After our discussion in class on Friday about offensive images and Mitchell’s argument about why they are offensive, I thought about the contexts offensive images are taken in as opposed to offensive language. In today’s society, it’s culturally acceptable to call someone a “bitch” because society has assigned it a different meaning when used with an almost term of endearment situation. However with an image, it is hard to use words that might be offensive because there is no way to tell what context the person was trying to use it in.
Mitchell stated in his argument, “Images are not words. It is not clear that they actually say anything, They may show something but the verbal message or speech act has to be brought to them by the spectator, who projects a voice into the image, reads a story into it, or deciphers a verbal message”. In regards to the image at the top of this post, I would not take offense to jokes about women belonging in the kitchen and not the work place because I know that it’s not true, but the image about offended me. According to Mitchell, as the spectator I projected a voice into the image that offends me more than just words. The thing about words is that they go away after they are said whereas an image remains whether it offends you or not.
Visual Communication Fall 2014 