Week 10: Woman as a Battlefield
If video does not work, here is youtube link: https://youtu.be/9YteMT3JvmI
This video is simple—the stick figure shape, the plain white paper and black pen, and the nature of a stop motion video. The simplicity of the images and the complexity of what it alludes to is a reflection on symbols in Islam. In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi begins with the symbol of the veil. The cloth draped over a girl’s face is so simple and yet it stands in for the complexities of the Iranian political climate. Thus, in this post, simplicity stands in for complexity in yet another paradox.
The main idea behind this video is to depict the forces that act upon the generic “woman.” I think it is ambiguous in this video if it is one woman or many women. In lecture, John said that during times of conflict within Islam (between traditional values and reformers, for instance) women’s bodies become a “battlefield.” This term stuck with me. The lack of agency, control, and humanity of it inspired this video. Essentially, each piece of clothing, even her hair, is laid on top of her generic, unmoving body. The video obviously exaggerates the sentiment of John’s lecture, but of course that is purposeful.
One small piece I would like to point out is the “WOMEN’S RIGHTS” sign is representative of the entire video. The sign is placed into her experience by another, and not by her. Her life is changed by that sign, but it is not her own. That is the sentiment I took from the idea of women’s bodies as a “battlefield.”
Further, the two-dimensional stick figure is acted upon a real, living hand. The levels of hierarchy between a penned stick figure and a human allude to hierarchies within the reality of women throughout sects, religions, cultures, etc.
Why a stop-frame movie? I think the medium contributes to the conversation in two ways. First, it creates a relationship between change and time which is not fluid. All of a sudden a women has a burka on, all of sudden she wears jeans or a mini skirt. The suddenness makes the sentiment even more jarring, which I would imagine women feel at times as well. Second, this post was partially inspired by Persepolis and the stop motion meant to be in between the format of a graphic novel and a film.
In essence, this was inspired by a single phrase mentioned in lecture which seems to have gotten under my skin. The overarching themes are control, agency, gender, veiling, protest, hierarchy and change. To me this post seems to depict a problem. That begs the question of what or who is the solution. Is it the hand or the stick figure?