As the Republican primaries rage on, Facebook users are busy talking about what’s going on. Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, the day for predicting Republican presidential primaries in nine states. Social media hasn’t been the best at predicting who is going to win – but it’s definitely shown who is the most talkative.
Facebook users aren’t saying much about Santorum. That’s probably because they’re too busy sharing this rather literal viral graphic of the joke that’s been going around for sometime now.
The awesome gaylords over at Unicorn Booty decided to set this off last week. It is made of stills from gay porn movies, and literally embodies the making of santorum. Delightful!
“It brings up the issue of how oppositional opinions can culminate into one very charged image that goes viral,” says Chicago-based artist/designer Elizabeth Burke-Dain. “It reminds me a lot of the Ronald Reagan with AIDS image or the Shepard Fairey Hope image of Obama.”
In the 1980s, at the height of the AIDS crisis, President Ronald Reagan chose to ignore what was going on. ACT UP activists made “Aidsgate,” an image that collectively speaks to the fact that Reagan didn’t use the word “AIDS” until 1987, after 41,027 people had died and 71,176 were diagnosed.
Shepard Fairey’s Obama “HOPE” portrait similarly sparked controversy, in part because it was distributed “illegally” via street art. His work hit a chord – many Americans were looking for something different, were looking for hope. They found that sentiment embodied in Fairey’s poster.
On social media, Santorum is talking a lot about Romney, who as a total 1,498,733 Facebook fans, versus Rick Santorum’s 160,792. Few Facebook users are actually talking about Santorum. But of those who are, let’s hope they’re talking about the true meaning behind his name, rather than the fact that he’s trying to become President of the United States.
Images Unicorn Booty and ActUpNY.org.
