The Meaning Of A Bandage
Haven't you been thinking about the significance of Trump's bandage? I have.
Sarah Hampson
Bandages.
Yes, I’m thinking about bandages.
Aren’t you?
The images of Donald Trump with his ear bandaged after the assassination attempt on July 17th sent interesting messages out into the culture. We absorb the most crucial messages through image, and this one is potent.
That bandage is a sign of vulnerability on a man who seems bullet-proof, metaphorically-speaking. He can say and do anything, and nothing seems to bring him down.
But a bullet got him. He was wounded.
And yet, paradoxically, that little white bandage is also a sign of strength, a sign of impenetrability, because, well, he is bullet-proof, isn’t he? It only nicked him. His fleshy ear was his armoured shield. A miraculous survival.
Of course, Trump being Trump with his uncanny mastery of media manipulation and the power of imagery, knows this. He’ll be wearing that blindingly-white bandage for a long time, I wager. Well past his need to do so.
Fashion – because a bandage on your head does make a style statement of sorts – has always been political. We analyzed Obama’s tan suit. We discussed, ad nauseum, the meaning of Hillary Clinton’s bad pant suits. We talk about Trudeau’s colourful, patterned socks.