows how society judges petty details of a woman’s conduct basing her morality on them
as a conclusion attributing them to rape.

Moving on to the Non lit BOW, Liza Donnelly is an American cartoonist for the New York
times. She constructs her works around serious subjects like feminism, world peace and
freedom of speech, but crafts them in a way that are light and inspirational especially for
women which is typically her audience. In the particular work that I have chosen, Donnelly
has explored various ways people in the society might react to a woman getting raped.
These responses clearly indicate how the society attributes rape to a woman’s behaviour
which according to orthodox norms is progressive while it seems completely normal for a
woman to do living in the 21st century.

The title is wrong responses of rape through which the author implies that the society’s
response to rape is absolutely wrong because the victim is questioned and the culprit is
defended.

In the illustration, the author uses repetition of the word “she” in every dialogue which
suggests that this issue is faced by all women and not by a single person further
emphasizing on the amplitude of the issue.

In the first four panels when the women comment on the woman’s behaviour asking if she
had been drinking or if she walked there which suggests they are questioning a woman’s
actions trying to find out what she had done to get sexually abused by a man ultimately
laying the blame on her. The author tries to imply that if a woman had been doing one of
those actions, they would have considered her to be an immoral woman and thus would
have exonerated the man
from abusing her. In contrast when they make comments about the man’s actions, the
author uses full stops instead of question marks. This suggests that they are trying to justify
the man’s actions trying to prove his innocence. What is interesting in the choice of
punctuation is that it shows how the society questions a woman’s ethics and morals while
are certain of the man’s ethics. This indicates the presence of misogyny as the society
expects women to follow societal norms while having a double standard for men who are
exempted from following those societal norms and justifying their actions when they do so.

The author has only presented the responses of women to another woman being raped to
show that it is not only men who are misogynist’s but also women who judge and question
another woman’s morality.
The expressions on the women’s faces suggest that they are unaffected by a woman being
sexually abused which indicates the presence of inbuilt misogyny holding a woman
responsible whether she is the victim or the culprit.

The last panel shows the society closing their eyes towards the actual culprit of the rape that
they even consider that the woman was raped due to the president not being a woman again
putting the responsibility of protecting women on another woman by saying that fewer
women will be raped if Hillary becomes president.
There are several other editorial cartoons where the author highlights the same
issue. One amongst them shows two young girls playing with toys and the caption
states “when i grow up i hope my rape allegations are believed”. This shows the
resistance by the society to accept the wrong doings of a man placing the
responsibility of protecting themselves on women. The use of such young characters
sympathises the audience towards being considerate towards women who are facing this
issue.

Donnelly highlights the role of gender stereotypes leading to sexual abuse. For example, in
her editorial cartoon, “how to avoid rape”, she shows two young women discussing about
taking a course which would help them avoid rape but they mention that the pre-requisite for
that would be how to dress and how to behave which further highlights that how women
dress and how they behave attributed to them being sexually abused.

In conclusion, both authors represent the issue of women being judged as immoral based on
their resistance to unrealistically strict societal norms which leads to the threat of being
raped restricting their freedom both by men as shown in lit extract and by women as shown
in non lit extract. In the literary text shows the consequences of abuse on a woman like fear
and deteriorating mental health whereas non lit bow focuses more on how the society judges
and attributes rape to women. However, in both the texts, the victim gets blamed and
shamed easily while the culprit is defended. Using these techniques, both authors
successfully sensitize their audience towards women who have been unfairly judged and
blamed for being raped.