Mother's Day The New Yorker Cover by Chris Ware- Critical Analysis

This piece was a cover was drawn by Chicago based artist Chris Ware, who also wrote the editorial piece to accompany it. The piece discussed the evolving nature of US politics, and the growing support for equal marriage measures, within the larger context of moves towards full equality. He concludes his article by saying that the “evolution” towards equality represents a larger move forward in human nature. 

The New Yorker is an American magazine focusing on the cultural life of New York City, The New Yorker has a wide audience outside of New York. It publishes articles commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It is widely known for its illustrations and topical covers, its commentaries on popular culture and eccentric Americana. The target audience is predominately middle aged, well off people living in the big metropolitan cities of the US, but mostly New York.  

The piece was made digitally appears to be made digitally, however looking into Chris Ware you see his precise, geometrical layouts and lines are actually hand drawn, only employing a computer to color his work. The flat computer generated colour gives the piece a modern and spacious feel, allowing the hand down lifework to breath and also draw attention to the space between the two focal points in the picture.

The image is of a space, well lit, modern kitchen where two women in dressing gowns are reading a card. On the table in front of them is a vase of flowers with a blow wrapped around it. In the background three children are peering around the arched entrance to the kitchen. There are family portraits of everyone portrayed in the image on the wall. These visual queues obviously suggest that these people are a family and the closeness of the two women in the informal setting gives us the idea that these children belong to the two women, and that the gifts are from them as they take a sneak peak around the door. The two women are close and their dressing gowns suggest that they have just got out of bed. The way they lean in to both look at the card indicates closeness, telling the viewer that these two women are partners.

The pieces represent the slow normalisation of same sex marriage in the US. The issue of same sex marriage mirrors the plight of interracial marriage years previous."Attitudes toward interracial marriage have changed dramatically over the last quarter-century. Although still unacceptable to many Americans,social approval of interracial marriage has increased.Many gay couples today also seek social acceptance and legally sanctioned marriage. The majority of Americans, however, disapprove of gay marriage. couples therefore lag behind interracial couples by several decades in gaining social acceptance."1  

The couple is represented in a normal and understated way, just as any other couple would. Their three children also indicate the rise in same sex couples adopting children in the US, and the way these children are growing up perfectly normally and happily in these “modern” families. Their spacious kitchen with the sunlight shining through gives us a feel of the family being happy and well off, a perfectly acceptable place to raise children in. The pictures on the wall to the children's coats by the door to the dishes in the sink, it’s easy to see this illustration is here to represent that this family with same sex parents as perfectly normal as any other middle class american family. Many recent studies show same sex couples are just as good, if not better at raising children than heterosexual couples. "[It was] found that children from same-sex families scored, on average, 6% better on two key measures, general health and family cohesion, even when controlling for a number sociodemographic factors such as parent education and household income." 2

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Fig 3 

 

Fig 4

Fig 5

fig 1, Carroll, E. (2010) "Untitled" [Illustration] 

fig 2, Mcgrath, D. (2009) "Queer Youth" [Editorial Illustration]

fig 3, Mornet, P (2010) "Untitled" [Illustration] 

fig 4, Legrand, L (1891) "Two Women" [Etching] 

fig 5, Unknown (1972) "The Ladder" [Advertisement] 

1: Trosino, J. (1993) "American Wedding: Same-Sex Marriage and the Miscegenation Analogy", Boston, Boston University 
2: Crouch, S. (2014). "Kids from same-sex families fare as well as peers – or better." Available: http://theconversation.com/kids-from-same-sex-families-fare-as-well-as-peers-or-better-28803. Last accessed 5th November 2014.