Month: May 2020

With the recent years of social media and online presence, there were multiple debates about what should be allowed to be presented to everyone on the platform. Such things as censorship and freedom of speech are often mentioned.

Some of the benefits of free speech in a world wide context is the safety of everyone. In the light of recent events, COVID-19 shows the importance of the ability of expressing opinions and statements. A Chinese doctor Li Wenliang tried to warn his colleagues in the early days of the outbreak, posting a message alerting to the new disease which now is a global pandemic in late December. Security forces came to his house four days after the public warning and accused him of making “false comments” and acting illegally to disturb social order. He signed a statement agreeing to not discuss the disease further. He later died on 6th of February due to coronavirus.

One known drawback of freedom of speech is the unfiltered violence, such as cyber bullying of enforcing violence and hate against people immorally. Such things as hate against a specific group of people is often expressed on social medias, where many impressionable children are present.

Some of the most obvious similarities that can be drawn are the preventative measures taken to limit the spread of the virus. During the blague in England houses with the victims of the disease would be painted with crosses and those who wouldn’t commit to the official orders would face serous consequences which could potentially be death. This is extremely similar to what is happening in many countries now, some countries take the stay-at-home order extremely seriously but instead of killing the offenders the penalty is a big fine.

Another less known parallel is the coping mechanism of alcohol during the plague and now. On 15th of September 1665 Pepys tells how he and his friend had a drink after work and while they drank London faced the peak of the epidemic. This is the exact same case for some people in certain countries. People stock up on alcohol to quite literally “drink their pain away” due to the harsh restrictions of the social distancing methods which can be both mentally and physically tiring for a person.

A sad parallel is the amount of deaths caused by both diseases. While COVID-19 is less deadly than the plague it still claimed many lives in countries like the U.S.. By autumn during the plague bodies were piled onto carts to be dumped which becomes a normality. This is similar to what is happening in the U.S. with the mass graves in New York.

Lockdown 

by Simon Armitage

And I couldn’t escape the waking dream

of infected fleas

in the warp and weft of soggy cloth

by the tailor’s hearth

in ye olde Eyam.

Then couldn’t un-see

the Boundary Stone,

that cock-eyed dice with its six dark holes,

thimbles brimming with vinegar wine

purging the plagued coins.

Which brought to mind the sorry story

of Emmott Syddall and Rowland Torre,

star-crossed lovers on either side

of the quarantine line

Whose wordless courtship spanned the river

till she came no longer.

But slept again,

and dreamt this time

of the exiled yaksha sending word

to his lost wife on a passing cloud,

a cloud that followed an earthly map

of camel trails and cattle tracks,

streams like necklaces,

fan-tailed peacocks, painted elephants,

embroidered bedspreads

of meadows and hedges,

bamboo forests and snow-hatted peaks,

waterfalls, creeks,

the hieroglyphs of wide-winged cranes

and the glistening lotus flower after rain,

the air

hypnotically see-through, rare,

the journey a ponderous one at times, long and slow

but necessarily so.

Both of the texts above are references to the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The political cartoon mainly focuses on U.S. President Trump’s response to the pandemic by using textual allusion, where as the poem focuses on mirroring the events of the black plague that occured during the 14th century which killed nearly 2/3 of Europe.

In the cartoon by Dave Whamond President Trump is shown wearing a plague doctor mask and having a long pinocchio nose, which extends itself when lying, and a text bubble saying “I never said it was all a hoax! I always took the Chinese virus very seriously!”. The cartoon holds heavy symbolism and irony, shown through satirical humour. Donald Trump took a very long time to act against the COVID-19 spread in the U.S, the president received multiple warnings on the time span of 2 years before the virus reached the U.S.. However not only did Donald Trump react very late to the virus but he also ridiculed the situation calling it “The Chinese virus” in his infamous tweet about supporting businesses, making him look ignorant and racist with the current cases of hate crimes against Asian people in the U.S.. Both of these points make his statements in the cartoon extremely ironic, this is also enforced and highlighted by the use of his “pinocchio nose”, which in the cartoon is extremely long and as the tale of pinocchio goes it is known that the more the character lies the longer the nose will extend.

The cartoon also shows Donald Trump holding a plague doctor mask. During the bubonic plague people who called themselves doctors would wear masks that resembled a crow, during the 14th century advanced medicine was not yet practiced and victims of the disease had to rely on the help of the plague doctors who at the time didn’t have any bases or reliable knowledge for their actions and the practices they suggested to “cure” the disease which didn’t help. This is a very obvious and humorous reference to President Trump and his actions, how he confidently carries himself and makes suggestions to battle the virus which ultimately prove to be ineffective and inefficient.

Simon Armitage’s poem was recently written in light of the pandemic, the poem directly references the black plague and how a pair of lovers maintain their relationship while living during the most fatal pandemic recorded in the human history. Stanzas 12-15 illustrate an image of exotic places by using such words as “fan-tailed peacocks” and “painted elephants” which references the silk road, a historical place of trade between the western cultures and eastern cultures and where the bubonic plague traveled to Europe. In stanza 7 the text “star-crossed lovers on either side of the quarantine line” is very symbolic of the current social distancing measures taken against the spread of the virus, and how modern day couples have to manage their relationship without being able to be near each other. 

Both texts reference the similarities of the COVID-19 pandemic to the black plague , the cartoon shows how certain behavioural trends never die and the poem shows how certain events repeat themselves no matter how far apart they are. Both events are incredibly similar to each other, diseases that are highly infectious and caused people to go into hiding and panic. This is a valuable message and lesson that history repeats itself, however in order to escape the chance of repeated dreadful events of the past we should educate everyone and always be prepared.

Our cartoon focuses on the issue in the trans community, how people claim to be trans and use it in malicious cases, which puts the validity of the community at risk and not helping them in the current situation where people consider transitioning invalid and attack them.

We wanted to express the harm it brings to the community and how they are asking to be taken seriously and treated as trans people. People who define themselves as trans have a medical basis for it, most commonly being the imbalance of hormones or experience of body dysmorphia. Being trans is not easy as it is still seen as not a serious issue, people are disowned by their family for opening up to be trans and have to face many problems such as violence and mistreatment. Many people who call themselves trans are doing it without having a basis for it, and not being able to take criticism.

In the image the male claims to be a trans women, while still keeping the most obvious stereotypical male characteristics such as the beard and body hair. Trans people who experience body dysmorphia try to change their looks to  how they want to look of the gender they identify with. The drawing also includes signs such as “I pass like this” and “Let trans women use girls’ bathrooms” which are seen as serious statements by the trans community, the statements “No, I am not diagnosed” which brings in the issue of using being trans as an excuse.

A flaw in our cartoon was the lack of context. This situation is not widely spoken about which makes it harder to deliver the cartoon without deeper context. The feedback we got talked about the lack of context, we realised our mistake and understood that our cartoon didn’t manage to delivery the message clearly making it confusing what perspective we were representing which can be dangerous on a bigger scale.