Post #1: Young Girl Wrapped in Dora the Explorer Blanket
Young Girl Wrapped in Dora the Explorer Blanket; Wing Young Huie; 2012In this photo, we see a Latina girl wrapped in a Dora the Explorer blanket standing in front of a red van. A Latina woman is standing off to the side. There are two buildings in the background with some trees.
Looking deeper into this photo, we can tell that it's fall in the picture not only because the girl is wrapped in a blanket, but also because her mother is wearing a sweater and the trees in the background have green and yellow leaves.
When considering the context of this picture, we can see how representation matters. Dora the Explorer is a children's cartoon show in which the leading character is a Latina who enjoys going on adventures with her sidekick Boots the monkey. Dora teaches her viewers many things including some words in Spanish. Before Dora, there weren't any characters that were Latino/a; majority of them were white and Latino children couldn't really relate to any of them.
Huie's connection to this picture is that growing up, there weren't any leading cartoon characters that were Asian, so he related to white characters. This is the case for many children of color who don't see characters that look like them in cartoons and other tv shows. I chose this photo because I can relate to Huie when he talks about the lack of representation in children's shows growing up. As a child, The Proud Family was the only cartoon on Disney Channel that had an African American as the main character, so I watched it. Dora the Explorer was the only cartoon I saw that had a Latina as their main character and American Dragon was the only cartoon that had an Asian leading character. There weren't as many cartoons with people of color as the leading characters back then as there are now.
Atwood presents this concept of "othering" by making certain characters in specific social classes unique. For example, Nick could be considered an "othering" because he defies the rules of his social class by talking to Offred. Her response to this is confusion since his class isn't supposed to interact with hers. This is portrays Nick as different from his class. Huie presents this concept by photographing people that we see every day but pay the least attention to. He also opens our eyes to other cultures and people by giving some context to what was going on when he took the picture. When he was taking this picture he was just photographing members of a small church where majority of the members were Latino. Over the years he has realized that he is attracted to taking pictures of ways that "people are mirrored culturally". The girl in this photo is wrapped in a blanket that has a cartoon of a girl that resembles her.
It is really interesting that you looked at representation as a way to show that a group is othered in a culture. This could be connected with the prostitutes at Jezebel's, who are completely ignored by or don't even exist to the people outside of the commanders who go there. It would be interesting to look at the psychological impact on those women because though they are not recognized as existing by most of the society, they also don't interact with those people.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really interesting analysis and I especially loved your personal connection. I think your connection to the ways the photograph shows how something as small as a television show can bring those who feel "othered" together. This is reflected in the Handmaid's tale in a variety of ways, especially in the case of the Handmaids. Some examples of this are when they share the trick of using butter to stay young and how they share messages when they are being trained when the Aunts aren't aware.
ReplyDeleteI like how you provided context to your analysis. Looking at this photograph at first, the blanket and what it represented didn't resonate with me. When I read your analysis, it completely made sense. Dora is representative of the many different ways "othering" can be defied or limited. Yes Dora does sometimes further the idea of "othering" as many people are singled out to one group represented by a single standard, but I also feel like the inclusion of that show does also relieve the feeling of othering as she speaks both english and spanish. I like your personal connection, and I can honestly relate to it so much. The closest thing I have felt to being represented in TV shows is probably Aladdin (which I love) but even then, it is just a reminder that there is that lack of representation that often brings about aspects of "othering". One can see, through this photo and other photos, that culture is rooted within everyone. This kind of reminds me of how the Commander used to act. As a Commander, he fully supported the regime and made all efforts to maintain the order of female subjugation. On the other hand, within his own household, he broke the law by having a relationship with his Handmaid outside of the ceremony. This is just another example of how he, externally, represents himself and how on the inside it may not reflect those representations.
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