First Draft: All Tied Up First Draft

Final Draft: All Tied Up Final Draft

Throughout history, women have pushed for their voices to be heard in the political field to make a difference for others and what they believe is right. Unfortunately, however, such women are also often criticised harshly by the media and world for trivial matters relating to their jobs, their history and even more noticeably, their clothing. People, particularly men, but also women, will frequently criticise women for their clothing as a tool for silencing them and undermining their work. Because of this, I decided to base my sketch ‘All Tied Up’ upon these issues and themes women face in their everyday lives, particularly in jobs like politics and media.

When I first wrote my sketch, I took inspiration from various issues women have faced regarding their clothing being used as a method to silence them. For example, in 2017, Today show reporter Lisa Wilkinson was criticised by the media for ‘wearing the same floral shirt twice in two months’ while also recalling moments the reporter also had worn outfits. While the article itself was harshly criticised, it still stands to serve as her co-star Karl Stefanovic stated, “Women are judged much more harshly and keenly for what they do, what they say, and what they wear [compared to that of a man].” (Coy 2019 para. 11) Thus for my sketch, I applied a ‘flipped reality’ scenario based upon some of Tim Ferguson’s principles of comedy where the values of the society are inverted, “portraying the trivial as important… to expose the fallacies in accepted truths.’ (Ferguson 2011 p. 5) In this way, I demonstrated a flipped reality by having two men that are political rivals help one another when it is discovered one of them is wearing the same tie they have worn previously. This is its the way is a direct parody of the criticisms Lisa Wilkinson faced in the wake of wearing the same blouse twice and thus “applies faulty logic” (Ferguson 2011 p. 5) to these known absolutes, allowing the audience to recognise and ideally question the biases women face in regards to clothing. The “exaggeration of these given elements” (Ferguson 2011 p. 5) allows for me to push the comedy of the scene, such as with the direct parody of the issue when Politician 2 mentions how “Senator Frank wore the same tweed jacket twice in the same month” and that “the press ate him alive.” Their played up reactions to the situations additionally reflects the stereotypical responses of women in regards to clothing issues when seen in media as reflected by Politician 2’s comment “It’s a guy thing, you wouldn’t understand.”

My group, unfortunately, ran into some issues at the beginning as while there was four of us, we were unable to properly come together and discuss issues until later as one of our team members being absent the entirety of the process, thus leaving us with three people. We didn’t want this to affect our work, so we decided to come up with our sketches individually with us coming together and brainstorming ideas until we each found ones that we liked. In this case, I was reminded of criticism Lisa Wilkinson faced and wanted to take the approach of two male politicians obsessing over what they are wearing as far as it could go. I would have generalised further to types of suits or shoes, but I decided as ties are often a stand out feature to a suit it would be best to go with something easily identifiable. Ideally to drive home the theme that clothing is not what women or men should be judged upon but their ideals and what they are striving for. As directly reference in the sketch when Politician 2 exclaims “It doesn’t matter who we’re wearing or if we wore it before. It’s our policies that matter.” When our scripts were workshopped during class, it was encouraging to see that others did enjoy the script and I was encouraged to continue to push the idea further with the kind of jargon involved around men’s clothing. Such as types of knots for ties or having even a spare tie. I was additionally provided with other examples of similar, if not related issues that could be incorporated into my sketch. For instance, Lisa Wilkinson’s co-star Karl Stefanovic actually had previously made headlines in 2014 for revealing that he had “been wearing the same blue suit [or a year]… to make a point about the ways his female colleagues are judged” (Adewunmi 2019 para. 2) and unsurprisingly “No one has noticed, no one gives a s**t.” (Adewunmi 2019 para. 2) Other points that I was advised to revise were issues regarding setting and description of setting as initially I had made it unclear the two politicians were rivals originally. The setting was also changed due to feasibility. My group is planning to perform my sketch, so instead of having a backstage set, it seemed like it would be easier to perform the sketch in a green room setting as it’s smaller and more easily accessible as well as being a location such a conversation is more likely to occur.

The type of feminism my sketch uses arguably would be postmodern feminism. The sketch itself is trying to call out the harsh criticisms women receive in regards to their clothing as a way to silence them. It is a double standard women are forced to confront when compared to a man as “It doesn’t matter what women do; if they’re trying to be independent… or lead, they’re shamed. Just as a female boss is a ‘bitch’ only because she’s trying to lead and delegate when a man doing the same thing is considered ‘good.'” (Ukockis 2019 p.164) My sketch is trying to call out this behaviour and showing how even in a flipped reality where men suffer the issues, instead, it is not fair upon anyone. Instead of being like Liberal Feminism in simply wanting to be treated the same while changing nothing or Radical Feminism in believing ‘men as a group are the main enemy’ (Beasley 1999 p. 55) Postmodern Feminism instead pushes to ‘reject the notion of foundational truth in favour of recognition that these false truths are not external or impartial but constructed, through exclusion and repression’. (Beasley 1999 p. 85) Instead of trying to tear both genders or just one down, I wanted to identify that flaws of this issue in out patriarchy in the hopes we can work to change it for the betterment of both genders much like how both politicians are technically rivals but still able to lend a hand to one another.

As NY congress representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “If I walked into Congress wearing a sack, they would laugh & take a picture of my backside. If I walk in with my best sale-rack clothes, they laugh & take a picture of my backside.” (Ocasio-Cortez 2018) Many women across the political and media field are criticised into silence by detractors only for what they wear, and I hope my sketch can reach out to audiences and show them how harmful these views can be and encourage audience members to not stand for the treatment of women under such grounds.

References
– Ukockis, G. (2019). Misogyny: The new activism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, pp 164.
– Beasley, C. (1999). What is feminism anyway: Understanding contemporary feminist logic. Singapore: South Wind Productions Ltd, pp.55,85.
Ferguson, T. (2011). The cheeky monkey. Strawberry Hills, N.S.W.: Currency Press. pp
– Adewunmi, B. (2019). Male TV presenter wears same suit for a year – does anyone notice?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2014/nov/17/male-tv-presenter-same-suit-year-female-colleagues-judged [Accessed 9 May 2019].
– Coy, B. (2019). Lisa’s perfect response to outfit shaming. [online] NewsComAu. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/morning-shows/lisa-wilkinson-delivers-the-perfect-response-to-fashion-critics-on-live-tv/news-story/fa6757e4d1240cb6f261c43ce7974a32 [Accessed 8 May 2019].
– Ocasio-Cortez 2018, If I walked into Congress wearing a sack, they would laugh & take a picture of my backside. If I walk in with my best sale-rack clothes, they laugh & take a picture of my backside. Twitter, 15 November, Viewed 8 May 2019. Available at: https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1063208373192146945