Nixon mask

Nixon mask. Exhibition by Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda

A Nixon mask is a face mask modeled after the former US President Richard Nixon . The masks appeared at the end of the Nixon reign and remained popular afterwards. Many masks particularly emphasize Nixon's characteristic nose, as well as an exaggerated smile or grin. The masks were not only worn at times as an expression of the protest against Nixon and his politics, they are a general expression of the protest against cunning, lying, tricky politicians and their machinations at protest events. Nixon ( “Tricky Dickie”, tricky Richard ) , who was negatively known as a result of the Watergate affair - which ultimately led to his resignation - has long since become a synonym for the fundamentally undemocratic behavior of top politicians in democracies. Nixon masks also indirectly stimulated the use of other politician masks. B. in Italy worn Berlusconi masks for this purpose . In addition, such masks have long been a popular means of classic costumes, according to Harper's Magazine , Nixon masks were the best-selling politician masks in the USA in 2002.

Add to this a wide variety of uses by celebrities such as Hunter S. Thompson and musicians such as Bob Dylan, and extensive use in books and films such as Dangerous Surf . The widespread use of Nixonia in pop culture in the 1960s and 1970s and beyond, according to Ted Widmer, was due to Nixon's deep roots in the American mainstream. This was mostly underestimated by the upper-class left like Adlai Ewing Stevenson .

Web links

• LA bank robber wears Richard Nixon mask. In: Los Angeles Times. December 7th, 2009 (newspaper report about a bank robber with a Nixon mask with reference to the cinematic use)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ " Harper's Index ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , “ Harper's Magazine (October 2002). 
2. ^ Lee Marshall: Bob Dylan: the never ending star. Polity Press, Cambridge 2007, ISBN 978-0-7456-3641-2 .
3. ↑ Ted Widmer: The Man in the Mask. In: New York Times. November 16, 2003 (Review on: David Greenberg: NIXON'S SHADOW, The History of an Image. Norton, New York 2003, ISBN 0-393-04896-9 .)