Those Trump Statues Aren’t Funny, And They Sure Aren’t Progressive
I hate y’all for making me defend Donald Trump.
Yesterday, statues of the Republican presidential candidate popped up in major cities across the nation. Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Cleveland all found themselves the new owners of a 3D depiction of a naked Trump with an intentionally miniature penis, aptly named “The Emperor Has No Balls.” News outlets, major figures — and even the NYPD itself — had a good time poking fun at the statues. Once again, Donald Trump’s penis is making headlines. INDECLINE, the activist group behind the statues, had this to say:
“It is through these sculptures that we leave behind the physical and metaphorical embodiment of the ghastly soul of one of America’s most infamous and reviled politicians.”
To be clear, I love good jokes. I love crude jokes. I love jokes that do what comedy does when it is done well: expose (no pun intended) an oft overlooked and harsh reality in our world. But these statues and the joke around them aren’t funny. In fact, they’re harmful. And the desire to attack Trump on baseless, superficial, personal grounds — in conjunction with similar attacks on his base — seems to have more to do with privilege and posturing, than actually paving the way for a world where the marginalized are centered and cared…
