Sean Spicer and the Cruelty of an Image
Thanks to facial recognition, few of us will get a chance at redemption
After Sean Spicer made his Dancing with the Stars debut this week — wearing a florescent green pirate shirt and white pants as he salsa danced to the Spice Girls’ “Spice Up Your Life” — I ran an image of his wooden performance through a facial recognition program, just to see what would happen.
The former press secretary quit his job in 2017, and has since capitalized on his tenure within the Trump administration by landing a lucrative book deal, paid speaking gigs, a prime spot at a Hollywood award show, and now, a spot on a nationally televised dancing competition. In his introductory video for ABC, Spicer admitted his time in the White House was “tumultuous.” “I think it gave people a very one-dimensional look at who I am as a person,” he said. This was his chance at redemption. Indeed, one judge deemed his offbeat performance as “strangely entertaining.”
The facial recognition program I used found different words to describe Spicer. I uploaded a screenshot into ImageNet Roulette, a site designed to label people in photos. Evaluating his face, the program called Spicer: a “flop,” a “dud,” and a “washout.”
