Paper 1 HL Sample 3.1 (baby girls)

The works Cathy and The Blindfold Horse are very different types of text, since one is a four frame cartoon by Cathy Guisewite and the other one is an extract from a memoir by Shusha Guppy. However, these works both share the theme of stereotyping baby girls which we will come to see later on.

In Cathy, the protagonist, who is probably the author herself, is with a baby, facing a jolly, but ignorant nurse. After the nurse asks the gender of her baby, Cathy replies that she is not saying, for it is the baby’s only chance to meet new people free from gender stereotyping. Even without reading the rest of the comic, we can right away tell that the baby is female, because if it was a son, Cathy probably wouldn’t had a problem with people stereotyping her baby. At the end of the comic, Cathy gets angry at the nurse for being so ignorant. The main point of the comic is that we cannot escape stereotyping. This comic is found interesting mainly by parents, since they usually have the experience of someone gender stereotyping their baby. In The Blindfold Horse, the author talks about her childhood and women rights in Iran in general, but a big part of it is also about stereotyping baby girls. She talks about how when she was growing up in Iran, male babies were preferred over female babies. We see that when her father quotes The Book of Kings upon her brothers’ births: “Sufficient unto women is the art of Producing and raising sons as brave as lions”. Also, later in the work, her mother says that women can only succeed in life by marrying rich people, such as Ambassadors and Governors. This text is informative and it is meant for people who are interested in Iranian history and female rights in Iran before the Islamic revolution. Another theme that can be mentioned is Prediction, as the nurse in Cathy tries to predict weather the baby is a boy or a girl by looking at some of the baby’s traits and the whole broad story about your destiny being “written on your brow” and people who can read it in The Blindfold Horse.

In Cathy, the tone is quite humorous, since the nurse is coping finely with the whole situation while Cathy is frustrated because of her ignorance. When Cathy starts getting angry, we see her text bubble changing, as the words become bold, grow in size and exclamation marks appear, but the humorous tone is not that visible through texts as it is through the pictures in the boxes: the nurse is totally indifferent towards Cathy’s frustration, while we see Cathy portrayed with a large mouth, yelling, with drops of sweat flying around when she gets mad in the 3rd box and we also see her giving an angry smirk when she gives up in box 4. The narration in the comic is indirect, since we get to eavesdrop on the whole situation.  In The Blindfold Horse, however, the author addresses us and that makes it direct narration. The tone is also mainly humorous, even though the theme is serious. We see a lot of Irony, since his father didn’t believe in a Yogi’s prophecy that she will live her life elsewhere, yet she found herself married to an Englishman. Sarcasm is also present, when her mother denies the Yogi’s words by saying “Oh yes, she’ll marry the Governor of a Province or an Ambassador and travel...”. Hindsight wisdom can also be mentioned, since the author frequently refers to what she knows now.

Even though the works are completely different in style and structure, meant for different purposes and written in completely different places and more importantly cultures, we see that they both share a common theme – we can’t save our babies from sex stereotyping.

 Paper 1 HL Sample 3.2 (baby girls)

Both the cartoon by Cathy Guisewitte and the memoir by Shusha Guppy, The Blindfold Horse, comment on the importance that people attach to gender once a baby is born. While the texts comment on different cultures and make use of different structures, their message is similar: People look to babies to confirm gender stereotypes.

First of all, one must consider that these texts appeal to different audiences and serve different purposes. Cathy is a comic strip that presumably appears in a newspaper, where readers look for something humorous or light-hearted to brighten their day. Readers who have children will most likely recognize the humor. Guppy’s memoir, on the other hand, is most likely read by people interested in the history of Iran. We see evidence of this in the second paragraph, “I was born into a new and rapidly changing Persia. The veil had already been abolished and women were emancipated.” Readers of this memoir, in contrast to the comic strip, are committed to a longer text, interested in the life of the author and intrigued by the role of women in Iran.

Although both texts are different types of texts, they comment on people’s preconceptions of gender roles. The comic clearly states that it is about gender stereotyping in the first frame, where Cathy says, “This is our baby’s one chance to get to meet people totally free from gender stereotyping.” The nurse claims that the baby is ‘strong, mischievous and tough,’ and therefore must be a boy. Cathy is frustrated by this stereotype and argues that girls can be strong too. The nurse continues in her stereotyping once she learns the baby is a girl, by saying that she has “precious dimples.” Similarly, The Blindfold Horse comments on people’s tendency to stereotype women. We can see from the father’s quote from The Book of Kings that Persians favor sons over daughters and define good mothering by the ability to raise sons. “Sufficient unto women is the art of producing and raising sons as brave as lions.” Furthermore the text comments on people’s ability to predict the future of a particular gender. By reading the author’s brow, the yogi can predict that she will live abroad. Her mother suggests that the only successful way of living abroad involves marrying an influential foreigner or diplomat. Just as Cathy concedes and tells the sex of her child, Shusha Guppy admits with humor that she has settled abroad and married an Englishman. As she says, “Perhaps it is all ‘written’ after all.” Again, the theme of predetermined gender roles runs through both texts.

This brings us to the point that both texts create a humorous tone through similar stylistic devices. First of all, the texts are both autobiographical, as ‘Cathy’ is both the name of the comic and the cartoonist, and The Blindfold Horse is a memoir. This autobiographical approach adds to the humor, as the authors seem to be laughing at their own futile attempts to change the way other people think about gender stereotypes. Both audiences are meant to laugh at the narrators’ frustration. Secondly both texts use juxtaposition to create a humorous tone. In the third and fourth frame of the comic strip, the cartoonist uses exaggerated expressions of outrage and frustration with a large mouth (frame 3) and a stern set of eyebrows (frame 4). Cathy’s expressions are juxtaposed to the cool, ignorant look of the nurse. This contrast of characters makes the audience laugh, as Cathy fails to protect her child from gender stereotyping. Similarly we see two characters juxtaposed in The Blindfold Horse. The father is depicted as a philosopher and determinist, who believes that we “shape our own destinies.” He is in contrast to the Indian yogi, who shakes his head with such certainty after reading Shusha Guppy’s brow as a baby and says, “She won’t stay with you long… her life is elsewhere.” As we know from previous information, the yogi is very correct in his unscientific prediction of the author’s life, which is ironic. The audience finds this use of irony humorous, as it proves that gender stereotypes can be true.

To conclude, both texts use humor to comment on people’s tendency to label young children with gender stereotypes. Cathy’s attempt to protect her child from gender stereotyping is futile. The nurse sees typical boy traits, such as mischievousness, when she thinks the baby is a boy, and she sees typical girl traits, such as “precious dimples,” as soon as she learns that the baby is a girl. This message, that we cannot escape gender stereotyping, is seen in Shusha Guppy’s memoir as well. Her father favors boys over girls and her mother assumes girls must marry ambassadors or governors to live abroad successfully. Ironically, she ends up marrying an Englishman. This comparative analysis has shown how two different types of texts can comment on a similar theme.