"Waiting Series" - Wing Young Huie (East 46th St & South 2nd Avenue, Minneapolis, MN)
After first glancing at this picture, you see an image growing more and more common in America; a lone person begging on the side of the road. The person pictured is wearing old flip flops and baggy clothes while holding a folded and torn cardboard sign. Thrown off to the side are a jacket and empty cup. But upon looking closer we learn a lot more about the picture. The sign being carried by this young women calls out for help and notes she "left (a) bad relationship". Paying attention to the sign gives the picture and this woman a story which tugs at your heartstrings and adds more meaning to the idea of a woman begging for money. In addition, by looking closer we begin to understand the difficulty of working alone on the street. For example the place where she is standing is worn down, meaning herself or someone else have been spending long hours, trying to earn money. Long hours outside mean workers are also subject to extreme weather; in this photo there are no shady spots or comfortable places to relax and take a drink of water.
"Othering" is the way in which someone or a group looks down at another individual or group as completely foreign and different. In The Handmaid's Tale, the best example of a group shunned from society are the Handmaids. The Handmaids have no rights of their own and our forced to wear red to further themselves from society. The Handmaids are not liked among the society in Gilead, which is shown through the use of language such as, "scowls at us", "turn aside", and "spits on the sidewalk". (Atwood, 44). There lies a stereotype about Handmaids that makes it easy for any person to treat them in this way. Similarly, in the image above, there are stereotypes about the homeless and beggars. The picture displays this segregation by showing a woman vulnerable and alone on the side of the road; no one to help or to assist her. Society looks down on this group and just like the Handmaids of Gilead and turns these groups into the "others".
When examining your image and thinking about THT, I drew a parallel between the message on the woman's sign and what happened before and during 'Gilead'. Bad relationships and the definition of are currently a hot topic in the media and I think your post is timely.
ReplyDeleteBe careful you are not making generalizations or assumptions that can't be supported by the interpretation or understanding of all audiences.