Links to rhetorical tools:

Here are links to the rhetorical tools used in this class:

Schemes & Tropes -- Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca -- Fallacies -- Burke -- Rhetorical Toolbox -- Conspiracy Rhetorics

Friday, April 24, 2020

Gay Marriage Toolbox


I’m going to be analyzing signs used to protest in favor of gay marriage rights through a comic frame. My reason for this is that an overwhelming amount of the signs I’ve seen for this movement are meant to mock the opposition. As an example, let’s look at the sign on the left below:



If you’ve ever so much as watched a vlog where someone goes to a Pride event (or have even seen Taylor Swift’s You Need to Calm Down music video), you have to be more than familiar with the hateful “you’re going to hell for being gay” signs that are everywhere. So, what better way to tell the people brandishing them how stupid they are, than to wear a rainbow-y devil-themed costume to pride, with a sign that directly calls out the oppositions’ signs? Like I said, the hate signs are basically an unfortunate staple of all LGBT+ events at this point, so if you know that you’re probably going to have to deal with people like that, then why not come ready to make fun of them? Even if they weren’t to show up, their message is so well known that pretty much everyone could look at this and understand the reference. “We’re going to hell? Well, I guess it must be fabulous if it’s full of us.”
                As far as ideographs go, just look at the sign on the right. “Homo” is something used as a homophobic insult. It’s often used in the phrase “no homo,” which started as an insult, and still is, but is also kind of a meme. And here, both that phrase and the word “homo” are reclaimed in the “mo’ homo” sign.

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