Reading the Rose: A Critical Engagement with the Amnesty International Rose Campaign Images

• In Event: 324 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 11. RGC and Critical Analyses across Contexts

Abstract

In this paper I will both investigate the ways in which Amnesty International affectively mobilizes the readers of their anti female genital cutting print campaign and interrogate the motivations behind the operationalization of these advertisement images. In submitting my chosen set of images to rigorous critique and exploring the utilization of reiteration, and the adoption of symbolic tropes which connote certain stereotypes and emotional responses, I highlight the meanings which are often left implicit. These ads are formulated in response to ‘female genital mutilation’, which is understood by Amnesty International as a form of ‘violence against women’. The series comprises of three individual images, each a rose with its central petals sewn together to evoke the practices which are being fought against. By advocating a critical ‘reading of the rose’ which unpacks assumptions and knowledge I allow a more nuanced analysis of NGO print imagery to develop.

Author

• Nadia Roche, University of California-Santa Cruz