I’m actually with @anon24181555 in this case (or rather the twitter they linked to). the problems with Trump isn’t how he looks (or his dick size or hand size or his weight) - it’s the constituency he brings to the table.
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I don’t think any of us are in disagreement with you there, but that’s not why it’s so fun to make fun of Trump’s appearance. I mean, it’s not like Bernie Sanders was about to win any pageants either—it’s just that he didn’t have a persona that begged people to riff on the way he looked.
The reasons why Trump is uniquely fun to mock this way include:
1. Trump is very, very vain
His hair and skin didn’t end up that way because he neglected them—if anything, he probably puts more time into his hair and makeup routine than most Hollywood actors. Which makes it all the funnier that the result is “Oompa Loompa with a terrier on his head.”
Contrast this with Bernie Sanders, whose “crazy old man hair” was clearly the result of not giving a crap about such trivial stuff. That attitude became a part of his appeal and was even adapted into a campaign graphic:
Can you imagine Trump embracing something with such good-natured, self-deprecating humor?
2. Trump is the king of body shaming
I should hardly have to bring up supporting evidence of this given his long history of comments about others, particularly women. Unlike any other candidate I can think of, Trump often speaks about how important looks are. Don’t dish it if you can’t take it.
3. Trump is hilariously thin-skinned about this kind of thing
Point out that Trump’s plans are inhumane, impractical or just batshit insane and he’ll dismiss you with an offhand slur. Make a passing comment that questions the size of his fingers (which as @Boundegar points out isn’t even really that) and he’ll spend the next quarter century obsessing over it. That’s what makes the “small hands” stuff funny. Nobody really cares about his hands, we just think it’s funny that HE does.
4. Apt Metaphor
“The Emperor Has No Clothes” is a fair analogy for Trump’s campaign. No experience in public service, no workable ideas, nothing much at all beyond empty nationalist rhetoric. He’s all surface and no substance, and even the surface is horrific.
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I can see how it’s read as stigmatizing fatness though.
the worlds complicated, yo. I can see how it’s seen as evidence of the left acting superior based on surface values, even if that’s not what’s actually happening.
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(applause dot gif)
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But it is what’s actually happening here and I think everything else is just post-hoc rationalization. But then, I don’t see a problem with calling him Drumpf (deadnaming, it ain’t, absent the legal and social contexts that make deadnaming harmful to trans people) or referencing his uranium orange glow. I think the distinction is whether or not being orange has traditionally made people be treated like lesser humans. The derision thrown at fat people and the reinforcement of toxic masculinity is something that tends to have much farther reaching consequences.
To give an example that’s a lot more stark: At the beginning of Gulf War III (or II, if you’re counting wrong) the US bombing campaign resulted in collateral damage that killed civilians. I was watching footage of it with someone and when Colin Powell, then Secretary of State under Bush came on screen this person began to hurl expletives at the screen, specifically, “Fuck you, nigger.” I tried to stop them but the rationalization was, “Look. It’s not about black people, it’s about this black person.” I didn’t buy it then and I don’t buy it now. Some things are not okay no matter who you apply it to. Not when the roots of the insult are watered by ugliness.
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Yeah, just if we’re all taking an informal poll here, this piece definitely made me more uncomfortable than enlightened/emboldened/amused/inspired (which is what I personally would want from protest art, not necessarily what it “should be”) If anything, this makes me involuntarily want to sympathize with the guy, which is cognitive dissonance I don’t need. I mean, his bluster is soooo obviously covering insecurity that pointing it out seems just…lazy.
And his face is so wrong, it takes me out of the whole thing.
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I guess that’s sort of what I’ was trying to say? maybe I wasn’t clear. Sorry.
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I was just agreeing with you. Perhaps a little too emphatically.
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Brainspore nailed it way better than I could:
It’s more than just making fun of Trump’s physical appearance; it’s the overall analogy to the Emperor’s New Clothes. The man’s entire campaign has been one big-ass scam, and the fact that so many people have willingly just gone along with it is disheartening.
I get where the criticism comes from, and generally, I’m against body shaming.
BUT when it happens to someone who makes a habit out of being a terrible person just on principle, It’s very hard for me to feel any sympathy.
I believe that what goes around comes around… And IMO, that means DJT has got some seriously bad juju coming his way, and then some.
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To say nothing of the safety hazard caused by the subject.
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That sculpture is supposed to be fat? Uh oh.
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In the aftermath of the revolution…
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What if it was a statue of Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton?
I think there would be a greater amount of blow back.
Pointing out someones physical deformities (or lack thereof) is an easy way to protest.
For example:
By all means satirize away, just focus on the incredibly horrible things that are coming out of his mouth.
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I believe I already detailed some of the reasons the joke wouldn’t be as apt or as funny if it targeted those candidates, or for that matter if it targeted any of the other Republican candidates. I wouldn’t find it particularly witty for someone to fat-shame Chris Christie, for example.
Trump is the ONLY candidate who embodies this combination of vanity, vulgarity, body-shaming and empty (if hateful) rhetoric.
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The question then is do we stoop to his level? If Trump supporters violently oust protesters, should we respond with violence? In the short term, we get a rush of justification, but does it get people to our side?
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I don’t think these statues are going to win anyone over, I just think they’re a funny way of getting under Trump’s skin. I don’t think “responding with violence” is a fair comparison since this is clearly a form of free speech and violence isn’t.
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