Practice Paper 1 HL – Semester 1 – Males in veils model
Inequality between the sexes is an ongoing issue in the modern world, existing across cultures and manifesting in many forms. Though women are more likely to experience the effects of this inequality, men can also be targets. Text 1, a newspaper article which first appeared in Britain’s ‘The Daily Telegraph’, and text 2, an online cartoon, both explore aspects of gender inequality and sexism but in different ways. Text 1 is predominantly a tongue-in-cheek opinion article which nevertheless conveys a strong message about gender inequality against women in Saudi Arabia. Text 2 is also light-hearted in its initial approach but eventually highlights that men, too, can be victims of sexism. These differences are predominantly evident in the purpose and form.
In text 1, Tim Stanley explores a recent incident in Saudia Arabia where three men were deported for “being too handsome” thus posing a risk to “female visitors who could fall for them”. Contending that this incident has since become “a human rights issue in Saudi Arabia”, text 1 seeks to extrapolate to the serious issue of gender inequality in Saudi Arabia, particularly its negative implications on the lives of Saudi women. As this article was republished in The Age, it is clear that it has reached a global western audience and would interest both genders of this sophisticated readership. Though text 2 also highlights unfair aspects of gender inequality, it does so by exemplifying the double standards which can exist around the use sexist of language, in this case gender stereotyping of men: “I like a man with nice abs and a nice car..”. Text 2 suggests that men are far more likely than women to be labelled as sexist, which would appeal to a male online readership who may have also experienced such labels. Female readers, on the other hand, may find the cartoon less engaging for diminishing the significance of female gender stereotyping through sexist language.
Theheadline of text 1, “Life’s tough when you’re a handsome devil” establishes the ironic thrust of the article to follow. Beginning in a light-hearted, almost irreverent tone, Stanley personalises the issue by suggesting that “Being this good can be a burden” and urges the audience to “take another peek at my byline picture” in order to indicate to them his jocular approach to the incident. Text 1 maintains this approach to highlight what it sees as the bizarre, “ultra-conservative” actions of Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices in deporting the men. In this sense, Stanley is implying that the situation is so far beyond reason it can only be treated as a joke. In the body of the text, when he explores the darker side to this ultra-conservatism through the hypocrisy of Saudi Arabia’s laws where “women have to cover themselves up from head to toe”, or the diabolical anecdote where “a Saudi preacher…raped and killed his (own) daughter”, there is a shift to a more serious and judgemental tone. This seeks to emphasise the perils of gender inequality, albeit briefly, before resuming the former irreverent approach to finish, thus bookending the text with humour. This is not the case for text 2, which establishes a mood of congeniality between the two figures having an unassuming conversation at a table in panel 1, but ends with in a tone of anger as shown by the uppercase yelling of the female to the male “YOU’RE SUCH A SEXIST!” By building the mood from calm to hysteria so swiftly, text 2 emphasises how quickly misunderstandings can escalate between genders as a result of their differing perceptions of that which constitutes sexism.
NO STYLISTIC DEVICES OR STRUCTURE PARAGRAPHS
Though both texts explore aspects of gender inequality, each focuses on a specific aspect of this cross-cultural phenomenon. Text 1 proposes that, like women, attractive men in Saudi Arabia should be forced to wear veils by satirically mocking the inequality which exists there. Text 2, on the other hand, highlights the hypocrisy of women’s blindness to their own sexist attitudes towards men. In doing so, the texts exemplify the injustice and complexity of this persistent social issue.