Few will be surprised by the Daily Mail today, supporting the right of business owners to discriminate against gay couples after a court ruled in favour of civil partners Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy, who were denied a bed in a B&B by the owners. Many won’t even be surprised by the Orwell-referencing headline of: “Now some people are more equal than others”.
Even so, Scrapbook can’t quite believe the cartoon today:
No, it’s not that they’re depicting the gay couple as big scary bikers. It’s that the couple are tattooed with swastikas:
Now, as open-minded as we are, even we can understand why you might feel uneasy about Nazis staying in your B&B. But now, with this ruling you’ll have to let in every big, scary, angry, probably violent, neo-Nazi, biker gay couple who turn up up on your doorstep demanding a room.
No wonder this country’s going to the dogs, eh?
Hat-tip: Avid Daily Mail reader Seph Brown.
Harry Jones says:
To be fair to the Daily Mail (phrases I never thought I’d use), while I wasn’t even remotely surprised by this headline looking at the cartoon I think the swastika’s just part of the “tough tattooed biker” look the artist was going for. I don’t think he was in any way making out that the couple depicted are meant to be the couple in the court case, or that they are in any way neo-nazis. I think it’s just a joke about 2 big scary men sharing the romantic suite. Which the Mail thinks is not right. But each to their own.
jo says:
whilst i agree with the above comment to some extent or can see where you are coming from i must say that if i was drawing a cartoon and added a nazi symbol i would be aware of what i was doing, the mindset i was applying to the characters ect.
unless this is some link to neo nazi groups having gay people in them or maybe the characters are secretly meeting in a hotel room. at this point you could say that you could read too much into whats been drawn.
At the end of the day the image mocks homosexuals and until there comes a time when it is unacceptable to joke about sexual orientation it will carry on.
imagine if there was a black couple where the gay couple are stood and underneath “look mr and mrs umbongo want to book the bridal suite!” there would be uproar! yet 50 years ago that would have been unacceptable.
i see about 50 comedy shows a year, i even laugh at the gay jokes, i’m a hypocrite to say that we shouln’t encourage this kind of behaviour but i guess some would say that comedy is about making fun of or pointing out differences.
Max morris says:
I disagree with @Harry Jones. The swastisha is placed in the focal point of the image, right in the middle. You look at the woman, then you look down to the couple holding hands, it’s intentionally (or at the very least subconsciously, though i doubt it) right where everyone will see it.
It’s kinda funny though, how they’re not the harmless camp or effeminate gays that were discrimiated against in the past, now us homos are fearsome brutes! Lol
James says:
Isn’t this rich coming from the Dail Heil.