Discrimination has been a major issue for our society during most of recorded history. Within the last several hundred years, we have struggled to move mankind forward and away from those antiquated feelings however slow the process may be. As represented in this image, one of the most recent fights has been to encourage the acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle in modern society.
The author sends a message that these gay men are in a loving relationship that would be bonded by marriage if they were a straight couple. Many commonplace values would insist that the allowance of these unions would challenge the sanctity of marriage or somehow alter the legitimacy of male/female unions. However, most gay people simply want the legal recognition of their relationship.
If a person of another culture or a person of our future were to stumble upon this image, it could send several messages depending on the decision made by the public--since it still stands unresolved. If we currently make a decision stating that it is wrong to allow same sex couples to marry, the debate could still be heated in 200 years. Alternately, if the unions are allowed, a young person in 200 years could possibly see gay marriage as such commonplace that they could not understand why it was ever in question (much like we today perceive slavery).
It is my belief that regardless of the outcome from this particular situation, we will continue to challenge beliefs and ideas throughout the rest of human evolution on innumerable topics. It is part of our nature and an exercise in our individuality to question and debate the circumstances of our collective lives.
I am going to have to 100% completely agree with you. This is a very good artifact with sound arguments. VERY convincing. GREAT JOB.
ReplyDeleteSame sex marriage is really testing people's openness to new experiences and their moral values. Sometimes people see things that don't match their moral standards or things that they don't agree as wrong, but who is going to judge in reality? People have been debating for so long, but no one has won because there are always someone being in the opposite position. I really don't see the point of debating, as long as homosexuality are not doing harm to the society, why ban it?
ReplyDeleteI'm going to disagree with your analysis of the image itself. As a standalone artifact, I don't think the image necessarily conveys anything about marriage, unless you want to construe the woman-mask as implying that a woman of that age would certainly be married. I think instead that you have a pre-existing awareness of the gay marriage debate at this moment in time, and are reading that statement into the image. I think a more careful "reading" of the image would be, "at this time, gay men feel as though they are not accepted." This is a subtle but significant difference.
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