INDIVIDUAL ORAL PLANNING DOC

Student Name: ___________________________________________

Chosen literary text Chosen literary

extract of 40
lines (provide a
link if possible)

Chosen Chosen non

non-literary text literary extract
of 40 lines
(provide a link
if possible)

What global issue

are your texts
linked to?

- How is your
global issue
important on a
wide scale?

- How is your
global issue
transnational?

- How is your
global issue
something that
is felt in
everyday local
contexts?

How will you show

how your global
issue is presented
through the content
of each work?
How will you show
how your global
issue is presented
through the form of
each work?

Individual Oral Outline

List a maximum of 10 points that will show how your Individual Oral will be structured.
An official form will be provided later.

Global Issue

Texts Chosen

Notes for the oral (maximum of 10)

1
Introduce the global issue:

2
Introduce texts and add context about the global issue.

3
A thesis statement, linking both texts to the global issue.

4
Start to discuss the content of the texts.

5
Text 1: language and tone points

6
Text 2: purpose, language and tone points
7
Discuss the form of both poems

How do both texts discuss the global issue?

9
Comment on other texts by the authors.

10
Conclusion: what have these two texts helped us learn about the global issue?
Individual Oral - Transcript

1) My talk today will focus on an important global issue – the representation of

female beauty in society. The #Metoo movement and a rise in feminist ideals has
prompted extra awareness about women’s rights. Traditional notions of ‘beauty’ are
being challenged, and this prompted me to consider these two texts.
2) My first text is Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Medusa’, taken from her collection ‘The World’s
Wife’ and a non-literary text, an advertisement from Dove’s Campaign for Real
Beauty. Both these texts focus closely on how female beauty is represented in
society, but in very different ways. One similarity though is that they both challenge
the reader to see ‘beauty’ in a broader sense and not be restrained by societal ideals
and stereotypes.
3) In this presentation, I will first discuss the purpose and tone of the literary, then
non-literary, texts. This will be followed by a close reading of both texts, and then an
analysis of their conclusions.
My thesis is that both texts deal with female beauty but in significantly different ways
– one shows us the unfair way in which men cast aside older women in favour of
younger, more beautiful ones; the other presents an alternative version of beauty,
that seems to be more internalised and less concerned with relationships with men.
4) To begin with, we will explore ‘Medusa’. The purpose of the poem is to reflect the
speaker’s sorrow and then rage through a dramatic monologue as she finds herself
abandoned by her lover, or husband.
5) The speaker is consumed with fury following her husband’s cheating, which
seems to have occurred once the wife has aged and lost her conventional ‘beauty’ or
attractiveness. As a result, there is a growing anger, which can be seen in the
development of the nouns ‘a suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy’ and later in the verbs
when the speaker says she ‘glanced’, then ‘looked’ and finally ‘stared’ at objects that
she turned to stone. We sense her growing frustration at being abandoned as she
leaves behind traditional forms of beauty, evident in the alliterative line ‘My bride’s
breath soured, stank / in the grey bags of my lungs’. She was once a ‘bride’ in white,
connoting her purity, but this has now changed to being ‘yellow fanged’, which
connotes decay and ageing.
Duffy alludes to the story of Medusa, who could turn her victims to stone by looking
at them. When she talks about ‘bullet tears in my eyes’ the connotations of violence
is clear. Bullets, and her own eyes, can be used to kill. She suggests that men will
inevitably look for more beautiful options when she says, in a resigned tone ‘I know
you’ll go, betray me, stray from home’.
The poem then employs stark imagery to describe the power that derives from her
anger. We see how the ‘birds and the bees’ – a clear reference to her crumbling sex
life – are turned to stone. The harsh sounds of ‘pebble, spattered and shattered’
reflect her anger, while the cat rolling in a ‘heap of shit’ seems to symbolise her new,
lonely life.
The poem ends in a pleading, plaintive way as the speaker reminds her love,
repeatedly, of ‘your girls, your girls’ and then refers directly to her former beauty as
she asks, rhetorically ‘wasn’t I beautiful / wasn’t I fragrant and young?’
The tone of the poem is at first regretful, but soon turns to anger as the speaker
resents how society treats women who lose their beauty. Duffy takes this to an
extreme by creating a persona based on a classically horrific figure, but then as
Andrew Dworkin claimed, women are often portrayed as the root of all evil, from Eve
in the Garden of Eden to the jealous witches and step-mothers of fairy tales. By the
end of the poem, the tone can be read as being out for revenge, as the speaker uses
an imperative to demand ‘Look at me now’. This at first appears to remind us of the
older state she is in ‘now’, however it could be seen as a final plea to her husband.
Given that she is Medusa, however, it can be read as a threat, as by looking directly
at her she will gain her revenge and he will be turned to stone.
6) The Dove text also appeals to the intended reader to see beauty in a different light. We
see the older model smiling and are then immediately presented with a false dilemma: is
she ‘grey’ or ‘gorgeous’? The voting-style boxes suggest there are only two options, which
reflects the overly-simplified view of female beauty prevalent in society.
The rhetorical question ‘why can’t more women feel glad to be grey?’ alludes to the LGBT
slogan of ‘glad to be gay’, which gives the text a light, appealing tone. The imperative that
follows ‘Join the beauty debate’ is a call to action that assumes there is a debate taking
place – the link to the company’s website clearly suggests the reader should now go there
to give their own views.
Looking at the image itself, it is shot slightly from below, giving the model an
empowering look. She is smiling confidently, while her grey hair contrasts with the
black, non-imposing clothing she wears.
As a result, the tone is uplifting and upbeat, and the ethical message from Dove
suggests the readers should have a similar attitude towards unconventional forms of
female beauty.

7) The form of both poems is important. Duffy’s poem is irregular and disjointed. This
form reflects the anger and resentment felt by the speaker. The enjambments also
reflects these emotions. Duffy uses half-rhymes ‘terrified / eyes’ and internal rhymes
‘I know you’ll go’ does give the poem some unity, however. Structurally, the stanzas
are similar, apart from the single-line final one, which makes its message all the
more stark.
Dove’s advert is also irregular, in the sense that it goes against the normal tropes of
beauty advertising. By using older models, it is directly challenging the usual younger
models used, and by doing so suggests it is taking an ethical stance against the
representation of female beauty.
8
As a result of both texts, we can see how female beauty is often represented in a
simplistic, narrow way. The result, in Duffy’s case, is a man who buys into this desire
for someone ‘beautiful’ and abandons someone who truly loved him. With Dove, we
see how ‘beauty’ can have many faces and should not be limited to one narrow
definition.
9
This stance can also be seen in similar adverts in the same campaign. Dove uses
older models in other adverts – one asks if the woman is ‘wrinkled’ or ‘wonderful’,
while it also has images of imperfections, one questioning if blemishes are ‘beauty
spots’ or ‘ugly spots’.
In Duffy’s other poems, especially Havisham, she again portrays a female victim
dealing with the loss of a love, who blames men’s frailties. Other poems, however,
represent women in a far more powerful light – Mrs Aesop has the mocking line ‘By
Christ, he could bore for purgatory’, while in Anne Hathaway, Duffy allows the
speaker to take ownership of her more famous husband in an affectionate manner.
10
In conclusion, then, we can see how both texts allow us to learn something about the
global issue of female beauty and representation.
Both texts challenge the concept of traditional beauty and the possible misogynistic
values placed on it. Medusa angrily demands attention from her unfaithful husband,
who is interested in younger forms of beauty, while Dove highlights imperfections
and suggests they can be beautiful.
The texts themselves arrive at different conclusions. Duffy’s speaker furiously turns
everything to grey stone, reflecting her lost beauty and passions. Dove directly offers
more of an olive branch, embracing the ‘grey’ of older beauty, and suggesting it can
be just as stunning.
Medusa

A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy

grew in my mind,

which turned the hairs on my head to filthy

snakes as though my thoughts

hissed and spat on my scalp.

My bride’s breath soured, stank

in the grey bags of my lungs.

I’m foul mouthed now, foul tongued,

yellow fanged.

There are bullet tears in my eyes.

Are you terrified?

Be terrified.

It’s you I love,

perfect man, Greek God, my own;

but I know you’ll go, betray me, stray

from home.

So better be for me if you were stone.

I glanced at a buzzing bee,

a dull grey pebble fell

to the ground.

I glanced at a singing bird,

a handful of dusty
gravel spattered down.

I looked at a ginger cat,

a housebrick

shattered a bowl of milk.

I looked at a snuffling
pig, a boulder rolled

in a heap of shit.

I stared in the mirror.

Love gone bad

showed me a Gorgon.

I stared at a dragon.

Fire spewed

from the mouth of a mountain.

And here you come

with a shield for a heart

and a sword for a

tongue and your girls,
your girls. Wasn’t I
beautiful

Wasn’t I fragrant and

young? Look at me now.