On U.S. Presidential Effigy

Sammendrag

This essay interprets effigies of Presidents Biden and Trump, first investigating effigies in editorial cartooning overwhelmingly produced by white males, then examining effigies by Black women creators, which generally avoid detailing the face of power to be excoriated. Although this essay foregrounds a race analysis when bringing these two kinds of effigy practices into critical alignment, it argues against easy comparisons between them while highlighting how effigies of US presidents prompt refigurations of raced and gendered citizenship and reflections on community, faciality, and the symbolic dead.