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emotional, however both women in this scene are far from vulnerable.
Instead both women are highly sexualised, thus conforming to the male
gaze for audiences. Gender is used as a performance in this scene
(Butler, 1990) as both females are objectified through the construction of
the text. As Piper is nude and Alex is performing the sexual act, both
women play an import role in the meaning conveyed from the
construction of the scene. This relates to McQuails (1964) uses and
gratification theory, complying with the idea of personal identity in terms
of lesbian audiences being able to understand and relate to the
destabilised stereotypical views on lesbian women in this particular scene
by identifying with the ideologies presented.
Another intrinsic rhetoric element regarding social ideologies in the
episode is from 39:00 39:40. This particular scene is a conversation
between Daya (a Latin-American prisoner) and Jon (a White-American
prison guard) regarding their secret relationship. Daya is pregnant and she
is fuming with Jon as she feels he is not standing up to his responsibilities
as a future father because he does not want to tell the prison warden that
he is the father of her child. Additionally they both lied and decided to
frame another prison guard by saying that he is the father of her child.
This supports Thompsons (2000) idea of digital television revealing a sex
scandal but audiences would not be shocked by it as it is deemed as the
norm. The editorial and photographic rhetoric consists of quick jump
cuts between both characters, each shot is filmed as a close up to exploit
the frustration and tension of the argument. Dayas character
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pregnancy to the surface, following this they then discuss what the
appropriate angle to tackle the situation is. At this moment in time the
verbal rhetoric become essential as Caputo says youre keeping him at
work and Figueroa replies Just until I get my ducks in a row, this thing
has to be handled right. From these two lines of diegetic sound it is
evident that Figueroa is of a higher position then Caputo as tradition
gender roles are demolished because a male is informing a female of the
prison events and she is making ultimate decision on how to deal with
these measures. For that reason, traditional views on gender are
annihilated as majority of the women within the prison (including prison
guards) do not maintain expressive roles, such as providing emotional
support, sensitivity or sympathy. Instead the women uphold a state of
confidence, independence and supremacy over men demonstrating that
Orange is the new Black completely ignores the ideal social ideologies on
gender.
However, power relationships between men and women as well as women
to other woman become an interesting aspect of Orange is the new Black
as they tend to shift during different scenes with the episode.
Aforementioned the scene with Figueroa disrupting the social ideologies of
gender enables her to gain the overall power within the prison. Female
power is a prevailing feature within this episode as more than one inmate
holds power over others. Towards the end of the episode, 52:30 53:00, a
distinctive power relationship between two prison mates is shown. In this
scene Poussey is drunk in the bathroom and decides to attack Vee,
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of the east. In this case, it is the white prison guard exalting supremacy
over a black prisoner. This definitive section of the episode is of the
guards completing a sweep in the prison bunks searching for contraband.
A white male guard finds cigarettes in a tampax box of a black prisoner
and he becomes verbally abusive towards her. The verbal rhetoric used by
the guard is imperceptibly racist, emphasising Dijks (2000) concept on
new racism, with the idea that the media produces texts, which consist of
discrete bigotry that is overlooked by audiences. This is shown within
Orange is the new Black as the prison guard articulates to the prisoner to
get your little black ass to the shoe. By unnecessarily addressing the
prisoners race it automatically illustrates orientalism plus new racism
aspects within the episode, hence supporting the fact that these theories
are still present within the construction of modern media texts. The power
position between the guard and the prisoner is particularly clear and
follows the perception of men sustaining more power than women. A
patriarchal impression is established by the construction of the text,
creating a closed meaning to audiences (through denotation) of guards
dictating towards prisoners. Furthermore, this confirms the initial social
ideology of men governing over women, along with highlighting the idea
of women being deemed as having lower importance than men. Despite
the photographic rhetoric of close up shot types used to accentuate
power, the language present within this short segment of the episode
conveys social ideas (Barthes, 1972) of black prisoners (male or female)
receiving racial treatment and a difficult period in jail. This therefore,
draws attention to dominant social ideological discourses which are
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Bibliography
Barthes, R. and Lavers, A. (1972). Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang.
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http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/rhetoric
[Accessed 11 Dec. 2014].
Perry, F. (2014). Lesbians: Stereotypes Vs Reality. [online] BuzzFeed.
Available at: http://www.buzzfeed.com/floperry/lesbians-stereotypesvs-reality [Accessed 11 Dec. 2014].
Pierce, C. S., & Hoops, J. (1991). Pierce on signs: writing on semiotic.
Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press
Said, E. (1979). Orientalism. 1st ed. New York: Vintage Books.
Studying the Media. (1998). 2nd ed. London: Arnold.
Thompson, J. (2005). Books in the digital age. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity
Press.
Van Dijk, Teun (2000) New(s) Racism: A Discourse Analytical Approach in
new media