By now, you've probably seen the most popular image in Twitter history. The photo, which was reportedly retweeted hundreds of thousands of times on the night of the election, was taken in August and captures what appears to be a warm exchange between the president and his wife.
The final clause of that last sentence is how most journalists would describe this moment frozen in time. But not Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post. Kennicott sees more in this simple arrangement of pixels than most mental patients see in your typical Rorschach test. So much does he read into it that he was able to cobble together a 938-word homage to the image and its subject. And not just any words either, but 938 of the smarmiest the English language has to offer, strung together in a bizarre flight of verbal fancy that rivals the most insipid drivel ever written.
View slideshow: "The Kiss"
Ultimately Kennicott’s meandering prose brings him out to the even weirder conclusion that the hug is somehow an affirmation of gay marriage.
A sample of the essay will suffice, though those into self-flagellation will probably want to read the thing in its entirety. As you peruse the words that follow, try to see them in the context of the replacement image proposed here. It seems far better suited to Kennicott's tribute.
It also appealed to the almost cultlike sense of affection many Americans feel for the couple. Surging through social networks commonly used to keep people in touch with family and friends, it offered a sense of intimacy....
But the photograph has a remarkable and specific latent message, too. Unlike many images of political marriage in which the man lays claim to his wife through a symbolically possessive gesture—touching her shoulder, raising her hand up or kissing—the embrace between these two people seems mutual.
The president, if anything, seems to need this hug and appears almost dependent and vulnerable. The obligatory masculine markers of leadership—resolve, self-sufficiency and emotional equanimity—dissolve into the obliterating communion of two people lost in their own love world.
The Obama photograph shows another reality, what might be called the limitless possibilities of true mutuality, of marriage beyond strict definitions. The Obama marriage appeals to many people, because it seems so comfortable, as if no one is worried about who wears the pants in the house, which is the reality of many healthy marriages today. In a healthy marriage, the partners don’t simply step into ancient gender roles and enact a drama of fidelity and obedience, they invent their own roles in the manner that serves both people best. Marriage is improvisatory, and every marriage is unique. Variation flourishes, and people work it out.
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