Print Pride
“Equal Dignity.”
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That was the large six-column headline across the top of The New York Times the morning after the Supreme Court ruled for same-sex marriage. But the even more bold statement was below: the neat grid of three rows and four columns of same-sex couples in various hugs and kisses.
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Same-sex couples on display across half the front page of The Times, in brilliant color. You can say this is a beautiful statement, 12 couples expressing love in a public forum. And there are people, I am sure, who will find these images wrong and dangerous. And I suspect there are people who will see this front page and think that the Supreme Court decision is the right thing, but who will not want these proud images on page one of the newspaper where it is on display in newsstands and on store counters, or on kitchen tables, or held aloft by coffee-drinkers sitting outside the neighborhood Starbucks.
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I imagine The Times debated long and hard about designing the front page that night. What went on behind the scenes to decide how to present this news, and then to go ahead with this design? What letters-to-the-editor will this generate?
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Personally, I was pleased and amazed at this landmark decision.
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But my second reaction was of a different sort:
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What a powerful and beautiful use of Print!
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This front page informs us of this event as only ink-on-paper can do. These 12 images, lined up in rows and columns, on a broadsheet, like a miniature billboard, out in the open for all to see. It proclaims the news.
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Our latest reading devices—computers, mobile phones, e-readers—are mostly private affairs. We look at them alone, or maybe with one other person looking over our shoulder. (Only teen girls have mastered the art of half a dozen sets of eyes sharing a screen to ogle someone’s pictures.) But a newspaper is still a public space of sorts, sitting out in the open, always available. No one has to turn it on.
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And if you were to show these 12 sets of couples on such devices, you would have to show one picture at a time. Even on larger e-readers or iPads, you would have to limit the number of pictures on display at any time, or you would have to make them small. You lose the impact. Only the printed newspaper can display all 12 images at once, so in one glance, you are enveloped by the spectrum of people able to have their love legally recognized.
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Regardless of how you view the Supreme Court decision, or if you think same-sex unions should be on display for all to see, you cannot deny the statement being made by this classic medium of ink-on-paper.
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Print is loud. Print is proud. Get used to it.
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