Good morning and welcome to Current Affairs Week. My name is Ellie O’Brien and I’m here today to deconstruct and analyse a political cartoon, which is shown here on the screen. This cartoon by Cathy Wilcox was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 1st October 2014. I will begin by talking about the context of the cartoon, then move on to the two main satirical techniques used, and I will conclude by evaluating the effectiveness of the cartoon.
So now let’s look at the context…
A report in the Sydney Morning Herald following the discussion, titled ‘Burqa debate’ and written by political correspondent, James Massola, outlines the significance of this issue. The article quotes Abbott’s speech to Parliament, now referred to as ‘the burqa …show more content…
This technique is clear in this cartoon because Tony Abbott wouldn’t actually go up to a woman wearing a burqa and tell her he thought it was confronting. However, depicting him doing this makes him appear racist, ignorant and rude, which is the view that the cartoonist is trying to portray. The cartoonist has cleverly used Abbott’s own words from his speech in Parliament to reverse the meaning and allow people to view the issue from a different perspective. His exaggerated appearance creates incongruity as well. The depiction of him wearing speedos is incongruous in this situation because he is in no position to call someone’s clothing confronting when he is wearing nothing but budgie smugglers. He is also standing in a way that shows off his body, muscles and speedos, thus appearing overconfident, unprofessional and rather distasteful. It is incongruous that Tony Abbott tries to portray himself to the public as an athlete, with emphasis on his muscles and active lifestyle, because this shows that he is more interested in his own physical prowess than being a reputable politician. Wouldn’t you think that the Prime Minister would be too busy dictating the running of our country to have the time to be seemingly constantly
So now let’s look at the context…
A report in the Sydney Morning Herald following the discussion, titled ‘Burqa debate’ and written by political correspondent, James Massola, outlines the significance of this issue. The article quotes Abbott’s speech to Parliament, now referred to as ‘the burqa …show more content…
This technique is clear in this cartoon because Tony Abbott wouldn’t actually go up to a woman wearing a burqa and tell her he thought it was confronting. However, depicting him doing this makes him appear racist, ignorant and rude, which is the view that the cartoonist is trying to portray. The cartoonist has cleverly used Abbott’s own words from his speech in Parliament to reverse the meaning and allow people to view the issue from a different perspective. His exaggerated appearance creates incongruity as well. The depiction of him wearing speedos is incongruous in this situation because he is in no position to call someone’s clothing confronting when he is wearing nothing but budgie smugglers. He is also standing in a way that shows off his body, muscles and speedos, thus appearing overconfident, unprofessional and rather distasteful. It is incongruous that Tony Abbott tries to portray himself to the public as an athlete, with emphasis on his muscles and active lifestyle, because this shows that he is more interested in his own physical prowess than being a reputable politician. Wouldn’t you think that the Prime Minister would be too busy dictating the running of our country to have the time to be seemingly constantly