Child Brides - A Dolls House by Ibsen - Essay Example

CHILD BRIDES (An Evaluation for Final Project) by: ID Number Presented of the School Location Estimated Word Count: 1,890 Due on: June 11, 2012 Child Brides This project came from my own personal experience because my Nan and Grandma were married when they were still children. It is nearly one hundred years since they were married and 15 million child brides are still taken every year. We see this on the news or read about it in the press but never do anything about it. I want to say something against about it and wake up a younger generation to the evils of this practice so it can be stopped. I am from a culture where child marriages still happen. I wish to raise awareness of this issue among the younger generation in an effort to help eradicate child marriages. I feel that these marriages undermine our government’s efforts to empower women around the world. Doll represents the child - dolls are often used as puppets or symbols. Children are very often manipulated like dolls by their parents at a still young age as they are too young to be able to understand what is really happening. The female characters in “A Dolls House” by the author and playwright Henrik Ibsen project the idea that women are merely self-sacrificing entities of society. A woman can only justify her existence on earth by dedicating herself to others. It is a reality in most societies, where child marriages are still practised, that women practically have no rights whatsoever and are held in a condescending or patronizing manner by the men. The husband in the play “A Dolls House” treated her wife as a mere object or plaything, that made his wife feel depressed and trapped in the marriage (Ibsen, 2009:50). This “burka dolls” idea came from my last video project and how women are manipulated. This doll represents Islam although I am looking for a symbol towards my work; however my intention is not against Islam. According to my peers and my audience, its seems this is against Islam because I have been looking at Sara Maples works (haram or forbidden painting) who is against Islam and shown holding a pig, in which it is considered a sin to hold a pig because it is a dirty animal and therefore forbidden to cradle or handle it. Then I made a doll, which looks bridal and colourful, although it is just the same dolls that you can buy from any toyshop. I thought maybe I should play with this doll a little more. I have hanged these dolls chained to each other and put these in frame to show even if the children try to come out of arranged child marriages, they are unable to because of poor understanding of their situation. I have also left this one doll with a defective eye vision because even though they have eyes, they do not see the world with other peoples eyes. Children are pure of spirit and innocents at heart; they are our future and they should be protected. Every hand should be raised to adore and bless them, not to abuse. However, these hands are becoming the tools of punishment for Asian female children. These hands should show the love and affection these girls should have and deserve in their childhood. The young female children should not be treated as though their family or future husbands own them. I have made this hand to show this is how they should be treated with love and affection. I used plaster and alginate although it was very hard to make a mould of my hand; it was itching my hand while I was waiting for it to dry. I also used my hand because it comes from my blood. I experimented with peers hands but I wanted to make a mark on those generations whose blood runs through these child brides and make more impressions on those people who are passing on this tradition and others whose blood are responsible for those child brides who still continue to suffer even though we are now in the twenty-first century. Images are more powerful than words - I have made a story board with child brides images and wrote that my Nan was married at the age of nine. I used that board to hold and make a statement similar to what artist Gillian was wearing when she was trying to find ways to discover new things about people, and in the process discovered more about herself, which I am also exploring and letting other people in sharing my story with you and you share yours with me. This way can help the new young generations; child brides should not be happening today any more. Civilized society disagrees child marriages should still take place. People are not taking action on this issue to prevent it in the future but I am doing my part to stop it. I have then decided on a performance skit because images seem like a picture; maybe moving video will make people aware of the situation of this child brides. So I decided to write in white paper my Nan was a child bride and I wiped and smudged with paint harshly so I can remove the existence of the child marriages. White is a pure colour so I decided I am going to work with white and then in black, because women are seen as dusty shadows of men. The objective behind my project is to make others aware of this situation of child brides, so I thought I should use a child as a symbol who can make all people feel sad and get audience attention to this issue. I told my sister to sit in different positions as she was crying. After editing the video, it seems the video had lost the original story of why this child is crying. I would like my video to show all the angles of what my words are trying to show. I would like my video to be a voice, my voice; of ‘Western’ Muslim girls and it is the unheard voice of a 12-year-old girl who is going to get married tomorrow or the day after. When I think of child brides, I think the girls are suffocating and suffering so I have to start researching for images on suffocating. I found a few images which showed women who are in plastic bags and it looks painful, and effective. So I thought maybe I should put myself in fabric and try to get out like I am stuck in the past, but being a 21st century woman, I am able or manage to get out of these child marriages as represented by the suffocating fabric. I hope this may pass or convey the idea or message and explain what I am trying to say. In the first video, I started as a foetus or baby still inside the womb; then slowly I had started moving and trying hard to get out and I kept myself inside the fabric for half an hour to feel real suffocation. When I came out, I have an expression on my face of pain and tiredness. Then I have started editing the video and it was very long so I decided to shorten it up but to slow down the movement to make it more effective. After editing it, this video was not running smoothly. I have tried editing it in a final cut like a professional but it was not helping. Then I have tried editing the colours; maybe if I put vibrant colours they might run smoothly. After editing a few more videos, I decided maybe I need to re-shot again and this time make it short at around two minutes only, so I can slow it down and in the process, lengthen it. After editing the shot, I was affected by my last video because the ending looked painful and so I have kept trying to edit the last bit portion but it did not work. I decided to re-shot myself again inside the fabric, but this time, I will record several shots so I have one ending that I can choose and will like that shows me trying to get out of the fabric. During the editing, I thought maybe I should not give an ending for this video; maybe it should not stop the struggle and I could not come out of the fabric. However, it will change perception and tell people there is no hope in trying to stop these child marriages although it will highlight the issue. However, I still would like people to come forward and be provoked enough to take action on this practice and help in actually trying to stop it now. I am going to keep the video ending to show there is a way to put a stop to child marriages but for that to happen, we need to work together because I have made an end in my family and you can also finally put a stop to this practice of arranged child marriages. I have looked at Francesca Woodman’s photographs and saw how effective these are. It is based on depression of women and their facial expressions are strong and powerful which I am looking to also incorporate into my work. I decided to experiment with black and white. Black is seen as shadow of the past and white seen as purity and I will also look at Bill Viola’s work in which he keeps it simple and which makes it all the more powerful. I have played around how to project the scenes on the video. I thought if I put the video on the floor it would show how women are seen as not equal to the men where women should look down and never disobey their husbands or families. Women should always agree with everything. However, I decided to do the opposite. I made my video at eye level which will be seen as women from the 21st century can connect with the eyes and make decisions for their own good. Women should not be seen as weak and this is a very crucial first step we all should make to help eliminate child marriages. I am happy with the outcome of my journey although it is not finished yet. I will continue digging into the past and try to help the upcoming new generations to let them know and be aware of the continuing sacrifices of these young child brides who are still being abused. Reference Ibsen, H. (2009) A Dolls House. Rockville, MD, USA: Serenity Publishers, LLC. Read More