Those Trump Statues

[ellenrr]

"The joke itself is in poor taste. It’s a tired and abusive trope that not only fails to push back on Trump’s political power, but also promotes the evilness that is fatphobia, body-­shaming, and transphobia itself."

http://www.theestablishment.co/2016/08/19/those-trump-statues-arent-funny-and-they-sure-arent-progressive/

[Cartoonist]

1. Will someone now make a Hillary statue?

Bad taste breeds more of the same

[HereSince1628]

3. It does seems it could be a provocation toward that outcome.

At the same time, I think a opposition's-naked-candidate-statue war would be iconically ironic representation for a campaign season that both sides seem to view as almost entirely about being against the personality on the other side.

[ihaveaquestion]

13. Maybe, but it won't be as funny.

This was funny in part because Donny-Boy bragged about having no problem in the manly endowment department. I don't recall Hillary bragging about any part of her anatomy.

Satire can be brutal as the "small handed one" is finding out.

[Chemisse]

2. She makes some good points,

although it's a stretch to make this about race.

Even as I found it funny, I was disturbed that the statues accentuated fatness and also the disfiguration that comes with age.

[NNadir]

4. Speaking only for myself as a fat person disfigured with age...

...I found it hilarious.

[marble falls]

8. I embrace my age and physical evolution. May as well as it is inevitable.

[liberal N proud]

5. I am old and over weight, I found to be profound

First of all, had I taken better care of myself, I wouldn't be this out of shape. Trump's body image is a result of his lavish lifestyle and lack of physical fitness. He did that to his own body.

This is also profound because the come on the heels of the exquisite fabulously fake health letter earlier this week.

The nakedness is just a play on the Emperor Has New Clothes fable.

These statues embody Trump and Trump embodies the Republican party.

The author is wrong.

[grubbs]

6. The message I took from it

Is that the Emperor has no clothes. Trump seems to have modeled his life after that hubristic monarch.

Hey I used "hubristic" ! 10 points for once more having better words than the Great Orange Vocabularic Nihilist.

*sigh* I live in southern Kentucky. No one ever plays the obscure word game with me.

I am so lonely

Imma go start a fight with my neighbor. I think I will open with the classic "dipsomaniacal strumpet" gambit.

[ALBliberal]

14. Funny

[marble falls]

7. Seriously. So tRump is in as bad shape physically as is about 60% of Americans. The point isn't....

about his body image. Its about the Emperor's "new" clothes.

Some here are suggesting this not be done because it might lead to Hillary statues. Why are we running scared enough to consider putting a blanket on free speech?????

[bulloney]

9. They seem to consistently place those statues in cold-weather locations.

[hlthe2b]

10. As one who has fought weight my entire life, I get the point of the article

Those "innocents" who are ridiculed and body shamed, especially as children, never forget. Even though I have finally gotten my own weight under control with two years of tremendous effort, those old "hurts" and insecurities don't automatically go away. That said, there are not many ways to send a message to a narcissistic bully who harms so many with his own words and deeds. One of the few means available is to target their own sensitivities and in this, Trump truly "deserves" it. .

I agree, though, with those who fear this will unleash more ugliness directed towards those who do NOT deserve it, including HRC.

On balance, I guess I'm just going to say the context may defend the deed.

[tavernier]

11. It was hilarious!

Yup, I'm his age, overweight and color my hair. But I don't go around calling other people ugly fat pigs, losers, liars, and other assorted vile names.

He is totally responsible for this artistic representation of himself. It depicts a man who thinks himself so beautiful that he can judge everyone else from his perceived level of perfection.

A similar statue wouldn't work for Hillary, wouldn't be funny, because she doesn't belittle other humans.

[MADem]

12. It's certainly about those things, and it's about the fact that TRUMP has engaged in those behaviors

himself, mocking the weight of a Miss Universe, calling Rosie O'Donnell a "fat pig" etc. It's not "tired and abusive" -- it's holding a mirror up to a rip-roaring asshole and giving him a taste of his own ugly medicine.

It IS pushing back on his use of invective to deliver his message, and it's visual, visceral and on point.


I applaud it.

Hoisting an asshole on his own petard is never a bad thing.

FWIW, the guy who created those iconic works is not a leftie--he was going to vote for Trump. Now he is disillusioned and says he's leaning towards (oh, the irony, given the statue's .... dimensions) JOHNSON.

[love_katz]

15. You win for best comment, MADem.

"...holding a mirror up to a rip roaring asshole and giving him a taste of his own ugly medicine." Some people apparently don't know that the artist who made the statues because he didn't like it when tRump made fun of the handicapped reporter. tRump deserves to have his ugly medicine fed back to him in spades!

[SunSeeker]

16. It appears it is the author who has "fatphobia." The statue stays pretty true to Trump's shape.

Have you seen pictures of Trump outside of a business suit?