Page 113 - Žagar, Igor Ž. 2021. Four Critical Essays on Argumentation. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
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perception, infer ence, and understanding in visual argumentation (and beyond)
that ‘The University needs more women’ (Groarke ibid.: 111). Even if we take
P as rather unambiguous (which it is not; for one thing, the fact that the
University of Amsterdam’s three chief administrators are all men is not a
matter of general knowledge; also, it is far from obvious that the three men
in the photo are University’s administrators), the arrow leading to C is in
no way—at least it couldn’t have and it shouldn’t have been—so linear, uni-
directional, or monotonic (if you want) as to lead exclusively and direct-
ly to C, interpreted as ‘The University needs more women’. C could easily
have had many other interpretations (and P many other formulations than
the one chosen by Groarke, for that matter), for example: ‘UvA doesn’t need
women!’, ‘UvA is a sexist institution’, ‘UvA needs some women to change
appearances’.
The results
Here is what my survey showed.
When describing the photo (question a), all three groups formulated
what they saw in the photo in very similar, almost identical words: three
well dressed middle-aged white males with spectacles, standing together,
looking seriously.
As for question b, asking about the purpose, the objective of the post-
er, the answers were very far from Groarke’s claim.
Group 1
Most of the students, 12 (46,1%), thought the poster was a joke or a parody,
two of them (7,7%) qualified this joke as irony, one (3,8%) of them as a sex-
ist joke, and another one as some kind of advertisement for some kind of
a band.
One of the respondents took it as a provocation (from the part of fem-
inists), another one as making fools of women as well as of the university.
One respondent understood the poster as a criticism of the system (be-
ing unfair to women), another one as means of discouraging women to
enrol.
Two of the respondents answered that the message was not clear, but
maybe the purpose of the poster was to get attention of women (in one way
or another).
Only two students answered that the poster may represent an ad-
vertisement for the university (asking women students to enroll), while a
third one added the following explanation: ‘call for enrollment addressed
113
that ‘The University needs more women’ (Groarke ibid.: 111). Even if we take
P as rather unambiguous (which it is not; for one thing, the fact that the
University of Amsterdam’s three chief administrators are all men is not a
matter of general knowledge; also, it is far from obvious that the three men
in the photo are University’s administrators), the arrow leading to C is in
no way—at least it couldn’t have and it shouldn’t have been—so linear, uni-
directional, or monotonic (if you want) as to lead exclusively and direct-
ly to C, interpreted as ‘The University needs more women’. C could easily
have had many other interpretations (and P many other formulations than
the one chosen by Groarke, for that matter), for example: ‘UvA doesn’t need
women!’, ‘UvA is a sexist institution’, ‘UvA needs some women to change
appearances’.
The results
Here is what my survey showed.
When describing the photo (question a), all three groups formulated
what they saw in the photo in very similar, almost identical words: three
well dressed middle-aged white males with spectacles, standing together,
looking seriously.
As for question b, asking about the purpose, the objective of the post-
er, the answers were very far from Groarke’s claim.
Group 1
Most of the students, 12 (46,1%), thought the poster was a joke or a parody,
two of them (7,7%) qualified this joke as irony, one (3,8%) of them as a sex-
ist joke, and another one as some kind of advertisement for some kind of
a band.
One of the respondents took it as a provocation (from the part of fem-
inists), another one as making fools of women as well as of the university.
One respondent understood the poster as a criticism of the system (be-
ing unfair to women), another one as means of discouraging women to
enrol.
Two of the respondents answered that the message was not clear, but
maybe the purpose of the poster was to get attention of women (in one way
or another).
Only two students answered that the poster may represent an ad-
vertisement for the university (asking women students to enroll), while a
third one added the following explanation: ‘call for enrollment addressed
113
