Sunday, January 18, 2009

Ruining the Moment

On November 5th, 2008 I was one of the giddiest girls in the neighborhood.  Absolutely nothing was going to spoil the "Obama got elected!" glow.  I couldn't wait for January 20th, 2009, for the man to be properly sworn in, for him to take the reins from the abysmal Bush Administration. 

Sure, I'm still stoked for Obama to take office and to say farewell to W.  But "Obamania" - UGH. I'm WAY over it.  I'm not over him, just the gluttonous exploitation and commodification of him.  Commemorative t-shirts, coins, magazines, mugs, just about anything you can slap a logo and a face on has been sold.  Enough already. I get it. You're excited.  You want a piece of history.  You want to savor this moment forever. 

But come on people, get a fucking grip.  It's tacky.  In my opinion, the overwhelming abundance of it all diminishes his accomplishment and the actual policies for which he stands, the change he wants to bring.  We've come so far beyond that, so far beyond his message.  It disgusts me.  It's cheap. 

And I cannot wait for it to be over so we can get down to the business of getting this country back in shape.

This flag raises a whole host of issues I don't really care about, but you can read some oh-so-well-written-and-unthoughtful comments at the end of this article. Bottom line - I'm offended because it's so damn FUGLY and tacky. Have I said tacky? Yeah. 

4 comments:

penelope said...

Amen, girl. Amen. It's the American President, not American Idol. :P Can't wait for Jan. 21.

Parm said...

that flag thing is really funny, because it never occurred to me when i first saw that picture that there was any issue aside from the fact that it's just a stupid thing to do. then i read the comments and realized, oh yeah, that's defacing the sacred flag.

i'm sorry, but who gives a shit? the commodification of the flag (and of patriotism, for that matter) after september 11 has made me completely cynical about most uses of the stars and stripes. spit on it, burn it, wear it as a thong, slap it on a birthday cake wave it around like you give a damn...what's the difference? maybe black people aren't allowed to dirty it up or something.

all i'm saying is that it's a little late in the game to be complaining because someone did something disrespectful with a symbol. love of country is one thing. false idols are another. but we could at least try to be consistent right? i'm way more upset about those little fuckers who sit around at ground zero selling tacky holograms of the world trade center.

Niki said...

Is that comment for me or the people commenting on the article? Because I don't care about the "sacredness" flag, I just think it's ugly aesthetically speaking, and it was just an illustration of the saturation of Obama products out there - which was the point of the post, that people are capitalizing on his image in a way that is downright gross.

Parm said...

it's about the comments on the article.