THE VISUAL SEMIOTICS OF YOR (ญ) ALPHABET PRIMERS AND THAI FEMININITY DISCOURSES

Abstract

This research focuses on the significations of visual languages and gender issues in children’s books within the Thai context. Analysis of thirty-one Yor (ญ) alphabet primers published between 1899 and 2012 reveal the connotative meanings of the letter Yor (ญ) its rhymes and illustrations. Advertisements, book covers, and newspapers are contextually investigated in order to find intertextual relations with the connotations discovered. Visual semiotics and critical discourse analysis approaches are mixed and employed as inquiring tools. The five research findings: beauty ideologies, roles as a mother and housewife, visual trope of a parasol, literacy, and women in the workforce, disclose Thai femininity discourses and ideologies in response to power relations within patriarchal society. The semiosis and outcome of this inquiry explicate that the conventional way of learning the alphabet character Yor (ญ) has ‘fixed’ social ideologies about women, and emphasizes gender biases in Thai society. The synthesis of these findings leads to designs with a ‘reform’ concept, where conventional ways of learning the Yor (ญ) alphabet character are ‘denaturalized’ by replacing Ying (meaning woman) with non-gender words. Three ‘Yor (ญ) Alphabet: A Learning Reform’ tools: a template, a box set of cards and an interactive set, are designed as prototypes. This dissertation is considered a ‘dialogue’ or the results of ‘integration’ connecting ideas, theories, and experiences that occurred during the inquiry process. During the conceptualization, investigation, and interpretation, actions of identifying, analyzing, discussing, interpreting, and finally, designing, are integrated with the ‘total experience’ of being a ‘woman.’ As a result, my reflections on a way of learning an alphabet bridged graphic design and gender issues, and are of benefit to designers and educators conscious of design responsibility in relation to cultural and social contexts.