Visuals are said to have a stronger impact than mere words. This statement stood absolutely true in 2020 with a deluge of fuming and fretting that gained ground due to the pictorial illustrations of things around. Whether it was written words or cartoons, 2020 became a year of controversies and resulted in similar chagrin.
While artists often use their art to bring around an impact in society, a lot of the art is lost in wrong interpretations and hue and cry that goes around it. A plethora of such arts drew its trajectory in this pandemic stricken year. Here SheThePeople brings down all of them under one umbrella, so let’s rewind a bit to the year of controversies-
Also Read: Six Young Women React To Deepika Rajawat’s Cartoon Tweet Say Selective Deification Is Problematic
Five Controversial Illustrations That Grabbed The Attention Of Netizens In 2020
Deepika Rajawat's Cartoon Tweet
Lawyer Deepika Singh Rajawat, known for representing the Kathua case in 2018, was caught in a controversy after she shared an illustration depicting how men worship female deities and revere women during the auspicious 9-day Hindu festival of Navratri whereas inflict violence on them the rest of the year. The illustration was shared late on October 19. The tweet was followed by a lot of hue and cry and resulted in a mob collection outside the lawyer's house. The whole incident highlighted the hipocrisy that swings in our society where we worship godesses and at the same time rape is a daily front page news of our newspapers.
Abhay Deol's Instagram Post
This year, Bollywood actor Abhay Deol took a jibe at Bollywood's poor understanding of consent with the Tom & Jerry cartoon strip. On his Instagram profile, he shared a snippet from the classic Tom & Jerry comics, using the cartoon to take a sharp jibe at the Bollywood industry’s poor understanding of a woman’s consent. The comic strip shows Tom spanking, kissing, and hugging a female cat, siphoning off her warning. But it seems Tom's aggressive demeanor worked wonderfully on her. In the snipped, one can see how his act of violating her space mingles away and she lusts after him. Deol captioned the post, “#tom must have been watching a lot of Bollywood movies! #nodoesnotmeanconvinceme.”
Rachita Taneja's Cartoon On Supreme Court
Comic artist Rachita Taneja was caught up in a stir after she tweeted a cartoon that attacked the apex court of the country. Following which, a contempt plea was filed against the artist. Moreover, Taneja and comedian Kunal Kamra were served show-cause notices for their alleged criticism of the Supreme court in tweets and illustrations respectively. Read more about it here.
Urmila Matondkar's Old Cartoon
In September this year, following a controversy between Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut and actor turned politician Urmila Matondkar where the former called her a "soft porn star" on national television, a cartoon started doing rounds. The Amul cartoon depicts their mascot dressed in a fiery red dress that was made iconic by Matondkar in the 1995 film Rangeela. The witty caption to the cartoon read: “Not MASOOM anymore”, referring to Matondkar’s first and the most notable role in Hindi films as a child actor in Shekhar Kapur’s Masoom.
Prophet Muhammad's Cartoon Row
A controversy erupted after a satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo published a depiction of Prophet Muhammad in cartoons. Three people were killed and several people were wounded following a knife attack on October 29 inside a cathedral in Nice, France. Even the United Nations expressed deep concerns over the tensions that gained grounds after the publication of the satirical cartoons.
With 2020 closing its wings, let's see what all controversies 2021 has in its belly for us.
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