(First a Note: This is not the picture in question. It’s better)
That’s the Yahoo! News headline. Hillary Edited Out of Iconic Photo. Though I’m not particularly concerned about that. I’m more interested in the media narrative about a staged photo. The word iconic keeps popping up as an adjective to describe this "piece of…history."
Well, Iconic is defined by dictionary dot com as…
-Adj,
1. relating to, resembling, or having the character of an icon.
2. (of memorial sculptures, esp those depicting athletes of ancient Greece) having a fixed conventional style.
OK. Not much to work with there. How about Icon then?
| — n | |
| 1. | Also: ikon a representation of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint, esp one painted in oil on a wooden panel, depicted in a traditional Byzantine style and venerated in the Eastern Church |
| 2. | an image, picture, representation, etc |
| 3. | a person or thing regarded as a symbol of a belief, nation, community, or cultural movement |
| 4. | a person regarded as a sex symbol or as a symbol of the latest fashion trends |
| 5. | a pictorial representation of a facility available on a computer system, that enables the facility to be activated by means of a screen cursor rather than by a textual instruction |
Which of these five do you think the media is shooting for?
Given the direction of public education, I think we will have to amalgamate these into a common perception. Something that fits the modern, western, collective unconscious, or in this case the media narrative about the current administration. Iconic implies a historical moment of great importance destined to define our nation and it’s leaders (so -depicted) for generations to come. Think- Sputnik moment!
Well lets work with that.