Week 1 - Lecture by Dr. Chris Woo

Ladies and Gentlemen,


This Journal is going to highlight my understanding towards the lectures for the course Visual Communications throughout the semester. I will start my journal from Week 1 and the rest will follow according to the consecutive weeks of lecture.

During the first week of the semester, we were introduced to visual culture where we were taught how to define the terms. We were also introduced to the meanings of representations, discourse as well as what ‘ideology’ was. We were further explained about the politics in visual communications as well as the identities.

My journal for Week 1 will explore and examine the discourse, ideologies, representation and the politics of muslim women using ‘hijabs’ or tudongs. My objectives of exploring the discourse of women using tudongs is because I am interested to know and understand why does a piece of cloth which is wrapped over a women’s head can create many controversy in a society whereas this is an obligation to all muslim women required by the religion. On the other hand, when a white woman uses some scarf over her head for fashion , it doesn’t seem to be a big deal to anyone. Here, we will see how these factors are represented through visual images which is portrayed through the media and other channels.

Muslim women are required to wear ‘tudong’ or head scarf because it is a must required by the religion. For muslim women, their hair is part of their “aurat” and it is sacred, hence only their husbands are allowed to see it. According to the Islamic religion, any women who breaks this Islamic law will receive equal punishment hereafter.

Women in streets of Arabic Country wearing Hijabs

Let us look at the picture above and see what it represents.According to Pierce, he described 3 kinds of signs or representation which is “iconic, indexical and symbolic.” He claims that most iconic signs resemble their object in some way such as photographs, paintings and comic strips. ( Sturken, M. And Cartwright L.2009). By looking at the picture it is already showing the representation of a particular culture and their people. Representation is referred to as the “use of language and images” to interpret the meaning of what we see around us. ( Sturken, M and Cartwright L., 2009). This picture is taken in the busy streets somewhere in the middle east and we can see Muslim women covering themselves. Here, the women are represented as less dominant than men, i.e. weak species. By portraying this, the picture obviously tells that this is a patriarchal society, which stands true in many Muslim countries. The way the women dresses also tells us that the women are not free to dress however they like and they are confined to a certain dresscode hence this also portrays the lack or no freedom for the women. However, the men portrayed in this picture looks more free to move and do whatever they like as they are allowed to dress freely.




Now, what is meant by perception?

Perception on the other hand is how people perceive things. As what philosopher Immanuel Kant stated out ,”We see things not as they are but as we are.”.According to Gombrich (Art and Illusion,1960), there is no "innocent look"; perceiving images is always influenced by our knowledge of the world and of other images. Thus, this shows that people already have a set knowledge of what they want to think or hear. This can be applied in the context of women who wears the hijab and how other people perceive them. When we look at the picture above, the representation that the women has is that they are muslims and they are using the hijabs and cover themselves because of their religion. People have always perceived women using hijabs or tudongs as women who does not have freedom and are part of Cheris Kramarae’s “Muted Group” theory. Perhaps the reason why people think like this is because they have a set of ideologies which has been implemented in their mind. When we analyze the picture above, the black clothings and the hijabs symbolizes the lack of freedom they have in comparison to the men that is shown in the picture.This also shows that the country or location that this picture was taken is a patriarchal society. Since this photograph is taken somewhere in the Middle East and all women is required cover their head , it shows that the country has already embraced this custom as their culture.



We must always bear in mind that the power of photography is very strong and it plays a major influence in how the viewers accepts the picture and interprets it.

Women wearing Hijabs doing sports

The discourse of women wearing tudongs have ideologies such as Muslims associating the religion with terrorism following the recent 911 attack which have caused Muslims to be labelled by the Christians, Religious, Restricted, No women equality, Restricting women to fashion, Women are not allowed to express themselves and the list goes on.


However, the problem with the ideologies of women wearing tudongs are not always the mere TRUTH. In most cases, muslim women are obliged to wear tudongs because it is required by the Islamic religion. Those women who obeys the rules of religion on earth will be rewarded with heaven in life hereafter.





However, when we are shown this image, the perception of people towards a person wearing a tudong or ‘hijab’ will automatically change. Some people may be quite shocked to see this picture as their mind might have already been trapped in the ideology of women who wears a ‘hijab’ are not entitled to freedom, what more to play American football which is a game typically played by men. In this context, Ideology is said to be a ‘system of belief which exists within all cultures.” ( Sturken,M and Cartwright L,, 2009, pg. 23). The ideologies of a women who wears a “hijab” is first and foremost, “terrorrism’- this has been labelled to muslim women eversince the attack of 911, confined within their clothings, victims of the oppressed, uneducated, slave to their husbands etc. They are also considered part of the “Muted Group Theory” as claimed by Cheris Kramarae- “Women are not as free or as able as men are to say what they wish............because the words .....have been formulated by the dominat group, men”.(Em Griffin, A First Look At Comunication Theory, pg. 454)



Here, we can see how people’s perception can change in just a split second just because of how pictures are represented. In this picture, the women in ‘hijab’ conveys an entirely different and opposite meaning to the interpreters. This picture portrays women that are equal to men as they are able to play American rugby. We can also interpret that the women in this picture is given their freedom and able to express themselves through the sports that they play.



POLITICS OF THE DISCOURSE OF ‘HIJAB’ OR TUDONG



Furthermore, there are many politics that can arise from the discourse of women wearing ‘hijabs’. Such political issues that arises are the politics of freedom, politics of fashion, politics of culture and religion, politics of gender, politics of women’s rights and many more.

http://www.muslimsinengland.com/archives/37-Hijab-Part-3-Islam-womens-rights.html

http://www.tvsa.co.za/default.asp?blogname=blaquesdiary&ArticleID=13536

http://www.taghrib.ir/english/index.php?limitstart=66

 When we look at the pictures shown above, we can see that many women are trying to fight for their own rights of wearing the ‘hijab’. For example in the first picture, we can interpret the image as women trying to fight for their rights to wear the ‘hijab’ and they claim that it is the ‘human rights of muslim women’ to wear the hijab. When we analyse this visual image, it is a counter ideology of women in ‘hijabs’. The counter ideology is that in this picture, women are beginning to speak up for themselves, claiming women’s rights and protest against the ruling of the government which restricts them from wearing ‘hijabs’. Here, the ideology of women being oppressed, silenced, confined in dress codes, have all been challenged.




As we all know, there were many controversial issues regarding muslim girls who are banned from going to schools if they are wearing tudong and a few cases has happened in Thailand and Singapore. People from the West have indeed discriminated women wearing tudongs especially girls from school. This is shown in one particular case study in which little school girls who uses tudong in UK are banned from schools.

This image portrays a Western women using a scarf over her head that symbolizes fashion of the season. It is a scarf made by Channel. Ironically, the concept of this scarf and the ‘hijab’ is more likely the same as it covers the hair. However, this is excepted in the Western society as fashion and the scarf gives a totally different representation to the people in contrast with the ‘hijab’ that muslim women use. The question is WHY do people in the West not accept the ‘hijabs’ whereas the similar replica of the ‘hijabs’ which is ‘so called’ scarf represents fashion and has been accepted by fashion enthusiasts. Once again, this is called perception. The art of perceiving something through the person’s mind, and his own interpretation based on the ideologies created or embedded in him.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the discourse of women using the hijabs and tudongs gives the other people a certain perception and ideology of how these women are represented. Here, we are able to see how strong peoples perceptions are towards others for example the banning of hijabs in France, this means that the people are anti-Islamic religion and they are forcing the Muslim women to go against their religion or else their lives will be in danger. There are also many politics that arises in regards to women wearing tudong and it is not an easy thing to deal with. With the rise of the banning of hijabs shows that people have a fix mindset to how they want to perceive things and the way people represent themselves. They will not lift the ban on hijabs because they stick to their perception of ideology of women in hijabs.

Nevertheless, it is important that we human beings are not deceived by what we see or what we percieve. When we look and analyse the pictures above, all the ideologies of the women in hijabs does not stand 100 percent true. Women in today’s society do actually fight for their own rights and they claim that wearing hijabs is liberty and Not oppression. Hence, our perception towards something might not always be true for some people as different people have different interpretations.

References:-

Em Griffin (2000), A First Look at Communication,Mc Graw Hill, 7th Edition.

Sturken, M. And Cartwright L.(2009). Practices of Looking : Image, power and politics.Practices of Looking: an introduction to visual culture (pp.10-44). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition.



Tutorial Questions for Week 1

Look around the everyday objects of your house. How do they explain and contribute to the concept of ‘home’ and ‘family’?

When we look around at the everyday objects of my house, the combination of the yellow lights , furnitures and colours all contribute into giving us a cozy feeling when we are at home. When we are familiar with our house and feel comfortable with our house and the people or members living under the same roof, we will automatically call it home. However, if the house we live in does not have a welcoming environment , we will not accept it as our home.For example, if the people or members of the family living under the same roof always squabble and don’t get along, we will automatically not feel comfortable living in that house and we will think of moving away from there. On the other hand, a family is difficult to define in today’s society as there are many post modern types of families in which some societies do not accept. However, the most acceptable and typical type of family is according to Parsons is the “nuclear family”. “Nuclear family” consists of a mother, father, and two children. Post modernist families includes gays and lesbians as well as reconstituted families which consist of either a step mother or step father. To answer the question, we can say that both ‘home’ and ‘family’ are inter-related as we say, when there is home , there is a family. It doesn’t really matter whether the people you are sharing house with is related by blood or marriage, but when you share your daily life with that person, you will accept that person as your family as well.

Is there a difference between critical looking versus just looking?

Yes, there is a difference between critical looking versus just looking. For example, when we are given or shown an image of a photograph, if we look at it just ‘by looking’ roughly or glancing at it, we would not be able to notice any details of the photograph. Sometimes , a photograph or an image tells a thousand words. We will not be able to read and understand all the hidden messages or details of the picture if by just looking at the picture. However, if we look critically at the photograph or image, sometimes we are able to detect and identify even the smallest details. For example in the picture of Robert Frank’s Trolley. When we look at it from the rough eye, we just see people sitting in the train and it seems very normal to us, except that the picture and the way people dress in the picture shows us that it is an old image. However, if we critically look and analyse the image, we are able to understand and see that the people sitting in the same train at one moment in time comes from totally different backgrounds and perhaps they are heading to different destination. We can also see that the black man sitting right behind shows that he is not a really happy man and perhaps depicts struggles and difficulties in life. Hence, I see that there is indeed a difference between critical looking versus just looking.

Why do you think we should analyse the visual world around us? Is it a futile and “silly” thing to do?

It really depends on how the person interprets the meaning of the world and things around them. For visual communicators, it is indeed important for them to analyse the visual world around them as they are expert in analysing visual images and they know how to communicate by using visual aids such as reading signs, indexicals and symbols. However, to a normal person, he might think that analysing the visual world around us is a waste of time indeed as they are not able to read and interpret the visual images they see around them.

I think that we should analyse the visual world around us so that we can have a better understanding of how things around us works. We are also able to have a deeper understanding of why and how things happen. At the same time, if we analyse the visual world around us, we would be able to understand the history of say for example a statue and why is it placed in a certain location, what it symbolizes and how does it reflect the present time.

Hence, analysing the visual world around us is a good and useful thing to do because we are able to benefit and increase our knowledge in many ways.