so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
~Williams Carlos Williams
There is a certain economy to the man’s mouth. It stretches and contorts in ways that, at least for myself, are beyond atypical and, as such, are unrepresentative of a normative, well-adjusted human oral cavity. Of course, what spews from said mouth also deviates from what we’re used to from leaders, at least in the America I used to know and the Western world I know through popular media, journalism, and personal experience.
&, it’s this grotesque spectacle, the glaring spout, the gratuitous, giving shit-hole that I’m so fascinated by. For 5+ years, from this perversion of lips, comes the distortion of norms, institutions, morals, policies, us.
So, there it is, the mouth as synecdoche.
As multiple psychologists, Trump family members, former high-ranking gov officials, theologians, ethicists, and work-a-day folk, like myself, have noted, he is a malignant narcissist. Research indicates such narcissism is rooted in deep, abiding insecurities. His demagoguery is reminiscent of the kind found in Europe in the 1920’s and 1930’s, during the Weimar Republic. As many historians and psychologists have noted, Hitler, the biggest fiend from this time, had failed to realize his desires as an artist. In many respects, he failed to live in his dream and, as those same historians and shrinks point out, he sought validation through rally, revolt, and eventually war.
As a parallel, if Trump had love and compassion in his early life – as many reports suggest he did not – it would shine through in his actions now. If he had felt full, secure, and confident, he wouldn’t be so clearly troubled and that insecurity wouldn’t bleed into where we resist. If he *just* felt good about himself.
So much depends
upon
a little red
lipstick
Hence this:
The audio and the wrapper, the container, both matter here.
The song is “I Feel Pretty” from Act II of the 1957 musical, West Side Story, by renowned composer Leonard Bernstein. It fits with the above explanation (although the 1995 Cardigan’s hit, “Lovefool” was a close second choice….love me, love me, say that you’ll love me…)
With respect to the “wrapper”, I consider social media – with facebook being the stand-in – as an apt vehicle to convey the subversion and dominance of over not only traditional but new media as well as Trump’s unquestionable mastery of rewriting rules of coverage and interaction. Give the man credit where it’s due – he knows the game and he plays it like an expert / us like a violin. I digress. That the content is delivered on a phone, as opposed to a laptop, desktop, or tablet, emphasizes and reinforces our relationship to ubiquitous computing, to noise – the always-on connection. A narcissist’s dream, if there ever was one. This “noise”, and the contrasting “silence” are broader threads of inquiry and it is from this line of questioning where this piece originated.
Future directions…I’m very satisfied with how the video came out. & I enjoyed thinking it through and, admittedly, butchering the lipstick job. It’s a good proof. With or without the above exposition, I find it simple and accessible (i.e. not over-intellectualized and, thus, cold.)
Cool. So, where does this go?
The material, lipstick in particular, is worth further consideration. Like the phone, there are layered levels of meaning and symbolism to push and pull. Lipstick is meant to beautify, but can also be read on a man as an effort to emasculate or feminize (i disagree with this reading as it’s narrow and rooted in gender norms, something I’m aware of but find…limiting.) There’s also the fact that lipstick has a tendency to stick to surfaces – something more to that, I think.
The notion, and various aesthetics, of synecdoche holds appeal, particularly as it relates to figures and power structures.
In so many ways, this is a tongue-in-cheek broadside on the man. That feels, at times, petty and my better-self cries for compassion as I believe the man – and those, like certain family members, who support/ed him – need understanding and love, not ridicule. I struggle with this and inside that struggle is a triggered intimacy and desire. All that to say there may be a personal angle here worth excavating. Or not.
All told, the real commentary and critique are coming from a deterministic lens (how very McLuhan of me.) How is the media shaping society, behaviors, relationships, us? How does it help shape, extend, enforce power? What does that power, specifically look like? It invariably varies, yet how can I critique, agitate, interrogate, and interrupt specific instances (ahem, Donald, I’m looking at you, you pretty little butch.)
I can’t say where this goes, exactly. I don’t feel I need to. At least not yet.
