Area of Study: Belonging

HSC English Assessment Task

Kaytlin Jane Ezzy to what extent do the groups to which we belong define who we are? In your answer refer to your prescribed text and TWO related texts.

Belonging can be defined as humans physiological need to be accepted by all members and affiliates within their social environment and class, allowing them to shape and define their individuality and moral code to that which is accepted by their social community. In As You Like It, Shakespeare explores how class and gender affect your placement in society, and therefore our identity. In the tapestry The Vintage we can investigate how the community as a whole benefits from belonging, and in the song Stupid Girl we observe how negative gender constructs self-marginalise contemporary females.

Debated by many sociologists and psychologist the ideology connected to belonging has sometimes been viewed as an oppressor of individuality. However, most, like Professor A. Fuller, believe the belonging within society bridges the gulf between isolation and intimacy, allowing the collective identity of a diverse communities to enrich our personal knowledge and understanding of others and most importantly, ourselves.

In Elizabethan times appeasing societys moral and cultural norms was fundamental for survival of the chain of being. In his play As You Like It, Shakespeare uses a wide range of characters to demonstrate how this intricately constructed society and social

hierarchy defines who we are. One character that does this is the character Touchstone as, he embraces the shared values and cultural traditions of courtly society and offers a clear contrast to pastoral lifestyle.

Touchstones role in As You Like It is excessively complex, as his purpose is to act as a moral arbiter, entertaining and establishing the upbeat comic spirit with his witty repartee, while informing the audience of the social and moral codes and injustices within Elizabethan society. He does this though balanced and ritualistic language such as the more pity the fool may speak wisely what wise men do foolishly. His name itself is symbolic as a touchstone is a device used to evaluate and critique the quality of metal, and this is exactly what he does with society, treading a fine line between comical jesting and criticising communal assumptions. By using Touchstone as a moral mediator, we are able to compare all other characters to him, therefore examining how their class and social values determine who they are.

By comparing the characters Touchstone and Corin, we are able to see the clear contrast between courtly and pastoral lifestyles, by juxtaposing the main social values of language and accepted mannerisms of the two societies. Shakespeares view on this cultural debate can be viewed as ambiguous as he affirms both social systems. Using balanced wordplay and witty repartee, he establishes the idea that all mannerisms born out of the aristocratic doctrine of degree and courtly lifestyle, must be wicked, and wickedness is sin, and sin is damnation. He then contradicts himself through Corin by accepting the idea that communal social values coming from the dormant function of the microcosmic community in relation to that of the globalised outer society. He does this by using alliteration to highlight the ridiculousness of courtly manners in the country, much the same as country manners being most mockable at the court.

By exploring the ideas of social values, class signifiers, primogeniture and noblesse oblige we able to better understand the way Elizabethan groups that the characters in Shakespeares As You Like It belong to, define who they are by either conforming to or rebelling against these social constructs.

To enable us to belong in society, we must understand how we fit into its moulds. We must first comprehend how our physical and physiological attributes define the way we belong within ourselves and our own identity. The main attribute that defines us as part of a specific group is that of gender. Our sex labels and classifies us from birth and defines the role that we play throughout our live. These roles and labels predetermine the social and political influence we have within our community. By being female in an Elizabethan patriarchal society and to a lesser extent the contemporary global community of today, the influence and acceptance of your personal ideas is sufficiently less than that of a male, due to the marginalisation and oppression of females. The Elizabethan ideal of the perfect woman was; beautiful, loyal, quiet and above all, obedient. In as you like it Shakespeare uses the character Rosalind to challenge these gender constructs by becoming a man; as means of exploring belonging to a gender and or the oppression of that gender, and how it shapes and defines our identities.

By immediately asserting Rosalind as a strong and opinionated female, Shakespeare defines Rosalind as an unconventional character, signifying her as protagonist towards the female constructs. However, by using witty comical language and alliteration such as bountiful blind woman and womens need to speak her cynicism is taken at face value as courtly entertainment. Contradicting Rosalinds opinionated nature though dramatic irony like the fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she, Shakespeare creates circumstance for the breaking of this female construct in order to create a marriage of true minds.

Embodying the disguise of a man, Rosalind affirms the idea that gender identity is directly related to the clothes that we wear. The importance of apparel is evident throughout; the recurring motif of doublet and hose in comparison with petticoat. Her disguise allows Rosalind to become powerful and implement aspirations such as training Orlando within her new social context, while retaining her distinctly female mannerisms and desires, such as the marriage of true minds. By juxtaposing the male construct of Ganymede and the female mannerism such as [finding] a shadow and [sighing] till [Orlando] comes Shakespeare illustrates that Rosalinds true identity is neither male nor female, but a combination of both.

However, as the chain of being must be restored as Rosalind, she compromises her new found identify and becomes submissive when in womens apparel to appease the collective social values of her society. Shakespeare uses highly patterned and balanced language such as Ill have no husband, if you be not he.

Another text that shows how belonging in society defines who we are is the medieval tapestry The Vintage. Found in the Cluny Museum in Paris, The Vintage depicts a small agricultural community making wine. This itself is greatly symbolic as the making of wine is often used as a metaphor to demonstrate of harmony. To find out how this society shapes and defines the people within The Vintage we must first understand how the different groups within the microcosm of the artwork work together to create the harmonious representation of their society.

Through placement and proximity it become apparent that most characters are coupled in the traditional, male and female, relationship. Through use of body language and facial expression it also becomes apparent that the couples represent families. These families each partake in separate tasks, each being essential to the production of wine, therefore representing the importance of family input into society.

The next idea presented by The Vintage is that of belonging to social class. The tapestry does this by using two vertical vector lines, the tree, centre right, and the pole far left, to separate the harvesters from the vintners. This separation, metaphorically represents the separation of the upper and lower classes of the medieval society. This idea is affirmed in As You Like It through the contrast of the courtly and pastoral lifestyles. However this idea of primogeniture and equality only centres on the aristocratic class as the social contracts such as noblesse oblige is strongly affirmed thought the character Adam.

It is important to note the recurring motif of the colour red and the motif of full containers. Having all members of the society wear an article of red clothing symbolises the companionship and acceptance of all members within their community, whilst metaphorically representing harmony. Repeating the motif of full containers stresses the idea of community, the containers, being plentiful and inclusive of social diversity.

Much Like As you like it the song stupid girl by the singer P!nk, is greatly ambiguous as it both affirms and attacks the patriarchy system. P!nk openly attacks the negative construct of LA socialites that objectify and marginalise women. The ambiguity comes from the lack of male accountability in contemporary oppression of women, along with the only suggested alternatives to being a stupid girl is through taking on male dominated careers. P!nk attacks this persona by adapting the angel/demon paradox through parody and by satirising these negative constructs that are being fed to the general populus through mass-media.

P!nk uses a young girl in the opening scene of the film clip, wearing a red shirt with white stripes, to represent the impressionable nature of the lowest common denominator of female society. The colour palette of the costuming, dominant red, symbolises the uphill

battle of fighting female self-oppression, due to the pre-feminist ideologies still being used as the template for todays constructs.

This idea is reinforced by the repetition and objectification of the word girl throughout the song. This is exacerbated by the syntax of negative connotations clustered around girl, such as; paparazzi, porno, outcast, silly and stupid along with the other explicit and demeaning emotive language associated with the stupid girls, like disease and epidemic. Turning the word pretty into a pronoun and placing it next to a sexual command shows the ownership of men over women, denouncing females as sexual object.

P!nk expresses how belonging to the contemporary female construct actively demotes womens independence and individuality by illustrating the self-marginalization of women. Evelyn Cunningham once said that Women are the only oppressed group lives in intimate association with their oppressors. Belonging as a concept is extremely polysemic and multi-faceted, and therefore to understand the way in which we belong in both society and ourselves we must study a wide array of conceptual ideas. By studying As You Like It, The Vintage and Stupid Girl we are able to see that way we belong in both our gender and society, through carefully constructed moral and social codes. Belonging in physical scenes can simply mean things that belong to you, such as car keys, a jumper, or a house. However on a physiological level the things that belong to us take on a symbolic meaning, freedom, warmth and the home. When we apply this idea to the people and groups that we belong to, the metaphorical meaning comes from the way these people shape and build who we are as individuals.