If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck, right? Well, not always. Some ducks sport a “Mar-a-Lago face,” despite paddling around in a completely non-conservative pond.
While some us would like to believe that we can easily identify something by its observable behavior and physical traits, that’s clearly not the case when it comes to certain things… Like a person’s political beliefs. Perhaps they have a hyper-polished pout, dramatic black eyeliner, and a frozen face aesthetic. Or they don tactical gear, a bright red baseball cap, and appear to spend hours in the gym every day. Mega MAGA, right? Wrong…
If there’s anything we’ve learned from a recent viral trend, it’s that you should never be fooled by someone’s looks. Or, as the old saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Someone said, “I wanna see pictures of people who think they look like they’d vote MAGA but are in fact the opposite,” and the comments section was lit.
Bored Panda has put together a list of the best pics. From a trans man bearing heavy-duty tools, to a female hunter who describes herself as the “bluest of dots” in a very red state; these people are proof that even when it looks like a duck, it could very well be a bird of a very different feather.
#1
I love Jesus, I love my country and that is exactly why I hate MAGA
Image source: ashlejk
Even experts from the renowned fashion magazine Vanity Fair agree that the MAGA movement is hijacking style. “Girls wear pink. Boys wear blue. Everything else is noise,” wrote Vanity Fair‘s Robin Givhan. Meanwhile, NPR describes the typical MAGA look as dramatic eyeliner, long, wavy hair, sheath dresses – for women, anyway.
“It’s an exaggerated performance of traditional gender norms so common among the women of Trumpworld that it’s known as ‘Mar-a-Lago face.’ It may involve Botox, cheek implants, fake eyelashes, injected lips, glossy waves, and a surfeit of bronzer,” adds culture magazine The Meteor.
The publication goes on to list DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, strategist Kimberly Guilfoyle, and former RNC chair Lara Trump, as those sporting the over-the-top MAGA look.
#2
Progressive Christian in Colorado I love football hockey and Jesus and happen to be a trans woman.
Image source: victoriarosecolorado
#3
Me
Image source: alvina_rose19
But the MAGA look isn’t reserved for women.
“Pete Hegseth, to me, is the male equivalent of Kristi Noem,” says journalist and editor Inae Oh. “Men like him wear these bright-colored blue suits that don’t just fade into the background, and are supposed to be a sign of patriotism. Their shoulders are extremely broad, whether that is natural or not. Their chins, their jaws are very chiseled.”
According to Oh, the MAGA look is about stereotypical gender norms.
#4
Great hat
Image source: wendiaarons
#5
My mom and grandpa
Image source: kyleeee96_
#6
The best shirt
Image source: jameswadewriter
Oh calls it an “aggressive, cartoonish” way to represent gender norms, adding that it’s very much about money, power, and who wears the pants.
“What we’re seeing with something like Mar-a-Lago face is a swing back toward [an era of plastic surgery when] people can tell that people have had work done,” says Alka Menon, a professor of sociology at Yale University.
Oh believes that the MAGA look among women shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. “[It’s] consistent with the conservative movement’s decades-old willingness to embrace women’s rights—up to a point,” writes the senior news and engagement editor at Mother Jones.
And, she argues, to hold some power, while still bowing down to a male king on the throne.
#7
Live in the Bible belt, 5 small kids, love Jesus, but also love PBS and Mr. Rogers and my wife.
Image source: kelsea.trudel
#8
Life-long Yellow Dog Democrat.
Image source: dchog53
#9
I fear that I may qualify… however, I am a trans man.
Image source: lexisword
In an editorial published in the Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, Henry A. Giroux writes that the most revealing thing about the MAGA aesthetic is its “studied ugliness.”
The American-Canadian scholar and cultural critic argues that the whole look turns femininity itself into a badge of cruelty. He mentions plastic smiles, puffy lips, lacquered beach-wave hair, sharpened jawlines, and more, masquerading as traditional values.
#10
I might look like the MAGA bros in my area but am the furthest thing from that. Lifelong queer activist & DEI trainer focusing on trans inclusion.
Image source: daddyspencer
#11
My husband stopped wearing camo hats in the hopes it would prevent such egregious confusion. Spoiler alert: it did not.
Image source: grayish_kayish
#12
Never have I ever voted Republican, and never will. I own firearms and I respectfully hunt deer, squirrel, turkey, and dove for food, not for “sport”. I drive an orange Subaru Crosstrek, all my friends are gay (I’m not, unfortunately) and I never wanted kids. The bluest of dots in the is gawd-awful red state of IN.
Image source: othercindylou
And like others, his criticism isn’t reserved for women only. Giroux notes that MAGA men are all over TikTok, YouTube, X, and other platforms, and likens them to a fever dream of authoritarian masculinity.
“They present themselves as strongmen-in-training: squared jaws clenched in permanent hostility, hyper-muscular bodies forged in gym rituals that double as moral theater, libidinal excess mistaken for strength, and rigid, armored postures that signal domination rather than confidence,” writes the expert. “Their movements are stiff and rehearsed, bodies disciplined into what Wilhelm Reich once called ‘crippling body armor,’ where repression congeals into aggression and vulnerability is converted into cruelty.”
#13
Us on the 4th of July last year at the lake. We live in the reddest state of the Bible Belt & my husband drives an f250… I fear we look like a walking maga ad. But we both value science, progress, human rights & teach our kids about racism/sexism/justice/real history/nature/diff cultures/etc.
Image source: claire.cloud
#14
I have impeccable camouflage. I am a gay trans man.
Image source: carschmn
#15
My grandparents- live in florida and definitely look republican but they truly are the furthest thing from it. Last visit I timed a 2 hour 38 minute political rant with them, my dad, and me about how terrible this government is. Love you Mimi and Pa.
Image source: redhead.gwen
Giroux believes that the MAGA look isn’t only about style, but rather about power and violence. He says it comes across in the men’s posture, gaze, and gesture.
“Clenched fists, growling stares, and exaggerated physical presence rehearse domination as a way of being in the world,” Giroux explains. “Misogyny and hostile sexism are not simply beliefs but bodily dispositions, ways of standing, moving, and occupying space that render women, queer bodies, migrants, and the ‘weak’ as threats to be neutralized rather than human beings to be encountered.”
#16
My fiance gets it all the time. We’ve even been asked if he was related to JD Vance…
Image source: kytanahanks
#17
So so so NOT maga. Just an old trans guy. We all look republican as we age.
Image source: marcus.arana
#18
My husband Paul is the rights wet dream. He loves motocross, hockey and our family. He hates ICE and MAGA.
Image source: andi2all
Even across the pond in Europe, people have been been discussing the MAGA aesthetic. An article in The Parliament Magazine notes that while Europe’s far right have embraced MAGA politics, thankfully, the Mar-a-Lago face has not yet arrived on the continent. And that might be because, as some experts argue, beauty is “not a requirement for power” in Europe.
“Everybody is attracted to beauty,” says Moustapha Hamdi, head of the department of plastic surgery at the University Clinic of Brussels. “But I don’t think that our society is looking for this model of leadership.”
#19
I feel like my son and I give off MAGA vibes. Flaming feminists, the both of us.
Image source: erinhatok
#20
my brother is a socialist but he’s definitely maga-passing
Image source: pucking_arcadia
#21
My dad for sure.
Image source: itskiapapaya
Other experts agree. Alexander Stoffel, a lecturer in international politics at the Queen Mary University of London, is doubtful that the Mar-A-Lago face will ever become popular in Europe.
“Aesthetics is more politized in the United States than it is in Europe,” says Stoffel, who recently completed research on the body in far-right aesthetics. According to them, Europeans are more interested in their country’s culture than by politics.
#22
My husband easily passes as MAGA.
Image source: rebsboys
#23
White, cishet couple with 5 kids.
Image source: shannonkeddpacker
#24
My husband and son moose hunting in Alaska. Yes I found a man in Alaska, who hunts, fishes, loves his guns and human rights. My son went to his first No Kings protest with me. Intelligent men with empathy for others and a love for the outdoors do exist!
Image source: noeread8
Hamdi adds that Americans and Europeans have very different takes on what’s hot and what’s not when it comes to beauty. In the United States, those going for plastic surgery typically asked for “very sharp jaws and neck, extremely tight skin,” he says.
Europeans, meanwhile, generally aspire to look youthful without appearing as having “overdone it.”
What’s your view on the MAGA aesthetic and the Mar-a-Lago face? Let us know in the comments section below.
#25
Retired military husband, a veteran myself, living in deep red Alabama raising two daughters to be as progressive as we are.
Image source: lmferg
#26
Me wearing an American flag sweater because I refuse to let MAGA define it, but yeah, I’m a blue-eyed old white lady and the conversations people try to start with me. Hell no! And me with my favorite queen, Jinkx Monsoon after seeing Oh, Mary.
Image source: elainasfny
#27
Gotta throw them off with the cowboy boots in Georgia.
Image source: claudialuciah
#28
Husband and I are 100% Liberal Democrats.
Image source: mistydudley42
#29
My dad. Closeted gay most of his life. From West Virginia. AIDS protection activist.
Image source: elizabethprotzmanct
#30
Being ex-military and working a blue collar job in small, rural towns is interesting to say the least.
Image source: nathanielnimtz
#31
This white girl from Texas who went to school in the Bible Belt votes blue as it gets. I use my MAGA passing appearance to sneak attack Texas congress staffers when I go to the Capitol with Planned Parenthood.
Image source: instalesskaitc
#32
Blonde lauren tricked em until that septum ring and all the tattoos were visible —also working at a country bar didn’t help.
Image source: poodle_daddy
#33
People have often been suspicious of me for having jobs where I wear a uniform for most of my life, plus I’m from Texas and I’m blonde/blue eyed. I’ve never ever voted R though and never will.
Image source: krizzae
#34
My husband always jokes he looks MAGa but is definitely not!
Image source: suziqwy
#35
It pains me that I’m read as a cis het middle aged white dude… and probably assumed MAGA for it. I try to be as unimposong in public as possible
Meanwhile, I’m just a trans man, former lesbian, who will check anyone around him who says some dumb, racist, homophobic, misogynistic shit.
Image source: steel_city_cj13
#36
My father in law, who is known across the South as Bama Claus. Super progressive and the very first thing he said when his trans* kid came out was, “well it’s about time, honey.”
Image source: kitkatgrilli
#37
This is my (almost) husband. He’s from a teeny-tiny town in Southeast Ohio. He comes with an accent, but he also teaches at a credit recovery/drop out prevention high school in the city where we live now. So we buy him lots of very aggressive anti-right-wing t-shirts and make sure to speak loudly about our views so no one, especially his students, has to ask who’s side he’s on.
Image source: aegriest
#38
I don’t own any Oakleys though.
Image source: paulheaston
#39
Straight white guy in Alabama who sometimes works on roofs and is in a hardware store about twice a week.
Image source: bartificial_intelligentz
#40
Left leaning blue collar worker.
Image source: sacharemling
#41
Utahn, Latter-day Saint, gun owner, work in fuel distribution –
Social democrat.
Image source: thescoreboard26
#42
I’m blonde with a country accent and my husband looks like a cop lol. We love that we have everyone fooled.
Image source: mollieroscoe
#43
My partner (who initiated first swipe) debated messaging me cause she thought I’d be MAGA. Little did she know we’d be fighting fascists, jet setting to iconic queer landmarks, midnight walking at civil war battlefields, going to art exhibitions on the other end of the continent, & generally fuckin shit up (but be in bed by 9 except on adventures) all through life together.
Image source: tennesseejc
#44
I was educated in Evangelical Christian schools forever, work at a Catholic Church, and am engaged to bald ginger guy. And I’m raising hell in conservative Oklahoma every day.
Image source: hayleysingsloud
#45
I’m a “build a longer table, not a higher fence” Oregonian. I recycle and wear Birkenstocks.
Image source: jacquelinebeth87
#46
My husband. He’s retired military too so people make a lot of assumptions about his political leanings. He’s really cool though and not at all a maga piece of shit.
Image source: sabrinajl4
#47
Blonde-ish and Tennessean, and the amount of strangers who have thought they could talk about book banning with me is. But I’m the “low-IQ libtard” of my MAGA family. Luckily I scored this feminist, supporter-of-all husband and get to raise two boys with him.
Image source: s_joy_ner
#48
Super easy to mistake my husband for Maga. Especially with the sunglasses and the motorcycle shirt. He’s just a big sweetie who believes love is love, women control their own bodies and helps old ladies across the street.
Image source: wendys_home_cooking
#49
We both fly under the radar in our reddest of red Illinois cities.
Image source: ellesaursrex
#50
Trans man with my lifted Jeep under a rainbow.
Image source: stephstarstrukk
#51
I think my husband looks like he is super MAGA – or at least country club Republican. And yet he is the most progressive guy I know. Here he is celebrating Pride in NYC, officiating our friends’ wedding, and wearing a Raygun t-shirt concerning our then-former Governor.
Image source: kpautler
#52
I don’t post my husband on here much at all because he distrusts evergthing and everyone, à la Dale Gribble, but I got his permission to share because he loves this too. So, here is my deep Appalachia born, southern accented, Carhart and Snap-On wearing, gun owning, big ass truck-driving, blue collar mechanic husband with the biggest heart I’ve ever known. I think his eyes always give it away.
Image source: angiegonzilla
#53
I’m a 60 year old ordained minister (from an SBC background but I left) turned therapist from a small town in rural north Alabama. People make a lot of assumptions based on all this. I take my faith and continued calling seriously and neither would allow me to support T. I have an adult child who is trans, am a remarried widow and specialize in grief, trauma, and spiritual trauma and deconstruction/reconstruction with my therapy clients. I am also certified in psychedelic assisted therapy!
Image source: janowen
#54
My west Texas grandparents! Democratic socialist and former sharecroppers they have been active in election races my whole life!
Image source: drshelbydorsey
#55
My daughter and I have both been told we’re very MAGA presenting.
Image source: el_oh_el_ay
#56
Idk about me, but people have assumed my husband voted MAGA. He definitely did not. Is it the beard? The shaved head? A combo platter?
Image source: thelifeofjpwin
#57
I feel like I could be maga presenting. So I run my mouth so everyone knows I’m not.
Image source: wildandblueintn
#58
My 94 yo Vietnam veteran grampa on his farm says FDT often and I love every minute of it!!!
Image source: naw__1985
#59
My husband!! He’s 6’5, 240lbs, always carries his gun and will throw down to defend. But, has the softest heart and the complete opposite of MAGA 🥵😍 we went to our local Pride day and so many people were saying they love seeing people like him there supporting! 🥰
Image source: sara_treasure
#60
2014 Emily looks like her full time job is calling the cops on Black kids running lemonade stands
Image source: emmdash
#61
My 86 yo dad refuses to wear anything red bc hes an “old white dude with a belly” and doesn’t want anyone thinking he and my mom are anything but “proud supporters of all humans!”
Image source: turtlemomoahu
#62
Don’t mind my blonde white girl athleisure while I say FDT multiple times a day. I grew up republican and haven’t voted that way since 2016.
Image source: aromajules
#63
my dad used to be republican (voted for tr**p 1x in 2016) but completely changed many years ago (part because i’m queer 🥹). to go from that to voting for a black woman… i’m so proud of him and how much he grew as a person. i’m estranged, he was my only parent. he unexpectedly passed may 9th this year. he loved guns, the american flag, nascar, & much more. such a character. i miss him every fucking day. so very much. 😭❤️🩹
Image source: inkyfawn
#64
DOES THIS CROSS MAKE ME LOOK MAGA! Jesus loving Lutheran, Married in an ELCA Lutheran Church, we are as liberal as they come! We believe in loving the neighbor, welcoming they neighbor and equality for all!
Image source: staceybeaman
#65
my fiance and I. we live in a blue city but get mistaken for MAGA.
Image source: baileyyyy24
#66
Side note we drive a big dodge truck and participate in motor sports. FDT, F-ICE!
Image source: jsmarple
#67
I live in the Minneapolis area and have voted blue since I was 18.
Image source: heidi_hermann2
#68
Idk but it’s my biggest fear as a 30-something-average looking white couple that I will be mistaken as such. Especially since I like pretty dresses & long skirts. My husband’s longer hair/man bun might be the only thing saving him.
Image source: bethanniesbookshelf
#69
I was recently told that I dress like a trad wife 🥴 oh and here’s my dad. We voted for Hillary, Biden and Kamala ♥️
Image source: whimsical1pony
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