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In class, we recently did a poster of a historical ad campaign that ironically marketed a way of losing weight. Not only was I stirred to think about the gross misinformation being transmitted to the public but the very stereotype of body image being prevalent in our mindsets. What I found really comical was how companies exploit common insecurities i.e. not being fit as a means to attract more audience. They take this further by projecting their artificially developed method to be fully natural. As I dove deeper into the subject, I wanted to know more about how society as a whole has moved on from the times of body discrimination thus give this entire debate a temporal context. As I questioned why fat equated to shame, I realized the largely consequential value of building large-scale stereotypes. Why is beauty measure by slimness? Surpassing these societal barriers, the popular fashion brand 'Zara' ran a campaign that attempted to highlight models of all shapes, colors, and backgrounds and that truly was a progressive step towards shattering monumental mental boundaries. However, still, there is a long way to a point where body shape stops becoming in security and beauty truly starts to stem from 'within'.

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Did you know that apart from the abundant deforestation that takes place each year, human activities have worsened so much that animals now are even losing their habitats to 'natural causes'. I was wowed to hear this fact in an assignment poster that we did in class. Not being a fanatic of ecologist, I had always been blindsided to this side of the world up until an intense discussion we had in class about commercialisation versus nature preservation and I had to sadly side with the ecologists of the class. We might know it, but many biological processes out there are sustained by animals and wouldn't permit the extent of industrailisation today if it weren't for them. It really made me question the empathy and blend of the human versus nature world that exists today. While groups. like PETA, WWF are strong advocators the era of innovation is now more than ever. I came to a conclusion that what's going on around is unacceptable, by cutting one tree we are not only killing habitats, but lives and diversity of animals and it is really important that the industrialists of the world come to understand the extent of their damage. When viewing this situation from the perspective of the GI of science, technology and the natural world, what we witness is a tussle between technology and the natural world. It is heartbreaking to see how we are compromising ecology for personal benefit.

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Depression Comix - Mental Health Importance

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Depression Comix - Mental Health Importance

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In class this time we analysed a comic book strip that portrayed depression and the plight of people going through such conditions. The comic made it very evident to me that what's going on in the inside might not match what people want to show on the outside. It proved to me how being lonely is not just a situation of physical absence but predominantly one of social and mental incognizence as well. It was really hard hitting to know how depression is like love, it catches on quickly but fails to let go. I got to know all about in an excellent rendition by a young Indian poet's video here:  https://www.instagram.com/p/B9w8J0ennQr/. It made it evident that getting depressed is not in our hands and is a culmination of the circumstances given to us. After much reflection and research, I discovered the utmost value of passion and empathy. People with social anxiety lock themselves up and conditions like these are comparable to mental torment.

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Economic disparity rules the world. We did a poster on a new car released by Tata for the underprivileged in Malaysia. The poster exemplifies the plight of the poor especially in light of road safety. The poster kindled my thoughts on the disparities that live in our world. In a modernised system of transportation, the poor can't afford safe traversal. That really goes onto show the ignorance we live in. Lives are considered as mere numbers and poverty percentages. It was really progressive of Tata to take such strides towards supporting everybody. What I also found striking was an Indian company took measures in Malaysia, and out speculation it made me question the extent of compassion that lives between those extra and underprivileged. I thought about how important it is to share successes with the world and instead of growing independently, it is important that everyone grows with you.

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Plastic pollution is indubitably an unavoidable problem in our generation. Recently, in class we did a poster that illustrated the effects of plastic on future generations. I was really alarmed by the discussion that went on in class and spoke about how billions tonnes of plastic produced by past generations is now our burden to rectify. I immediately went online to research about what was happening in front of me only to find out ghory facts about animal deaths, the great garbage patch and many more disturbing elements. According to me, environmental degradation is a GI of its own. This article really stood out to me https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/plastic-pollution/ on the validity of the problem that it creates. I was eager to know why we waited such generations to get rid of this evil, and the answer lied in our innate human nature. No one likes to do the tough tasks, and the overcommercialisation and widespread greed in our world has caused almost irreversible damage. The photo that i have attached is from my own country and near an extremely holy site. It reminded me of the extremities that woulrd faces and how plastic overcrowding is more prominent than ever. I was forced to reflect upon how I as a person can give back and try to create change all around em.

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Recently, in class I was exposed to a call-for-help poster that reached out to women suppressed by violence in their households. A stirring conversation in class propelled me towards exploring the topic on my own and what I found was nothing short of tragic. I realised how women my society are oppressed while domestic violence is one way that stifles their voices, there is this pre-dominant burden of staying silent that gives rise to an extremity of gender parity. When reading about various cases and forming in my own mind a list of ways that women are suppressed, I chanced upon this poster which really voiced out the reality of the situation, and helped me molud my thoughts further on the subject. What really stood out to me was the fact that all these organisations were striving to 'end the silence' and I was coerced to question where this silence stems from, not only in the domestic scene but in every facet of life where a difference in gender dictates the results. I realised how there is an inherent element of chauvinism that is ingrained in society and even in relationships of love, it is so prevailing and dominant. It was striking to reflect upon how while there is an emerging feminist movement, in my local context there is still so much yet to be solved.

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This poster really fitted the GI of culture and identity that I wish to highlight in my answer. The picture is very self-explanatory. It directly attacks the construct of men being the handlers of the business world, and women only caring about beauty. In my opinion, the equation of equality that we see here is majorly mistaken. Women are not only conforming to what's expected but furthering the cause that chauvinistic men often support. Another thing, I noticed was racial diversity in women but not men, and I believe it's a strong indicator of both parties' moral strength. Men here have become rigid from old practices, but women are accepting and have a stronger emotional and social maturity. The poster allowed me to reflect on how these stereotypes could be broken? Is it gradual, is it one woman followed by another or are women taking over the world? And after much thinking, I found all were wrong, we live in a world that is dominated by these unfair rules. The change will happen when everyone is ready for it.

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I think the title of this entry will make it evident what I want to talk about, Martin Luther King's revolutionary speech. The speech is in exemplar of the issues that our society faces in terms of sex, racism and religion. MLK spoke about how he envisions a world free from the shackles of racism. I was stirred by the thoughts that MLK put forward. Empathising with the situation of the African American community is near impossible just because of the sheer opression they faced for such a prolonged time. When thinking about problem in the context of my country, I remembered our quest for freedom against the British. While racism was the not the biggest issue then but I believe the oppression many Indians faced were solely on the colour of their skin. It's really hard to imagine being subject to this inhumane practice because of things about your body that you can't control. In context of the 21st century, I think the world has progressed a lot. The recent protests against George Floyd's murder proved to be a key moment of interracial support and a progressive world.

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The class this time discussed America's tussle against the rise of feminity. We discussed the picture of a rooster and a hen, wherein the Mama hen is walking out on her children and asking the rooster to take care. While the poster definitely was a calling to break gender stereotypes, it also hints at shades of toxic femininity. I also found the title extremely intriguing, according to me it shows the parallels of disparity in America. As a firm believer in equality, the poster id definitely of motivation and grit. When you come to think about it, the social construct today expects the mom to stay at home and that's what I found wrong in the society that America lived in. The lack of free choice really makes us question the extent of disparity that occurred there. The GI culture, identity and community really becomes prominent and forces to question the transparency and equity in our ideal.

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Who was Abigail? I think Abigail was the epitome of evil and what was wrong in Salem. After a long discussion of Act 2 of Crucible in class, I decided to study Abigail's character. The first thing that I did was draw a word cloud comparing Abigail to the so called devil that existed in society. To my shock many of the characteristics, I found were extremely similar. I had a thorough discussion with my teacher on how, while the entire society perceived perhaps even a non-existent devil the real troublemaker and insinuator of bad in Salem. It really made me compare the situation to today's world and the McCarthyism that existed in the 1950s. It was evident that while America believed Communism to be their evil, it was really the tardy politicians and generals who were increasing the hysteria and fear amongst the population. It was shocking to realise the irony of the situation and made me reflect how extremism in our world is so pronounced and what control fear has over all mankind. Just like the people of Salem, all of us today are scared of our personal evils and the kind of destruction they rot, but that very fear gives rise to a new form of corruptive evil in society. When taking in point the situation of India, here religious fears are widespread and the act of being priest has now become commercial. I believe while the country has a rich religious history, today the internal evils of the world are corrupting society by taking advantage of it. Coming back to Abigail, it's hard to process the lack of mental progress in the last 200-300 years, while we may have gotten socially advanced, our defining features still haven't evolved. Shocking!

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This time in class we discussed stereotypes but from a different point of view. We discussed about how being 'man' enough has been associated with all the wrong things and is in fact so strict that it is ingrained within our minds that being a man is something do with physical labour. We discussed the poster above and spoke about how a man was defined as someone who was physically strong, has leadership qualities and is essentially daring. These gender roles have been pre-dominant for far too long and being a man has expanded so much from being just a gender to an entire paradigm. There is no subtle way to put this, even though boundaries of roles are being blurred with transformations in our society, it really makes me question how were they brought about in the first place? How was patriarchy physical dominance and matriarchy not? I myself realised that I had conformed myself to these gender roles and had often thought that some of my actions aren't 'manly' enough.

The poster below was truly eye-opening as it proved to me that being open to your passions can lead you to impact much more than conforming to the pressures of society. The men that we see are breaking mental barriers by showing not only showing that men can be nurses but also proving that gender and passion and careers have no correlation. Personally, I drew a lot of inspiration from the class because it helped me approach even my plans from a completely different perspective. The GI culture identity and community really popped out in my mind and showed how rigid it was and how it is a massive restraint to growth.

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In class we analysed Malala's famous UN speech on education. The ideas emanated in there were truly moving. The GU Beliefs, values and
education really struck me throughout the wording of the speech. What I gathered from it was the value that lies in education, Malala so simply pointed out that education is the reason that perhaps me and my peers didn't succumb to the evils of the world. Now that, I think about it I realise how integral information is and how the system of whitewashing is not cruel at all but extremely simple. When we were in school learning A,B,Cs the Talibans were with their families in stae of war learning who is the enemy and who to believe in. As Malala rightly put it, it's not the person''s fault but the circumstances he was brought up in. I also thought about the extent to which this system will affect us: if no measures, taken perhaps forever. We live in a shackled cycle of poverty and lack of education and I also rope in the prominent disparities in our country. For many people crime is a source of income and it's their conditions that forces them to do so

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Of course I am! At least I like to believe so and my mom surely does as well. In class today we spoke about 'beauty' and had a discussion about the stereotyping in beauty in our world. I was shocked to know that I was yet another victom of the appearance anxiety disorder. Being 'beautiful' in my mind was exposed to be directly correlated to physical outlook and I was shocked to realise and truly grasp how beauty has been adapted into society.  While the disorder is diagnosed to only a few million each year, I think we can vouch for the fact that material beauty on the outside is quite defining for each one of us.  The social construct that we live in has characterised and categorised beauty and when you go further even basic human traits like intelligence. Intelligence is directly correlated to your economic contribution or how academically well-oriented you are. Similarly beauty is all about being flashy, curvy and attractive. We also came across a study of how different countries stereotype beauty differently according to what they see in their regions and it made me realise the materially bent pre-mature ideas within us.

In class we also talked about beauty averageness and when I took a dive into that, I got to know that it was one of the most studied and debated topics in modern fashion research. The effect proved that no individual is beautiful but only a culmination of everyone's 'beautiful' features is worthy of being bestowed the term. I learnt about the plethora of people around the world who are driven towards achieving 'beauty' have been tied up not being able to be the 'average' and taking routes like makeup and surgery. The revaltion made me think about how beauty through fake media is being normalised and the appearance anxiety that a huge half of the society lives in propels them into taking this easy route towards socially acclaimed ‘beauty’. When focusing on who’s beautiful and how do we judge that, the answer circles back to the same constructs spoken about earlier. Beauty is a measure of how attractive and appealing you are and in today’s world even progressive mindsets preemptively associate ‘beauty’ with physical features. Countries and facets of society have created a system of beauty, wherein ideals are set through magazine covers and other commercial activities. ‘Beauty’ is about how someone is perceived on the exterior rather than the interior. However, I can personally witness a change towards that forthcoming in the world. In many ‘beauty’ magazines around the world, people are being recognised for who they are on the inside rather than the outside. In July 2020’s Vogue issue, the company is featuring a patient of down syndrome who is taking marvellous strides despite the altercations she faces. This does not mean that the concept of beauty is changing, but it is being recognised for the better.

All in all, ‘beauty’ is individualistic by nature but generalised or averaged by humans and discerning beauty is not a decision but an individual opinion which has sadly today been moulded by material incentives.

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A Doll's house by Henrik Ibsen is a great rendition of the evolving nature of feminism in the 1800s. Recently in class, I had a thorough discussion with my teacher about feminism, feminine identity, expectations, social constructs and stereotyping. The entire conversation was extremely stirring and quite eye opening in terms of inequalities that our teacher exposed us to. One of the basic ones being labelling 'housewives' and keeping no word for the opposite gender. She also spoke about women being constantly objectified and under the constant pressure of being 'beautiful'. The same day when I was reading about the waves of feminism I came across this article below because it was a really hard-hitting surprise to reality. The entire conversation came into perspective as to how men expect women to be in a certain way, and our society's patriarchal structure is harming so many women out there. Coming from a country of strict stereotyping, this was a big reveal as for once I truly understood the meaning of feminism and equality. Now this big conflict loomed in my mind: Is the way men act the standard of equality? Meaning going out to work, earn money is women reaching that status true equality. And that is when I also realised that this is again a big social construct that I am living in. The poster above is a beautiful of portrayal of how even the thoughts of feminism are being misguided by social constructs.

Now, when I read ADH, Nora's character was certainly an exemplar of 'breaking free'. But it again made me question, why was she entitled to be 'chained' in the first place. Nora's character was criticised in class for being a 'bad' mother, but it again made me question, why was she burdened with such expectations in the first place? While, I make these reprimands and questions almost 150 years later I might be countered by saying the world's progressed. But has it truly, how many of our mother's still live in the construct of maintaining the house and taking care of the children. The entire concept of feminism and it's fierce development is portrayed extremely boldly in ADH. I can safely say, that ADH made me realise the constraints that so many women live in, and how 150 years of progression and waves of feminism later still have a long way to go before true 'equality' is attained.

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This time in class we did a Paper 1 poster analysis on tribal eviction. The poster entailed a depiction of Mowgli being kicked out of his cherished jungle all in the name of 'conservation'. In the middle of the class, when I got some spare time to dive deeper into the topic, I found out how prevalent of a problem it is in my country. In 2019, the India government evicted over a million tribal families to protect animal diversity and it was pretty shocking to see how a country which so deeply value and follows tradition is taking magnanimous steps towards destroying them. Like I discussed in my previous entry about how religion and belief is a dominant force in India, yet when it comes time to empathise we can't see the very thing that holds us all unified.

When I delved further, I found out about numerous instances that our judicial bodies had ruthlessly kicked out tribal families with no compensation, rehabilitation or recuperation skills. It made me think the extent of corruption and two facedness that exists. While, I remain a big supporter for conservation, I remain astonished by the actions that my own government is taking. Indiscretion comes to be the most euphemistic I can be in this scenario.

In the year following the eviction, the government has gone back on its promise of conservation with a massive push into tourism.

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Crucible, John Proctor - Comparisons with modern day change

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Crucible, John Proctor - Comparisons with modern day change

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Recently, in my english class we completed the play Crucible by Arthur Miller. Crucible is an excellent rendition of innate human behaviour, and how it changes under different circumstances. The behaviours of many characters made me question how the human race as a whole has evolved if at all from that behaviour. One aspect that remains extremely prevalent throughout Crucible was that of religious absolutism, and coming from a country with extremely strong cultural roots, I was intrigued as to what extent does the fear of higher power dictate and determine our lives. Watching the entire story unwind in a spectacular manner coerced me into comparing issues of politics, power and justices then and now. This article from a well known newspaper really caught my eye in terms of summing up the influence of religious scenes in politics. But when I really got to thinking, I dived deeper into religion and its rooted sometimes unnoticed effects on Indian law. In Crucible the overarching motivation of the characters was to protect their pureness and religious systems by the 'Devil' that was invading. Similar to the circumstances there, I realise how the beef scandals in India which led to banning the sale of beef in India is truly a moral crusade on the entire country. Our constitution honours democracy yet the law is strangled by the overarching influence of religion. But there are two sides to this story, apart from the distress the religious divide causes in our country, it's also a unifying feature. It gives people motivation and sense of belongingness. This is something that I saw amiss in Crucible, religion was more about reputation than devotion and piousness. It was about perceiving good rather than doing good. Such corrupted thinking is what got me to truly introspect human behaviour and how are core values haven't evolved in a long time.

John Proctor, came to be one of the characters of justice. I admired him because of his ideals, justness and truly humane portrayal. He wasn't perfect, but he truly exemplified what religion, values and integrity mean in life. I might be drifting off topic but even with his slips John Proctor maintained resilience and a mindset of getting justice to light. While he was discriminated and shown as an outlier in Salem in today's world we are witnessing a revolution with advancing receptiveness towards change makers. Many people are still frowned upon for thinking differently and just like Proctor I believe these outliers are the real beneficiaries, change makers and well-wishers in society.

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In class today, we read an excerpt from A Doll's House Act 3 when Nora is confronted by Torvald regarding the loan she has taken and the fallout between the two occurs. I am astonished to realise how Nora's situation is so artificial. Viewing from a modern day perspective, Nora is equally entitled to all what she desires as Torvald, yet she has to feel apologetic for it. It is pathetic to witness as the most. The very elements of a tarnished female identity and prevailing male dominance intirgued and propelled me to dive further. I could even relate this to the photographic collection I had mined earlier, and could see a clear pattern to develop my argument upon.

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As I dwelled further into the idea of oppression v/s protection especially in the context of women, particularly inspired by what I was doing for my internal oral. While browsing through material, I came across this poster featuring the logo of the famous 'Black Lives Matter' movement going on. I then was able to pick up so many similarities between racial and gender injustice and reflect over the gross systemic inequalities present everywhere. As I drew tangents in both the forms of discrimination, I realised how there is a unique element of 'protection' given to women which is a forefront to how oppressively they are treated. After having this realisation, I was able to add a new and unique perspective to my IO to show the extent and unique suffering of women everywhere but especially those around me.

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In class when studying about the complicated relationship of Nora and Torvald, I saw a very distinct element of protection in there. There was no love or no form of binding force but the very bondage that came along with marriage that kept them together. It was so striking to see such a misinformed and misaligned relationship come to be. I was reminded of a collection of Photograph specially this one titled ''Raw" which itself is so open to interpretation. In many ways, the creepers resonated the gradually growing tension in relationships and the door which the peers at is the escape. As the drama intensifies i realise how Nora's willingness to leave increases as well and this clarified to me that there is a very strong element of insecurity and protection in relationships. It was shocking to reflect how women are forced into the realisation that they are individual beings with wants and needs, not that they have a natural understanding of it.

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After developing a suitable line of inquiry, I spent class gathering materials for my BOW. Diving deeper into Jee Young Lee's collection around domesticity I gathered 4 pieces that resonated the most with the themes, I wanted to explore. All of them singularly had the motif of restriction. What further reinforced my belief in all of these photographs as suitable pieces for analysis was the commonality of a walled woman who looks away from the frame of reference and never tends to show her face. I saw through the contrast on how walls which can symbolize home actually trap and destroy female identity. It was so striking to realise the magnanimous difference between what societal expectations are and how women actually end up being treated. The photos also conveyed a sense of despair which really allowed me to bring forward the internal and external contrast to create the necessary links to my chosen literary extract as well.