Lowering the Bar for Icons

For months in the lead-up to the Oscars, I kept hearing about how the yellow dress Emma Stone wore in La La Land was “iconic.”

I looked at a photo of the dress and it sure was lovely, and quite yellow. But isn’t it a stretch to call something iconic when it’s only been around for a few months? The movie got a lot of critical acclaim but relatively few people saw it. I can see calling the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz iconic, but that’s because generations of people know them on sight. That yellow dress just isn’t there yet. Check back in a few years and see who remembers.

We water down the word iconic when we attach it to any passing fancy. An icon should stand the test of time and be easily recognizable. Sometimes it seems like people use the word “iconic” when what they really mean is “I’m so into this right now.”

Some other questionable examples that I Googled:

“Actress to reprise her iconic role as Jackie Kennedy.” This isn’t Natalie Portman, who was nominated for an Oscar last year. This is Katie Holmes, who once played Kennedy in some bad TV movie that no network would touch and that eventually went to some channel like Reelz or TeeVee that nobody ever heard of. (There is apparently a sequel with a laughable-looking portrayal of Ted Kennedy by Matthew Perry.) Jackie Kennedy is an icon; Katie Holmes playing her in a movie nobody saw is not. Not at all. (The syntax of the headline seems to me like it’s calling the part iconic and not Kennedy.)

We deem lot of things “instantly iconic” but I think you can’t judge something as iconic unless it stands the test of time. Otherwise, you’ll look pretty stupid when nobody remembers these things. I saw this headline: “25 instantly iconic moments from the Scream Queens trailer.” Oh, right, that show from a few years ago that hardly anybody watched (we turned it off halfway through the first episode). Really, how many iconic moments can you get from any trailer? How long is it, two minutes? This wasn’t Star Wars. It was a really dumb TV show and the person who wrote this took a chance that people would remember the show and it really didn’t work out.

I assume a lot of people also thought the “Cash me ousside, how bow dah?” girl is iconic. You remember: She went on Dr. Phil or Dr. Oz or whatever piece of crap and she OH GOD I CAN’T EVEN FINISH THIS SENTENCE THE WHOLE INCIDENT IS JUST SO FUCKING STUPID

Your mileage may vary on what is iconic. I realize this is all in fun but if you read so many articles in that BuzzFeed style saying that various things are iconic, your eyes glaze over and nothing is iconic. I think we should reserve the icon label for something the majority of people could name on sight or hearing, not just something you see online six months later and say, “I vaguely remember that.”