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Home > The Annotated Obama Poster > Reader Comments > Parity

Parity

by James Anthony Fredal (2009-06-25)

A combination of parody and sincerity. Plus its a cool word. 300, the comic and the movie, seems to be both a parody of the hypermasculine, testosterone drive world of superhero comics and a very knowing homage, a "nod," to its visual and stylistic power and influence. This Fairey poster seems to be similar: borrowing from a visual style that is itself "marked" and loaded in a way that signals a critical distance from that style AND at the same time participating in the style, using it, and taking advantage of all its strenghts. This combination of sincerity mixed with or under a layer of parody seems typical of the age: The Onion, The Daily Show, the Colbert Report, etc. In all of these parody and sincerity achieve a kind of balance or, well, parity.