I keep a lot of right wing blogs in my reader and a few days ago I starting seeing posts comparing and contrasting President Obama on a bike to former presidents on bikes and horses.
This is manly, reassuringly so.
This is not.I couldn't figure it out. Why are former President Bush's pasty thighs "reassuringly manly"? Why is President Obama not manly, reassuringly or otherwise? I, personally, can't see a difference between the two pictures. To me, that looks like "guy on a bike" and "another guy on a bike".
Then I remembered something. You see, I don't think that the blogger responsible for "reassuringly manly" is a raving white supremacist. I don't even think that most teabaggers have Nazi flags hanging in their living rooms. In fact, I think most of these people would be quite indignant at the thought, and not fake indignant, either. Honestly indignant.
The thing that I remembered? Unconscious Racial Bias.
Scientific
research has demonstrated that biases thought to be absent or extinguished
remain as "mental residue" in most of us. Studies show people can be consciously
committed to egalitarianism, and deliberately work to behave without prejudice,
yet still possess hidden negative prejudices or stereotypes.
In other words, while you may be committed to a racially neutral worldview, you automatically view a white man as manlier, more presidential and all around better than a black man. So when you see those two pictures, which are virtually identical, you identify former President Bush as "reassuringly manly" and President Obama as embarrassing.
This says nothing about President Obama, but it does say a whole lot about you. Unfortunately.
Obama, like the 42 previous holders of his title, had a white mother. He's also not the first one to have a foreign-born parent.
ReplyDeleteYeah, my nephew has taken to referring to himself as "black like Obama". I have to wonder how many people understand the reference.
ReplyDeleteI think Bush looks kind of like Officer Dangle.
ReplyDeleteI keep looking at Blair's statement that Bush had "immense simplicity in how he saw the world," and chortling.
ReplyDeleteOh, the British! Insulting you in such a way that you quote it as a compliment at parties.
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ReplyDeletehonestly, i think it's the shorts, but to me - BUSH looks like a kid. or rather, he reminds me [in that shot] of those sad middle aged men who are so afraid of growing OLD, that they regress and refuse to grow UP, and date women younger than their children and dress in wildly innappropriate ways, etc.
ReplyDeletewheras Obama looks like a man, in those jeans.
and i'll shut up about that.
See, at first I was like, "Wait, Obama's riding a girl bike." Then I realized that, no, it was just the angle and the geometry of the frame that made it look that way and Bush was on exactly the same kind of bike.
ReplyDeleteThen I wondered, "Wait, do they still make gender-differentiated bikes?"
Anybody? Help me, please. Now I really need to know.
It's the jeans. The jeans don't show the bare, hairy leg.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, that's the difference, look at it again.
Just a guess, but maybe they’re alluring to the fact that Obama’s riding a “female-type” bike. Not that I can tell why it matters, or why we even have different models for guys and gals to begin with.
ReplyDeleteJoé,
ReplyDeleteThe original reason for the difference was so that a female could wear a dress on a bike. The position of the frame in the female version is not as structurally stable so they don't use that in bikes aimed at males.
Incidentally, I'm not sure that the claims that PF is discussing are due to racism. This could easily be caused by simple triabalism with a dash of homophobia.
@Joshua –
ReplyDeleteThanks, I’ve been wondering where it came from.
Also, the astute observer will notice that Bush is riding with a “cool” jacket and bare legs on a mountain bike. Whereas, Obama’s riding in plainclothes on a town bike. (Female variant, again.)
Again, not that any of that matters to a rational person, but then, the sort of person who judge presidents based on how “manly” they are probably aren’t symbols of rational thinking to begin with.
(And what’ll it be like when the US will finally have a female president?)
except it's NOT a "female variant" - the angle is much more acute on "female" bikes - because, as Joshua notes, they were made to accomodate dresses.
ReplyDeletebut it's not a female-orientated bike - it's just not a mountain bike. i've HAD that bike in the "female" version [because i couldn't get my right leg over the higher cross bar] and it's MUCH lower...
(And what’ll it be like when the US will finally have a female president?)
ReplyDeleteIf you're lucky, it'll be like Australia...
"Julia Gillard stabbed Kevin in the back this morning? And now she's Prime Minister? Meh."
But more likely these bloggers will be going OMG!!! SHE'S NOT MANLY ENUFF TO BE PRES!!!! (Unless it's Sarah Palin, in which case she's both a fine figure of god-fearin' womanhood AND totally manly enough. In fact, her presidential manliness has not been matched since Nixon!)
Here's my President on a bike.
ReplyDeleteSarkozy: hot or not?
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48945000/jpg/_48945307_009925992-1.jpg
there's also the smile to take into consideration. GW has his tough guy face on, Obama is showing his happy face.
ReplyDeleteIam still amazed-all these years later-that Ronald Reagan is still considered the epitome of what a president should be. An ACTOR, dor heaven's sake. And not a particularly good one, at that...
ReplyDeleteAnother difference is that Obama's bike looks to be too small for him, and in any case the seat needs to be higher: the right pedal is almost at BDC, but his leg is still quite bent. This is hard on the knees and also looks amateurish to any real biker.
ReplyDeleteI'll second what Zilch said.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about the angle of the arms and the back. Bush looks like he's about to go do some downhill motorcross and Obama looks like he's taking his books back to the library.
Bush definitely looks more manly than Obama in these pics. Thing is, I don't give a shit who looks more manly, just who does their job well.
Also, Obama would totally kick Bush's ass.
If I had to make a judgement I would call Barrak more manly than Georgie Jr. However Georgies bike is way more butch than Obammas, I think that was the point of the picture, not some veiled racism.
ReplyDelete