Statues of a naked Donald Trump have appeared in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Seattle, and New York City. I don’t understand why.
They are intended to demean and belittle the guy, I understand that. But does anyone think they’ll be effective? At all? Does anyone think they’re even the slightest bit accurate? Caricature should have a substantive point of some sort — political cartoons, for instance, will exaggerate features to make the subject instantly recognizable, but then the idea is that the caricature is doing something, saying something to illustrate an idea. These statues are just standing there inert, looking unpleasant. It’s content-free mockery.
I have to switch it around. If a statue of a naked Hillary Clinton were erected somewhere, would anyone find it to be a cogent argument?
I’ve personally been the subject of a lot of this sort of thing: I’m regularly sent photoshops, or scrawled, poorly done cartoons, that simply illustrate me as short, fat, and ugly. I don’t see the purpose; if the creators think it stings, I actually do know exactly what I look like, and mainly what I see is that they had to work to make me look uglier, and that what’s most ugly are the minds of the people who think these kinds of garbage portrayals are persuasive or in any way potent.
“just standing there inert, looking unpleasant”? Isn’t that half of what Trump does? Clearly they should install speakers into these statues so they’ll shout nonsense every so often. Then it’ll be accurate.
What lovely clothes the emperor is wearing.
Probably Trump brand.
Just fantastic. Wonderful. The very best.
Everyone is saying how great his clothes look. Believe me.
I’m with you, PZ. Nobody deserves this, not even Trump. Attack his ideas.
As I mentioned over in Caine’s thread:
I think this statue should have been done of the Donald, standing on a migrant worker’s back, with money falling out of his pockets (he’s clothed) and one hand behind his back, fingers crossed. The mouth is wide open and the sculpture has an inner trumpet-pipe between the mouth and the back of the pants, so someone can bend over and put their mouth to it and yell things out the statue’s mouth. I’m sure his supporters would photograph well in that pose!
Or maybe just a small circular wall 6 feet high with a bunch of hair jutting out the top.
Eh, I disagree with your disagreement, PZ. And a naked statue of Hillary wouldn’t bother me at all. She’s not the one trying to convince people she has the emperor’s clothing and balls on, though.
I’m with Caine. Trump as the emperor with no clothes is right on.
Of course, this statue popped up in places with almost no Trump supporters.
My complaint is the Trump should be in the sheets of the KKK, or a neo-nazi uniform.
His pandering to the bigoted right is for all to see, if they bother to look and object.
I agree, PZ. It insinuates the idea that Trump is repellent because he has a small penis or is overweight, rather than that he is bigoted, a con artist, and proudly ignorant. Plus, by focusing on Trump’s looks, I feel like it does splash damage. Speaking as someone who has dated an overweight man with a smaller penis, I’m kind of sick of society shaming those that don’t conform to it’s standards of an ideal body.
The problem isn’t Trump’s bigotry, nor assholishness, nor his blowharness, it is all the people voting for him, who refuse to vote for Hill over more trivial objections. No one is calling Hill perfect, but refusing to vote cuz she has a few flaws lets the garbage fire burn unrestrained. That, is the problem.
So what if some weasels thought they could shame him with nude caricature statues. All those nimwits who voted for him will not be swayed by the mockery.
I agree with PZ’s disapproval. that’s all that needs to be said.
i don’t see a problem with a naked statue of Hilary provided it had balls.
…really?
I think the emperor has no clothes is an entirely appropriate and meaningful theme for this art installation. He is the person who thinks it is appropriate to brag about his penis size on national television. Why shouldn’t he be mocked about that?
I wouldn’t be ok with a naked Hillary statue because Hillary has not been publicly bragging about her bra size as if it’s a qualification for POTUS, so it’s ridiculous to try and make it a both sides issue.
This reminds me of the ‘small hands’ thing. His body is not the problem, his views are, and this statue falls into the same old trap. Bonus shame points for the creators by emphasising physical ugliness, tiny penis, and no balls. Bonus shame points again for tying testicles to bravery via ‘the emperor has no balls.’
I agree with garydargan. Portraying Donald as lacking balls (and therefore bad) is simply an inversion of portraying Hillary as being manly (and therefore bad).
My problem with Trump is that the people that he beat were so much worse.
Have any of you people that are complaining about nakedness and the size of body parts actually read “The Emperor has no Clothes” ? It’s not just about vanity, the part of the story where all the subjects go to extreme lengths to pretend that he isn’t walking around with his dick hanging out is a pertinent detail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illma_Gore
She says somebody punched her in the face.
Consider what he’s said about the looks of other people, this was inevitable. This is not only a slam at the emperor having no clothes, but also a reminder that he’s hardly in a position to judge anyone’s looks himself, when he looks like he does.
But then you get this:
I’m conflicted about this. I appreciate the possibility of splash damage, but on the whole I agree with Caine@5, numerobis@6, involuntarytexan@17. Trump’s repeated comments on and mockery of others’ physical attributes and bodily functions make his own fair game. And despite what others have said, I think these statues will influence at least some of his supporters. They’ll find themselves laughing at Trump, and that may contribute to breaking the spell he seems to cast on many people.
The statue would have worked equally well if modestly dressed in shorts and a pair of truck nutz hung off his belt.
On the subject of naked or near naked depictions of Hillary there’s this.
No, the much more likely effect is that his supporters will feel personally insulted, and become more angered than many already are. Secondly, they will (rightly) point out the hypocrisy of the left.
The quality of the political debate is rising by the day, I see.
All publicity is good publicity, right? If, as I suspect, Trump is flattered, then it was a perfect stunt.
And Anne @5: we can’t attack his ideas because he doesn’t have them. He changes his positions so fast that we look clueless analyzing yesterday’s speech. The one consistent position he’s had over the last year is that he’s better than we are. Which is exactly what the sculptor is attacking.
I approve of the sentiment. Because that’s a basic difference between so-called Rational people and the irrational: The number of times we say “I disapprove” vs. “That should be illegal”.
Holms@21,
Some will be further angered – those who are deeply committed emotionally already – but some will laugh. As for “(rightly) point out the hypocrisy of the left”, these statues were not produced by “the left”, but by something called “the INDECLINE activist collective”. It is those of Trump’s supporters who object to the mockery of his physique who are the obvious hypocrites.
IMHO, the whole thing was worth it just for the response of the NYC parks department (per dnainfo):
““NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks,” said Parks Department representative Sam Biederman in an official statement, “no matter how small.””
Perhaps, PZ would feel differently if he had a naked statue placed in a public place with his visage on it.
I’m thinking of, “The Thinker”, of course, with PZ’s face on it.
His statue can then join mine.
http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/CL6142.do?code=PDINCLUDE&code=DTPLAS12&gclid=CjwKEAjw3Nq9BRCw8OD6s4eI5HASJABsfCIaECyc_J2OyFr1O8Arw7q_-vJ3B0e-GsYehTNafTbyvhoC1y_w_wcB
On a more serious note, attack Trump’s lack of ideas, not his physique or alleged gonads/genitalia.
Although, the portrayal of senile changes in external genitalia is uncannily accurate. It makes me ponder precisely what the artist does as a day job, such as working in senior care at a skilled nursing facility.
#25
I agree that those supporters are certainly hypocrites, but that does not negate the hypocrisy of objecting to body-shaming-as-political-commentary only to then engage in it. And since when has ‘but he did it first’ been anything but childish?
Holms@28,
The only people who have engaged in ti in this case are, as I already pointed out, “the INDECLINE activist collective”.
So you regard armed resistance to fascism as childish, presumably.
There is a link within PZ’s linked article that goes to a Washington Post interview with the Indecline group and the artist known as Ginger who made these. Fat isn’t mentioned, he was just portraying a realistic out of shape old man. Liberties were taken with the genitalia because that is part of the message the art is meant to convey.
No, those defending the tactic are also participants in the hypocrisy if they have ever opposed body shaming before.
Why would you presume that? Defending body shaming / other taunting tactic that is normally opposed, on the flimsy grounds of ‘yeah but that guy started it’ is a world away from self defense against violence.
The emperor has no clothes. Bring on the naked statues of all political figures.
There should have been blood coming out of his whatever.
Supervisor Wiener in San Francisco is trying to get it erected in Union Square for the duration of the election. I thought the mason ring was a curious touch.
Holms wrote:
Like it or not, the small hands thing showed an ugly part of Trump’s personality. If he can’t handle a low-stakes insult like that, how will he ever keep his cool when dealing with diplomatic insults? The answer seems clear: he won’t.
But to be perfectly clear, I’m not defending this statue. It’s in extremely poor taste and should never have been made. The people who brought us this are also the people who spraypainted “Rape Trump” graffiti not so long ago, so this is hardly the first time they’ve been assholes.
Here is some proper satire:
BREAKING: The Greatest Living American Writer: ‘I Can No Longer Support This Trump Fellow’ http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/breaking-greatest-living-american-writer-i-can-no-longer-support-trump-fellow
ck@35: The good news is, Trump wouldn’t get most diplomatic insults. He’d have to have someone explain it to him. (I’m not kidding, I really don’t think he’s sophisticated enough to get the sort of ‘polite’ barbs that get exchanged in those circles.)