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Melania and equality

(361 Posts)
thatbags Thu 26-Jan-17 08:07:12

Certain pictures and 'stories' about Donald and Melania Trump are appearing repeatedly on Twitter. It's interesting to compare interpretations.

This one, where Donald gets out of the limo and goes up the steps to meet the Obamas while Melania gets out of the far side of the vehicle and walks up by herself has provoked a lot of discussion reaction.

The most common interpretation is that Donald is a boor/ungentlemanly for not waiting for Melania and walking up the steps with her. I suspect this is based on the premise that he's a boor anyway and, besides, people hate him.

Another interpretation is that he is more of a gender egalitarian than we think because he was behaving just as he would have done if Melania were a man.

The latter interpretation made me wonder if Theresa May 'waits for' Philip May in similar circumstances or whether he just 'follows' in due course?

trisher Sat 28-Jan-17 19:09:52

Ana
Melania Trump and question her intelligence (I think one poster even questioned her claim to have earned a degree at all).
Check her bio here
www.biography.com/people/melania-trump-812016
Says Although she attended the University of Ljubljana, she dropped out after one year to pursue her modeling career. (Since 2006 she had previously claimed she had earned a degree in architecture and design from the university.)
So no degree after all!

rosesarered Sat 28-Jan-17 19:18:48

What does it matter? You can be very intelligent without a degree, there are all sorts of reasons not to have been able to attend a University, and many reasons to drop out.You need to be reasonably intelligent to even get as far as going to Uni!
Even if she was dim, so what,?

rosesarered Sat 28-Jan-17 19:19:54

We will be onto 'compassion' soon grin the new buzzword beloved by some.

Ana Sat 28-Jan-17 19:23:12

Does it really matter, though? Why are so many so keen to put her down?

It's hardly a crime to exaggerate one's qualifications when in the public eye. Or even on websites such as GN!

Ana Sat 28-Jan-17 19:26:26

x posts roses.

I think 'compassion' is a bit old-hat now though. 'Divisive politics' is the new buzz-phrase apparently.

rosesarered Sat 28-Jan-17 19:29:27

Women putting other women down is a very strange thing IMHO.
Notice that it is only about women who have different politics/ are married to somebody with different politics/ are married to somebody that isn't liked/envy of their looks/ envy of their money.What other reasons could there possibly be, for dissing a woman like Melania Trump?

rosesarered Sat 28-Jan-17 19:31:02

Oh yes, I forgot, it was compassion last year.Now it's divisive politics and post truth.

durhamjen Sat 28-Jan-17 19:33:28

"The same posters who found Mair's comment about black skin 'disgusting' and 'deeply offensive' seem quite happy to make sexist comments about Melania Trump and question her intelligence (I think one poster even questioned her claim to have earned a degree at all)."

If it doesn't matter, why say that, Ana? Yes, you can be very intelligent without a degree, but why did she say she had one when she hadn't?

When I mentioned about Melania posing nude on Trump's plane, it wasn't to do with her posing nude, was it? It was to do with publicity. You can't pose nude in a magazine and then have people assuming you don't like publicity. The whole point of posing in Trump's plane in the nude was to court publicity. It was for a world-wide magazine. So now she's the president's wife, we aren't supposed to criticise her?

MaizieD Sat 28-Jan-17 19:35:13

I didn't think that the sainted Guardian went in for offensive cartoons.....but it obviously does.Don'te us all the guff about Gillray, very few will know that it's based on anything ,who see it.But it's alright you see, because it's a Tory MP and Donald Trump( the same sainted rules don't apply to them.)!

What on earth are you on about roses?

rosesarered Sat 28-Jan-17 19:35:30

A bit of compassion wouldn't go amiss I think.....

durhamjen Sat 28-Jan-17 19:36:28

It can be a crime to exaggerate your qualifications. Some people are given prison sentences for it, roses.

rosesarered Sat 28-Jan-17 19:40:52

Obvious innit Maizie... you say it is from or based on a Gillray cartoon .The Guardian feels it can publish something in such bad taste because it is showing T May ( a Tory PM) and Trump naked in bed.Would they have done this with a Labour female PM...I doubt it.
Btw you still haven't posted what violent language you have found on the thread....could this be because there isn't any?

Ana Sat 28-Jan-17 19:41:55

When I mentioned about Melania posing nude on Trump's plane, it wasn't to do with her posing nude, was it?

Wasn't it? Who has said she doesn't like publicity?

So now she's the president's wife, we aren't supposed to criticise her?

Did you criticise Michelle Obama when her husband became president? Bet you didn't...

rosesarered Sat 28-Jan-17 19:42:54

Prison..?! You may ( or may not) be dismissed from a job....depends on how good you have been at it, if you lie about having a degree.
Who doesn't 'sex up' their cv's........

Ana Sat 28-Jan-17 19:43:31

Yes, still waiting to hear about this 'violent language' that some of us condone...

rosesarered Sat 28-Jan-17 19:51:03

This is the sort of stuff that the late Diana Princess of Wales had to contend with, constant criticism.Not only do these women in the public eye have to be relentlessly gawped at and have their every move/word/ looks reported on, but by those who should know better.....other women! angry
There is nothing to criticise Melania Trump for djen, in answer to your 'why can't we criticise her'....how about a wee bit of milk of human kindness.

trisher Sat 28-Jan-17 20:16:50

If we are not. to criticise women like Melania then we appear to accept the culture she represents. I for one totally reject this. I do not want my GD to grow up to believe that only smooth unwrinkled skin is beautiful and that she must aim for air-brushed perfection. I want her to recognise that real women have imperfections and that these imperfections are beautiful in themselves. That ,yes she should make the best of herself but that she should not regard this as her life's work. That real women want to be judged (like men) on their personal achievements and not just on the basis of how they look or who they married.

rosesarered Sat 28-Jan-17 20:26:44

In that case she will have to throw away all magazines and not watch pop videos or at actresses or anybody stunning looking in the public eye!
Teenagers are well aware that they make the best of themselves and that not everybody is beautiful anyway.It's one of life's lessons and most come to terms with it before they grow up.
It's a long way from that view to dissing everything possible about a woman who used to do modelling and is now married to a rich powerful man.
It simply smacks of hate, because she is married to him, and he is hated by some.

Ana Sat 28-Jan-17 20:31:00

You're right about the hate roses, it's quite sad...and this from women who can't wait to jump on apparent misogyny in any shape or form in the media (especially the DM!)

thatbags Sat 28-Jan-17 20:37:25

Melania Trump has a son whose education she appears to be taking seriously (that'll be shouted down, I expect) so modelling, nude or otherwise, and "making the most of herself", is obviously not her entire be all and end all. Go on, criticise her mothering now.

BTW, I'm not particularly interested in MT but I do think the prejudice against her just for looking attractive (which is all it seems to be) needs challenging.

thatbags Sat 28-Jan-17 20:37:52

And when was being a model a wrong thing to do?

sunseeker Sat 28-Jan-17 20:38:52

I imagine there are very few models who haven't done nude shots - it's practically in their job description! It's not as if she is posing nude in the Oval office or Government building - unlike the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons. You may disagree with her husband's politics, by all means criticise that, but I don't think she deserves the comments, almost hatred, coming towards her. She may be the wife of a man who is disliked but she is also a human being with feelings.

thatbags Sat 28-Jan-17 20:39:12

I expect the criticisers are just envious because they don't and never did look half as good, with or without plastic.

thatbags Sat 28-Jan-17 20:41:22

Yous appeared to have forgotten all the classical nudes in art too.

trisher Sat 28-Jan-17 20:49:16

Oh no the argument used in every discussion about women since the year dot! Women who wear flat shoes are lesbians as well