That Photo
Pete and Chasten and all the important people waxing rhapsodic over this photograph have done more to denigrate women than any Texas abortion law.
By Pamela Shuman Lange
September 7, 2021
By now, everyone has seen this photograph of the happy couple welcoming their children into their lives. There’s so much to unpack in it, I don’t honestly know where to begin.
First, the gaze. Such a loving look shared between two people hopelessly in love with each other and happy beyond description warms the heart.
Second, the two bundles of joy being held by the “parents.” Newborns, obviously. Tiny, vulnerable and blessedly, at the moment the photographer snapped the photo, asleep. (Who will nurse them when they wake up, hungry and crying? But I digress).
Third, the hospital set. Of course, it’s a set. They are likely not in an actual hospital, but just posing in a hospital bed. Note the detail that the designer of this nice piece of propaganda remembers to include: The crappy rolling table complete with an old-fashioned corded telephone; and most exquisitely perfect—the matching hospital bracelets each proud father is sporting. Even their clothes are rather rumpled and wrinkled as if they’d just gone through a grueling labor.
Propaganda is meant to elicit emotion, not thought. And reading the comments on Twitter and Facebook, this was a roaringly successful piece of propaganda. Filled with women gushing over parenthood, Pete and Chasten are enveloped by the love of strangers, just as these two innocent infants are being enveloped by them.
This won’t be the end of the photo ops for these sweet children. They will be held up constantly as priceless little objects in the vainglorious Pete and Chasten show! Why, if they are lucky, they’ll end up in the White House! And make no mistake, they will be used again as campaign props throughout their childhood. The coming photographs of them and their parents will be just as carefully choreographed as this one.
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