Deploying flood-rescue photographs as masculinity propaganda.

At WaPo, Janell Ross has a long piece titled "How viral images of hurricane heroes are rebranding the ‘redneck’ identity." You can guess what photograph appears first: that handsome white SWAT officer carrying a delicate Asian woman who is holding a little baby. Maybe you can also guess the second photograph: a white man standing up in a boat and holding the hand of an elderly woman.

These pictures and others are widely shared, but Ross focuses on the sharing by "far right, alt-right and just avowedly right-leaning sites." These photo-sharers add captions like:

When disaster strikes, it’s what men do. Real men. Heroic men. American men. And then they’ll knock back a few shots, or a few beers with like-minded men they’ve never met before, and talk about fish, or ten-point bucks, or the benefits of hollow-point ammo, or their F-150.

That is, the disaster activated some men to get out there and rescue people and the photographs activated other men (and perhaps women) to get on the internet and tout masculinity. And the masculinity-touting photo captions activate and Janell Ross and me to analyze the masculinity propaganda (and perhaps you to comment on our propaganda analysis instead of getting out there in the real world and helping somebody in your town or region who needs to be carried or boated somewhere).

There's much more to Ross's column, and it's specifically about whiteness. Ross, we're told, "covers race along with the social and political implications of the nation's rapidly changing demographics." She says:

What appears to be taking shape in the national conversation about disaster recovery is praise not only of the individuals doing the work, but of a particular brand of white male masculinity. And with that has come an open attempt to dismiss legitimate concerns about the stereotyping and racism some self-identified “rednecks,” “country boys” and those who admire them engaged in before the storm.

After all the titillation and anguish of Houston, will the news media ever find its way back to the hate-Trump story?

Trump is insane, he's working for the Russians, he's got his finger on the button, he's a racist. Remember the good old days? Before Hurricane Harvey barged in and demanded attention? Nature. Reality. What a distraction! Blowing away months of hard work! The hate-Trump story needed relentless beating into our heads until this flood rushed in and swept the bête noire down a storm sewer.

But can the media ever get back to normal? I mean the "normal" of everything's abnormal with Trump in the White House.

Maybe the people don't want the President relentlessly kicked around when he might have something to do with helping all the people struggling in the wake of Hurricane Harvey? Maybe people won't tune in to hear descriptions of problems that don't show up in vivid pictures with crying mothers and soaking-wet puppy dogs. Maybe we won't sit still to hear about scary, burdensome problems that need to be described in complicated words and that can instantly evaporate if we just stop believing they exist.

I'm seeing signs that the answer to my question — will the news media ever find its way back to the hate-Trump story? — is no.

Sign #1. This is a story on the front page of nytimes.com: "Pumpkin Spice Glut Arrives Earlier Than Ever," by Tiffany Hsu:

Think Christmas creep, but orange: A slew of pumpkin-flavored products inspired by fall are turning up earlier each year, arriving in July and August as a harbinger of a season that this year doesn’t officially begin until Sept. 22.

And there are stirrings of a pumpkin spice pushback among many consumers who say they aren’t ready for a shift from bikinis to beanies.

From bikinis to beanies... Is that the shift you make in the fall? Off with the bikini, on with the... beanie! We're not just into fashion. We're into tiny, cutesy fashion. Bikinis-n-beanies. Beanies! And the tiny, cutesy problem is: the return of pumpkin spice getting into everything.

Sign #2. The NYT has a story on how young people coming to New York City do not go to the traditional tourist attractions but to things they've seen as backdrops in other people's Instagram pictures. They want to Instagram from the same place, like these pink doors to the restaurant Sel Rrose and the candy display at Metrograph. The tiny, cutesy problem is that the kids only drop by to get a photograph and don't experience what the business is trying to sell, such as candy and other food.

Sign #3. Melania's shoes. "Melania Trump, Off to Texas, Finds Herself on Thin Heels" — that's the "most-viewed" story at the NYT right now. M's stiletto's symbolize where everyone wants to go if we ever wade out of that floodwater. It's on to fashion, fashion, fashion. What does it mean?! Well, isn't there some chance that the shoes are a bridge back from the flood to Trump-hating? She was so out of touch! What a symbol! She doesn't care! No empathy! Trump lacks empathy! He's rich and narcissistic and crazy as exemplified by the shoes on that wife he took to Texas. But I don't think that will get us back to good, old-fashioned Trump hating. I think it showed we were maxing out on trouble and ready to contemplate the familiar, miniature, lightweight-feminism problem of women's shoes:

Now, let's put on our sneakers 'n' beanies and sip on a Pumpkin Spice Java Chip Frappuccino and position ourselves in front of a pink door so the people of Instagram can know we are happy.