TOW #25 - Visual Text

In this public advertisement created by UN Women, they are using the search engine Google to convey how women are viewed in the world.  UN Women is an organization formed in 2010 focused on the empowerment and equality of women.  Being an international organization, UN Women reach countries far and wide, and reach a large demographic.  By using the popular search engine Google, UN Women emphasize the need for women to be treated equally everywhere in the world.  An aspect of Google is that when someone searches something, popular results are listed underneath the search bar.  UN Women uses this aspect to list the way women are thought of.  The common results are that women need to “be put in their place,” “know their place,” “be controlled,” and “be disciplined.”  All of these play into their audience’s feeling of both shock and sadness that they feel when reading this advertisement.  It is shocking that there are thoughts on how women need to be in society.  The fact that people believe in restricting women’s rights and freedoms in some parts of the world emphasize the need to change these ideas.  In addition, using Google as the platform to show these views increase how modern these problems are.  UN Women then juxtapose these issues with the phrase “women need to be seen as equal.”  This contrast between positive and negative increases the stark difference between how women are seen, and how they should be viewed.  UN Women use this add to bring awareness to not only the unfair treatment of women but also hint at pushing their audience to stop ignoring these problems.