Mike Luckovich’s satire political cartoon, emphasises public opinions on same sex relationships. The author’s perspective is that priests and those related to the church, are extremely against the act of same sex relationships and marriages, but homosexual people are just people with a different sexual orientation. This cartoon has been successful in portraying the message through its use of values and beliefs, language features and visual features.
The values and beliefs of this cartoon are strongly represented. The belief of the Christian community is shown through the use of a priest expressing that gay marriage is in fact ‘evil’ and should not be legalised. The author’s message however is the opposite of that belief. Mike Luckovich uses his cartoon to highlight the fact that other than being of a different sexuality, gay people deserve the same right and respect as those who are straight. This is evident as a gay couple is portrayed and used to ‘scare’ the public but in contrast to this, they simply look like everyday people walking their dog. This proves the author’s point of view that homosexuals do not look scary or act as a risk to anyone is any way, shape or form.
Language features are used to convey the author’s point of view very effectively. This satire cartoon consists of the language feature irony. Irony is the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite. This is used in the cartoon by the priest, as he is holding a sign stating that gay marriage is evil, however, he asks the gay people to act scary, implying that in reality they are not frightening or harmful. This is effective because it proves the point that the Christian belief against gay marriage in based off a false allocation of the personalities of homosexual people.
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There are multiple visual features implemented in this satire cartoon to convey the author’s point of view. Stereotype, social distance and salience are used in this particular cartoon. Stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. The stereotype in this cartoon is that homosexual couples are evil and do not have the right to legally marry. Social distance is the distance between different groups in society and is opposed to locational distance. There is a clear division between the three people illustrated in this cartoon, being the gay couple and the straight priest. Salience is the most visual and noticeable part of a cartoon. In this cartoon this is he sign and speech of the priest. These visual devices tied together all effectively convey the author’s point of view.
Overall, this cartoon was highly effective in creating a strong message to alter the audience’s perspective of gay marriages. This was accomplished through the use of values and beliefs, language features and visual features. It is my opinion that the author was definitely successful in conveying the message that, gay people deserve the same rights and respect that straight people receive, they are not scary or harmful and should not be feared. The author’s point of view was put forward strongly and effectively put strain on the audience’s personal opinions of gay marriages.
