Alyssa Elver's, Oh, Girls Are No Good At Genocide: An Analysis
Generalising Genocide
What qualities do us as people inherit from our gender, are men brazen and women reserved? Can we truly accept a feature of us to be definitive, and then does that stereo type become true?
Alyssa Elver indulges a strong opinion on both the male and female gender as people and their ‘natural’ qualities in this piece of Satirical Monologue ‘Oh, Girls Are No Good At Genocide’. Voicing her message through a dictator admiring schoolgirl, a Caricature of sorts, Elver presents an interesting piece of satire; her characterisation enables our perspective for satire, and in her words she is able to mock the stereotypical bravado and bombast that is associated with the alpha male, whilst, making a point to the perceptions of women from both sexist men and society.
She challenges the reader, what are our gender roles and inadvertently asks us:
Are women incapable of Genocide or are men enabled for Genocide?
As almost as if to shock the reader Elver immediately leads with the words, “I hate being a girl. It totally stinks. Boys are better at everything.”- She introduces her persona, a self deprecating schoolgirl, begins explaining her disdain for her own inferior gender to males, the ones who ‘always win”. She quickly begins to equate the superiority of boys in sport and science to the resolve and action of the perpetrators of Genocide in history.
Her persona, a supporter of Genocide and admirer of the real ‘grit’ and ‘resolve’ it takes, is so filled with these ideals of what defines a superior person and how it synonymises with the act of Genocide, she could almost be Hitlers favourite Aryan child.
She gives an almost as saluting to respect to the act of Genocide and sees the inability of women to commit such heinous act as a weakness and a flaw. It is in her characterisation that the satire is found, her persona is a character so extraordinary and well outrageous that we begin to see her words not so much as a literal statements but as
What qualities do us as people inherit from our gender, are men brazen and women reserved? Can we truly accept a feature of us to be definitive, and then does that stereo type become true?
Alyssa Elver indulges a strong opinion on both the male and female gender as people and their ‘natural’ qualities in this piece of Satirical Monologue ‘Oh, Girls Are No Good At Genocide’. Voicing her message through a dictator admiring schoolgirl, a Caricature of sorts, Elver presents an interesting piece of satire; her characterisation enables our perspective for satire, and in her words she is able to mock the stereotypical bravado and bombast that is associated with the alpha male, whilst, making a point to the perceptions of women from both sexist men and society.
She challenges the reader, what are our gender roles and inadvertently asks us:
Are women incapable of Genocide or are men enabled for Genocide?
As almost as if to shock the reader Elver immediately leads with the words, “I hate being a girl. It totally stinks. Boys are better at everything.”- She introduces her persona, a self deprecating schoolgirl, begins explaining her disdain for her own inferior gender to males, the ones who ‘always win”. She quickly begins to equate the superiority of boys in sport and science to the resolve and action of the perpetrators of Genocide in history.
Her persona, a supporter of Genocide and admirer of the real ‘grit’ and ‘resolve’ it takes, is so filled with these ideals of what defines a superior person and how it synonymises with the act of Genocide, she could almost be Hitlers favourite Aryan child.
She gives an almost as saluting to respect to the act of Genocide and sees the inability of women to commit such heinous act as a weakness and a flaw. It is in her characterisation that the satire is found, her persona is a character so extraordinary and well outrageous that we begin to see her words not so much as a literal statements but as