Sunday – Miscellaneous: The Wheelchair

Of the thousands of iconic photos of Franklin D. Roosevelt, this is the only one in which he sits in his wheelchair, which goes to show how successful he was to steering his own fabrication in the media as US president (1933-1945). Today everyone knows FDR as the guy in the wheelchair. So did he fail in managing his public image in that respect? Yes and no. One obvious reason to keep the wheelchair out of view in the 1930s would be that it might undercut his image as a strong man in a crisis. Nowadays the fact that he survived polio actually contributes to his image as a resilient figure, lauded by suffering – the perfect leader in crises (the Great Depression, World War II). Not convinced that the wheelchair is now cast as FDR’s source of strength? Watch this clip from Pearl Harbor (2001).