We're going to deal with the notion myths and heroes. To begin with, I'd like to give a definition. A myth is a popular belief on which social values are often based while a hero can be someone who's ready to sacrifice his or her life in order to make things evolve positively.

In relation to the notion, the subject of my presentation will be the presence of heroes in our society. Therefore my issue at stake is “Are myths and heroes still alive in our society ?” and I will answer using the fight of certains women in order to get equals right between men and women.

My first document is an article from a newspaper called 'National post' dated from April 13, 2012, written by Sarah Boesveld.

My second document is a screenshot from a video showing the change during the life of a hero. A hero is a random somebody, starting from status quo who sees an opportunity for a journey. This hero goes through many trials to finally end in a crisis the hero will figure out. After this crisis, the hero will finally get retribution for what he has done and he will eventually return to his normal life.

We are going to see the way women made mentality change during the 19^th century .

In the 19th century men over 21 were allowed to vote but women didn't have the right to vote at all. Indeed, it was commonly agreed that women were inferior to men and thus unable to take important decisions. By the end of the century, the Suffragette, was funded in reaction to this popular belief. Their goal was that women would be given a chance to prove themselves and then, a better education and then, the right to vote.

As we can see in the first document, in the 3rd paragraph, the order of the captain during the wreck of the RMS Titanic did not please the Suffragette. In reaction to this order, they protested. The order itself was a proof of this popular belief telling women are a more precious and vulnerable sex with no self-determination at all (as it's written line 9).

We will now see how the Suffragette managed to make people think women are men's equal. The suffragette started to take peaceful actions but it didn’t work, no one listened to them, it can be assimilated to the trials of my second document.

That’s the reason why, in 1903, a suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst, and her two daughters decided to go one step further, even if it implied bypassing the law. 

Their motto was “deeds, not words !”. They broke shop windows, wrote on the walls, chained themselves in front of the Parliament… A lot of women were assaulted and arrested. Some went on hunger strikes but they were force fed.

The first martyr of this movement was Emily Davidson.  She ran in front of the King’s horse on Derby Day in June 1913. This shocking event marked a turning point in the struggle in so far as mentalities started to evolve, added to the fact that during the First World War, women had to do men’s jobs. In 1918, women over 30 were granted the right to vote. Ten years later (in 1928), women over 21 could vote. The Suffragettes’ movement sets a good example of how iconic figures, i.e. heroes, such as Emily Davidson were willing to sacrifice their lives to prove their demands were not foolish. It also shows how deeply-rooted some myths or beliefs are, which makes them even more difficult to debunk.

An extract from the film Made in Dagenham (2010) (my personal document) draws our attention to the fact that women were still officially discriminated in Great Britain in the second half of the 20th century. This extract takes place in a Ford car factory in London and stages underpaid women who demand equal pay to men. To be heard, they have decided to go on strike.  Their spokeswoman, Rita, tries to convince the Secretary of State for Employment, Mrs Castle, to guarantee an Equal Pay Act. Mrs Castle negotiates and suggests 75% of the man’s wages under the condition that the women go back to work. The fact that women were less paid than men for an equivalent job relied on the idea that when it was done by a woman, a task was less valuable. Once more, it took much determination to make mentalities evolve and to obtain official and legal recognition.

 To conclude, we saw, through the examples of the Suffragettes and of industry workers, that women suffered from preconceived ideas and thanks to their will, some of them gradually made mentalities evolve to be given the chance to live in a more egalitarian society. These women may be considered as heroes which are still present in our society, I’m particularly thinking of Simone Veille who legalized the abortion if it’s medically needed, even though they were often despised at their times.

Je suis pas une bête en anglais donc je suis vraiment désolé pour les quelques fautes ^^'

Merci d'avance, bonne fin d'après midi

-------------------
Modifié par lucile83 le 26-05-2015 19:05
Mise en forme à revoir.