12/2023
Government Oppression vs The People’s Revolt
Throughout
history, governments have often behaved in a manner that holds no benefit to
the population that they claim to represent. In the not-so distant past, the
government had this free reign because only a select few members of the
population could vote – the wealthy men of the majority race in a country. This
meant that those in power only had to benefit those that kept them in power and
not every person on the street. However, at least in a democracy, the
government have the obligation to listen to the majority, don’t they? In the
year of 2023, only 72 countries are classified as full or flawed democracies –
this is out of the 162 countries that had enough data to be classified by the Economist
Intelligence Unit (2022). A full democracy is not common, practically unheard
of with only 24 countries being counted as such. A flawed democracy is the more
commonly seen of the two with the other 48 countries of the 72 being classified
as a flawed democracy – this is, for example, what the USA is seen as. For a
democracy to be classified as flawed, according to the EIU, it must ‘have free
and fair elections and, even if there are problems (such as infringements on
media freedom), basic civil liberties are respected. However, there are
significant weaknesses in other aspects of democracy, including problems in
governance, an underdeveloped political culture, and low levels of political
participation.’(p.?) Conversely, Iran, the other country that is relevant to
this discussion, is under a fully authoritarian government, meaning that,
according to the EIU, ‘state political pluralism is absent or heavily
circumscribed. Many countries in this category are outright dictatorships. Some
formal institutions of democracy may exist, but these have little substance.
Elections, if they do occur, are not free and fair. There is disregard for
abuses and infringements of civil liberties. Media are typically state-owned or
controlled by groups connected to the ruling regime. There is repression of
criticism of the government and pervasive censorship. There is no independent
judiciary’ (p.?). This means that the people have to listen to a small group
that has ultimate power. These countries are on supposedly opposite sides of
the spectrum in terms of the regime they are under but both can be seen as
conservative or conservative-leaning. There is further disparity between the
two and this can be seen by the degrees of freedom that media has in each
country and how it is used to push certain agendas, for or against what the
government stands for.
On April
29th, 2011, Prince William and Kate Middleton got married at
Westminster Abbey. About two weeks later, Times magazine published their
edition with the wedding gracing the front cover, displaying the newly-wedded
couple sharing a kiss. However, this picture is not what was seen in every
country. The kiss shared between the newly wedded couple has a white sticker over
it and a price tag censors the slight hint of cleavage that Kate’s otherwise
modest wedding dress displays. This is the version that was shown to the
Iranian population (Figure 10).
he Iranian
government, operating under the Islamic Republic, censors that which is deemed
as immodest. It can be seen in several other situations. For example, within
the original article that inspired this research, “Censorship in The Republic”
from Harper’s Magazine, it can be seen there is a heavy emphasis on covering up
skin when women are seen to be showing too much. An image of a woman in an
outfit that originally exposed some of her back and thighs covered with paper,
a figure skater - Kristi Yamaguchi - whose body has been scratched out and
various images where a sliver of cleavage is displayed are covered too. (Figure 2)
Stillwell, 2011 (Figure 1)Duffy, 1992 (Figure 20)
It is known
that there is complete censorship of any criticism or hatred of the Iranian
government, even in a satirical comic strip displaying how the American
population quickly changed their target of hatred between the years 2001 and
2008. The censorship, which could be described as zealous, gives the country a
ranking of 177 out 180 countries in terms of freedom of the press and that
comes from their extremely strict legal framework: do not endanger the Islamic
Republic, do not offend clergy and the Supreme Leader, and do not spread false
information. Due to this, there is very little freedom of press outside what
the government itself pushes out. Any media outlet within Iran has to
constantly fight back against arbitrary arrests, unable to defend themselves in
a court that does not care for anything but the opinion of the Supreme Leader,
which leads to them having exceptionally heavy sentences. It is a tactic used
to quell independent thought and opinions that could directly threaten the
regime that benefits those in power, effectively nipping dissidents in the bud
– at least in the eyes of the government.
Comparatively,
in the way that the Islamic Republic has reigned undeterred for decades, the
time that America was under the presidency of Donald Trump was swift but took a
deep impact in the country. His election brought to light how turbulent the
political landscape was in the United States to the rest of the world. Many
opposing political movements gained traction and were easily identified by
eye-catching logos designed by artists. More specifically, there was a rather
suggestive piece made to directly criticise the direction Trump’s political
reign was taking, satirising his pride in being the 45th president.
It was initially designed in February as an expression of artist Mike Mitchell’s
frustration over the election of Trump; “When something pisses me off, I get a
little extra inspired” (Mitchell, 2017). However, it came to pass that the hint
of Nazism that Trump regularly displayed which inspired the illustration became
more obvious when an infamous rally took place in Charlottesville, Virginia,
which was later called, rather obviously, the Charlottesville demonstration.
The pro-Trump rally involved many Nazi chants and a full display of Nazi
ideology as the marchers were comprised of neo-fascists, white supremacists,
neo-Nazis, and Klansmen. This flagrant display of alt-right ideology and the
violence that came forth throughout, which ended in many injuries when
counter-protestors took a stand, spurred the far spread use of Mike Mitchell’s
design in other protests, printed on signs, pins, bags, hats, and t-shirts and
shared all over social media.
Mitchell, 2017 (Figure 3)
His design has frequently been compared to Black Lives Matter and its
iconic logos, the Trump administration’s red MAGA hat (2016) and the Pink
Pussy Hat (2017) movement. All of these signify different political stances
that have become exceptionally obvious to the vast majority of the American
population and large swathes of people outside of the USA. When someone sees a
clenched fist, many people with think of the protests that shook the world
following George Floyd’s death and the exposure of just how corrupt the police
were. If someone wears a red hat displaying the inflammatory text ‘Make America
Great Again’, you immediately know that persons political opinion. Each of them
further a political statement as well – BLM is self-explanatory as the spurring
statement that fights back against the unjust treatment of black Americans by
those in power, especially by the police force, Trump’s “Make America Great
Again’ declaring that moving the climate of the countries government to the
far-right is the correct way to go and the pink cat-shaped hats which
symbolised the feminist fight against the election of the known sexual harasser
Donald Trump as POTUS.
Cole, 2017 (Figure 4)Trump, 2016 (Figure 5)
All of
these can be seen, at least the designs that come from the oppressed, not the
oppressor, as a desperate plea to be heard. While the US is ranked 45th
for their freedom of press – an impressive contrast to Iran being 177th
– their news mainstream news outlets are heavily biased politically, some to
the left-wing and some to the right-wing, which doesn’t allow for viewers to
gain a neutral or differing point of view with any amount of ease. People tend
to stick their routine, not wanting to reach out to another news source as it
could oppose their heavily established views. This is where social media comes
into play and, in turn, artists and designers. Social media is a breeding
ground for differing opinions that can be shared freely, sneaking onto the ‘For
You Page’ of millions of users. When a trend is started or certain imagery
becomes popular, the alogorithm with social media pushes it regardless of the
typical viewing interests of users – therefore making these poignant pieces of
design and their political statements spread much further than they would if
one was just using mainstream media outlets. Mike Mitchell’s anti-Trump design
(2016) was first posted on Twitter before it gained traction as a poignant
piece of political imagery. The Pink Pussy Hat (2017) movement utilised
the knitting community within social media that the creators, Jayna Zweiman, Krista
Suh and Kat Cole, were already involved in. If all of these designers hadn’t
had easy access to social media nor the political freedom of media, these
movements would never have gained the traction that they did nor would they
have made nearly half as much of an impact.
In
conclusion, it is vital for a country to have freedom of press as it aids the
population in fighting back against unjust practices in their government that
they otherwise couldn’t do anything about. While it can be seen that some of
the Iranian populace are attempting to fight back, it is heavily suppressed and
barely documented by other countries media because of this. Conversely, the
American populace has the freedom to fight back against their government with
both mainstream outlets and social media coming to their aid or detriment but
either way, it pushes the fight onwards. It makes it so that both sides of the
fight can see and hear the opinions of their opposition, even if, logically,
that wouldn’t change many people’s opinions. Furthermore, in the terms of the
actual designs that can be seen from both sides, the stark contrast is clear
even at a brief glance. The censorship is hasty, clumsy and ugly – the art of
oppression is careless as it doesn’t care for the aesthetics nor how it is
viewed, only that is suppresses what they want it to suppress. The political
design of the ‘45’ is very deliberate, even if it looks simple before one looks
deeper. Mitchell considered how a sans-serif ‘45’ could be pressed together to
make a swastika-esque design and he considered the imagery of a swastika
because of the white nationalism and Nazi support that Trump had garnered.
Then, using the easily recognisable red crossed-through sign, it makes it
blatantly obvious what his opinion is and what he is opposing. Even in anger,
when a designer is trying to fight against bigotry, there is care.
-
Unknown , U. (2023) Iran,
Bienvenue sur le site de Reporters sans Frontières. Available at:
https://rsf.org/en/country/iran (Accessed: 23 October 2023).
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Anonymous, A. (2014) Censorship
in the republic, by Anonymous, Harper’s Magazine. Available at:
https://harpers.org/2013/08/censorship-in-the-republic/ (Accessed: 23 October
2023).
- Budds, D. (2017) What
It’s Like Have Your Anti-Trump Art Go Mega-Viral, Fast Company. Available
at:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90137053/the-story-behind-the-anti-nazi-anti-trump-symbol-all-over-your-feeds
(Accessed: 2023).
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McGough, A. (2017) The
Creators Of The Pussyhat Project Explain How Craft Projects Are Protest, Fast
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(Accessed: 2023).
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(Accessed: 23 October 2023).
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(Accessed: 23 October 2023).
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Stillwell, J.
(2011) Prince William and Kate wedding photo, Times Magazine.
Available at: https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20110516,00.html
(Accessed: 2023).
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Mitchell, M.
(2017) anti-trump ‘45’, Twitter. Available at:
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Cole, K. (2017) Pink Pussy Hat.
Available at:
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/583078bc197aea0348039d7e/1516298012646-C2QG30DKUOEDG9TLUDLO/2018-Phat-hat-collective.jpg?format=500w
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