Final Visual Rhetoric

Carlo Cedrix De Castro

Professor Jen Fleischer

English 1A

21 March 2014

Keep her on a Leash

             The 3-D model I have created for this project is of a pimp with a leash around a girl who is his prostitute. The girl is made out of white play-doh with blonde hair made out of yellow play-doh. The white play-doh is supposed to represent her innocence as well as her skin, with the yellow play-doh representing the youth of the woman since her hair still has color. Inside the body are skinny toothpicks that are providing support for the model as well as showing that she is weak right and cannot live without her pimp since all her life, she has been dependent on him.

            Around her neck is a leash that I have made out of foil. The leash is to represent that the pimp has total control over the girl as well as acting as the chain of corruption; the pimp has the leash around her neck, controlling what she sees and east, corrupting her and making her ignorant to the fact of the life she could be living. Foil was used as a material for the leash because its a metal that is dense and hard to break. This is supposed to reinforce the fact that he has control over her. Granted foil is a very thin metal, which is why I used multiple sheets to make it denser.

            I made the pimp using purple play-doh since that's what pimps stereotypically wear. The body also has toothpicks to provide support, but these toothpicks are denser to show that he is not as weak as the prostitute and that he is educated of the system that they are currently in.

            I feel that it has an emotional appeal since it targets the aspect of human trafficking. No one really likes to see people controlled beyond their will and to see a woman in pain with her pimp having total control over her and not taking adequate care of her, can cause a deep image to those who see the image. Intended audience-wise, I feel that its supposed to be anyone that's mature enough to understand the situation at hand and the world we live in.

            The message that my object conveys is that pimps have total control over their prostitutes , but keep in mind that the prostitutes didn't ask for that and are held back by their dependence on the pimp.  As far has effectiveness, I feel that my object conveys this message adequately since it touches upon the aspects of the message I have given. Granted that the toothpick aspect cant be seen since the play-doh is covering it, but its still there and giving its meaning just the same.

            My 3-D genre is very different compared to the other 3 texts from my previous assignment which were a rap song, an encyclopedia article, and a picture of what one prostitute was wearing. One difference being is that its a 3-D model, and not a 2-D one. With the 3-D model, there's another part of the piece that you have to consider, since you have a 720 degree view on the object. The other genres didn't have that aspect which made them have to excel in other areas. Another difference is the lack of words. In the rap song, the rap artist used repetition on certain words to place emphasis on them to bold out the meaning of the song, while the encyclopedia article used statistics and quotes to convey its information. Even the picture has words to tell since they say "A picture is worth a thousand words." This 3-D model has no words to convey which makes the meaning it gives to every individual who looks at it possibly different.

            Throughout making this genre, I had various troubles making this 3-D model. One being trying to come up with a way to support the play-doh bodies and having them stand up without completely falling apart due to having no limbs within the bodies. That's where the idea of toothpicks came in and the meaning behind it. They would be placed in the bodies and act as bones to provide support to the body. Even though it wouldn't be visible on the outside, I wanted the toothpicks to have a symbolic meaning as well,which is why I made the pimp's bones denser than the prostitute's.  Another challenge I had was figuring out what colors of play-doh I wanted to use. Like the toothpicks, I wanted this to have symbolic meaning as well; this made it somewhat difficult on which play-doh pack I needed to buy since the packs were too colorful and didn't have a lot of plain colors at the local store.

            The 3-D modal I have took a good amount of time for me personally to create. The meaning behind the objects that were used when creating the model are significant to the message I was trying to convey which is "Prostitutes are being controlled beyond their will by their pimp, but can;t do anything about it since they are too dependent on them". Every different item used has meaning that contributes to the message and for these reasons, I feel that I deserve an A on this assignment.