It turns out that France's president has taken to wear aviator glasses. As the Élysée Palace explains that one of Emmanuel Macron's eyes is suffering from an unspecified illness or trauma, Élodie Mielczareck thinks that there is more to the story, however.
Indeed, his shades have become a political sign, the semiology expert explains to Madame Figaro's in Pourquoi Emmanuel Macron porte-t-il des lunettes aviateur ?
Their shape is far from insignificant: their large, wraparound lenses cover the entire field of vision, including peripheral vision. Originally, they were a piece of technical equipment designed to protect US military pilots from UV rays at high altitudes—hence the name Ray-Ban, literally meaning "banish sun rays."
I cannot deny how stupid I felt since I have considered ray-bans to be such a hallowed name in luxury items that it never dawned on me that the name simply refers to their original practical intent. (Could it be that I am maybe not alone and that many readers, such as Sébastien Laye, feel the same way?)
But very quickly, function gives way to symbolism. Aviator sunglasses no longer merely protect against the sun; they become a status symbol. They inherit the entire mystique of the fighter pilot: courage, composure, technical mastery, and authority.… The object invokes a heroic masculinity—one now made accessible to everyone, without effort or risk. For the price of a pair of glasses, one buys a touch of the fighter pilot’s aura: the cool composure, the technical mastery, and the gaze that scans the horizon while remaining unreadable in return.
Moreover, says Elodie Mielczareck — who has written before about another president, the American one (A Frenchwoman's Detective Work on Donald Trump and His Choice of Language, Donald Trump the Punchline President) as well as about Elon Musk (Throughout History, Elon Musk's Alleged Nazi-Fascist Salute Has Meant Many Different Things) and the yellow jacket movement (Sémiologie du gilet jaune : Entre mots, symboles et imaginaires) — has this to add about France's "Top Gunned president" and his glasses' "physiological barrier":
Regarding these particular glasses, there is a crucial aspect to mention: the mirrored lens creates an asymmetry in the gaze. The wearer of Aviator-style glasses sees without being seen—they look out, yet their eyes remain hidden from the other person. It is an object that generates power by concealing part of the face: one gains access not to the individual, but only to their role—to the function signified by the object itself. The "Top Gun" glasses do more than shield the eyes from the sun; they conceal the subject behind a persona—specifically, that of the aerial hero—which bears no relation to the original optical instrument.
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