The Google Toilet

This is a political cartoon aiming to send a message by using humor.  It worked.  I enjoyed the clip and I must say I was truly informed.  Now let us dissect this piece.  To begin with, a female voice was used and it was used for a purpose.

I am assuming that this is a young woman.  She is probably in her 20′s.  She uses a calming ‘hostess like’ voice.  So you are immediately put to relax.  Now you can enjoy the trip, and in this case, an informative session.

The male appears to be a Caucasian man in his 30′s.  So we know who the target audience is.

A couple of things I want to discuss.

1.  They used a woman instead of a man to inform the public, and in this case males, that they have basically sold their life to Google just by using it.  Google becomes this evil being that has invaded this man’s life in the most intimate way and has sold his information to whom ever pays for it.  The man is totally trusting of Google and is completely dumb struck by the truth.  He can’t believe that his life is an open book to the whole world.  And who gets to inform him of all this in the calmest voice ever-a woman.  The woman becomes the embodiment of evil Google.

According to Hall (2007), “there are numerous relationships that can exist between signifier and signified.  Two important things about the relationship stand out…one is that we can have the same signifier with different signifieds.  The other is that we can have different signifiers with the same signifieds.” (10).  In this case, the woman’svoice is the signifier.  Let us look at what the voice signifies.

Signifier Signified

Woman’s voice                                                 Google

Woman’s Voice                                                 Deception

Woman’s Voice                                                 Voice

Woman’s Voice                                                  Evil

Woman’s Voice                                                   Manipulation

Woman’s Voice                                                  In control of man’s life

2.  This man is in his underwear the whole time.  The clip opens with his deepest darkest secret…his desire for an Asian women.  This is a secret that he guards and wishes that no one becomes aware of it.  What does that leave us with?  A caucasian man, who secretly desires Asian women and is afraid to share this info about himself.  Google finally exposed him.  Might I say, a case of possible racism?  Or maybe it is not the norm for him or other Caucasian men to like Indian food.  Google had to expose his dirty little secret.

Towards the end, the female voice becomes more assertive, controlling  and aggressive, with a few curse words.  Her voice shifts, almost transforms to this deep evil voice.  How deceiving!  Is this a stereotype for women.  By the end, the man could not escape from her.  She held him down to the toilet until the army came and took him away.  Hmmm…