THE UNLIKELY HERO WHO STARTED IT ALL
Katherine Johnson. The first African American Female to work at NASA.
The Story of Katherine Johnson is one of the greatest strides made by women in their quest for equal pay and rights in the workplace. She was a brilliant physicist, space scientist and mathematician. She was fundamental to the early NASA missions to space. she calculated the trajectories of space aircrafts. Her story has served as one of the most empowering tails of this century and lead to the influx of women into technical fields.
Analysis of Michelle Obama’s “Remarks for Hillary Clinton” (1:19-1:56)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeLSAX0__dw
Our group chose to look at Michelle Obama’s ad “Remarks for Hillary Clinton”, during the 2016 general election campaign about Hillary Clinton. This ad claims a general purpose of proving how Clinton is the most eligible candidate for the next president of the United States. But, overall, this ad establishes the concept of women being capable of achieving success in a “man’s world”. The ad takes pieces of a speech that Michelle Obama gave in New Hampshire and combines them with an incorporation of several visual and audio elements, helping to convey the overall theme of feminine capability which Michelle argues to make Hillary Clinton just as fit for the presidency as a man.
In the segment of the ad that we focused on, Michelle paints Hillary as being representative of a woman’s capability to be powerful. She tries to demonstrate this by listing Hillary’s many accomplishments and the positions of power which she has held in her career. She tries to show that a woman is not only capable of achieving these positions but succeeding in them as well. The formal construction of this ad come into play here, being arranged in a way that is intended to paint Hillary in this intended light. For example, the ad contains a montage of footage from Hillary in the different points of her career. It shows clips of her as a lawyer, as the first lady and as the Secretary of State. These pieces of footage were chosen very specifically, and for this reason they share a significant number of commonalities in their composition. For one, many of them show Hillary with children. This is an important choice because it targets the emotions of a large portion of the ad’s audience: women.
For many women, a reference to children is often an emotional weak point, and Michelle Obama realizes this, and takes advantage of this concept in her constructional choices. She shows many clips of Clinton kneeling down in front of children, meeting them at their eye level, which is symbolic of her efforts to be relatable and available to connect with them. Along with this footage, there is an audio of Michelle stating all of the great things that Hillary Clinton has done for children while in her different positions of power. When looking at these elements as a whole, it can be argued that the ad contains a large appeal to women. Both the visuals and the audios paint Hillary as an advocate for children around the world, which is something that would contain a significant point of interest for mothers. Many times, the concept of a nurturing, motherly woman and a woman who attempts to secure high positions in the working world are seen as juxtapositions of one another. But, this ad attempts to show that Hillary is capable of both, making her more appealing to a larger number of people, not only mothers.
There are many other elements which compose the ad, including a dramatic piano soundtrack which begins when Michelle begins to list all of Hillary’s accomplishments that she has had throughout her career. As the achievements get greater, the music escalates, and the ad gains momentum. At this point, after listing the great accomplishments within Hillary’s career, Michelle speaks about how all of them have come together to make Hillary the embodiment of the “values we are trying to teach young people”. The concept of working to better the next generation is a large part of the American morality. By stating that Hillary is the best representative for the needs of our children contains an implicit argument that women in power are the future.
The main strategy employed in this ad is an emotional appeal. Through its variety of structural elements, Michelle Obama attempts to make the audience feel that Hillary Clinton is most representative of the people; she is an advocate for children, she has incredible experience, a history of success, and actions that are guided by a strong moral compass. Michelle attempts to show that Hillary exemplifies all of these aspects, becoming a prime example of a woman who has overcome the hierarchy of male domination in workplaces and positions of power.
A Creative Representation of Female Capability
This piece was inspired by the Rosie the Riveter propaganda of World War Two, advertising that women “can do it”, meaning that they are just as capable of performing the same jobs as men. This piece is a commentary of sorts on the campaign ad that was analyzed above, where Michelle Obama states all the things that Hillary Clinton was capable of acomplishing in her many positions. For this reason, Hillary’s face is featured as the face of “Rosie” in this piece, in order to reference the “we can do it” slogan by providing an example of a woman who has “done it”, or has made accomplishments that people believed she couldn’t because of her gender.