Posted on 02/02/2018 6:33:36 AM PST by Kaslin
The president gives the State of the Union, and the first lady offers her state of their union. A president and a first lady, a husband and a wife, a father and a mother, a man and a woman reflect different kinds of power, purpose and propensity.
Melania Trump puts Frank Sinatra's defiant croon in the present tense: "I'll do it my way." Feminists ought to love her. No one thinks of Trump as an appendage of her man. No one sees her trapped in the role of "wife of," that notorious Washington "title" that once circumscribed the lives of women married to powerful men in the nation's capital.
She's so independent that she won't even take advantage of the easy "gender" appropriation that qualifies any woman, by experience or attainment or not, to sound off as an authority on women's issues. Wearing a pink pussy bow on a blouse is not an authentic feminist statement, nor is her white pantsuit a credential of a suffragette. Her strength lies in her dignified deportment and her thoughtful silence. One cartoonist jokes that her power lies in her gorgeous cheekbones and having the ultimate trophy husband.
The first lady got it right when she was asked by a college student whether she would have married Donald Trump if he weren't rich and powerful. "If I weren't beautiful," she shot back, "do you think he would be with me?"
She makes stylish personal and fashion statements when she chooses to be with her guests at the State of the Union address rather than accompany her husband to the Capitol. She wears long sleeves because they suggest sophistication in an era of gym-trained women showing off toned-up arms in sleeveless dresses in winter. She absents herself when the media circus surrounding her stoops low.
When her husband traveled to Davos, Switzerland, she gave her state of their union by staying home. Bill Maher wisecracked that she visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum instead to "cheer up" after reading that her husband had allegedly romanced a porn star. Maher may think he's funny, but he merely supplies the latest in public crude.
The first lady is an expensive artifice in couturier designs and not the role model type, but she's cool and collected next to her hot, hyper husband. That's a welcome burst of fresh air. No one doubts that his money and her designer taste contribute to her image as a chilled icon with elegant proportions. But in an age when women work so hard to show how angry they are at men, hanging every sexual detail out in public, it's refreshing to watch cool composure confront the stormy weather that circulates around her husband.
With exposure 24/7, it's difficult for any woman to demonstrate self-possession. It's even more difficult when you're married to a man who continually overwhelms others with flamboyant successes and dramatic failures that play out as both personal and political in real time.
As first lady, Hillary Clinton joined an attack pack denigrating her husband's credible accusers as nuts and loonies, part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy." Now, as former first lady, former secretary of state and failed presidential candidate, Clinton tries her hand at comedy. At the Grammys, a video played in which she read an excerpt from a tell-all book that contains a lurid suggestion, which no one believes, that U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley had a fling with the president aboard Air Force One. Why wouldn't any president's wife want a breather from politics like this?
"She may not be progressive," writes Kate Andersen Brower, author of a new book on first ladies, in The New York Times. "She may not be political. And yet Mrs. Trump may end up doing more than any of her predecessors to upend our expectations of the slavish devotion a first lady must display toward her husband."
The shy Mrs. Trump is admired by many for her ability to stake out privacy and elicit sympathy with her poignant desire to spend her Christmas holiday on "a deserted island." It might seem condescending for a woman who has everything to dream about having nothing, but Trump seems not patronizing but merely craving privacy.
She expressed retro feminine power with understated strength to make her son the priority from the moment she was thrust into the spectacle of Washington politics, staying in New York until he finished his school year. The frumpy but forthright first lady Bess Truman, who took no sass from anyone and was always the lady not taking it, refused to give press conferences in the tradition of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, telling reporters: "I am not the one who is elected. I have nothing to say to the public." How quaint. And how quaint that we've got a first lady with independence like that again.
One day some of these journalist clowns - right or left -will realize that Melania is Eastern European not some low-rent rube like Megan Markle (something that Harry will one day wake up and realize). They are quite different than us in demeanor and comportment. And when you’re that beautiful, you don’t have to act like a jackass in public the way The Mooch did or Betty Ford or Hillary Clinton did.
She is awesome, and has made an awesome match :)
Without a doubt, she is the most impressive FLOTUS I ever remember seeing. She speaks multiple languages, she is astute, she is beautiful and has made that work for her instead of against her. All of that is very impressive.
Excellent article. I actually respect Melania Trump more and more as time passes. She has innate dignity, which people do (hopefully) acquire as they grow older.
Clue for Dims: this woman is a proper immigrant !
Melania’s elegance is refreshing because it is real.
Re: “But in an age when women work so hard to show how angry they are at men, hanging every sexual detail out in public, it’s refreshing to watch cool composure confront the stormy weather that circulates around her husband.”
Refreshing indeed!
Melania Trump will be the most legendary of 1st Ladies. Her strength is in the astute , primordial loyalty she has to her husband and his path. This loyalty alone offends the left, whom she has transcended.Those who defame or libel her will be abruptly sued, as the left has indeed learned.
Melania reminds me of a shield maiden from the old mythical tails of Scandinavia.
America is beginning to discover the genuine Melania and fall in love with her.That’s a very good thing indeed.
Elegant and hot. She wore white to counter dem women in black
All things Eastern European are not great, certainly, there is a corruption problem over there. Melania is a transcendent figure and deserves to be recognized as singular as she is. She has always been a standout in any crowd, including Eastern European ones.
She’s an Angel!
Mrs. Trump seems to have a lot of natural poise. People like that appear composed even in unexpected and awkward situations.
They are in control of themselves and aware of their place.
It is refreshing to read something positive about this wonderful First Lady instead of the constant liberal whining and comparisons to Moochie Obama.
From the article:
"She wears long sleeves because they suggest sophistication in an era of gym-trained women showing off toned-up arms in sleeveless dresses in winter."
How true!
This fad of women wearing designer "wife-Beater" T-Shirts and muscle-tops is tiresome and the look is unfeminine and unbecoming.
Even some of our favorite FOX News female personalities are dressing like beach side muscle men.
If they must wear those horrid "Wife-Beater" T-Shirt knock-offs they should reserve them for after work activities and start dressing with a little more decorum while at work and in the public eye.
Better yet - just send them off to Ellen Degenerate and Moochie Obama.
My point is not about government or business corruption, it is about the Slovak personality and comportment.
The government is going to be a reflection of the governed, most of the time. Admittedly, that raises some real questions about us ;)
Oh, stop it. Such silliness.
She is our Lady MAGA.
Closest thing to her is Nancy Reagan. And I was not that big of a fan of the more Liberal Reagan, nor her (alleged) penchant for visiting psychics. But I admired her as loyal and loving to her husband and she would fiercely protect him whenever necessary. Plus the fact that Melania is just knock out, drop dead gorgeous.
What galls me is the new fad of holes in tops so that should are seen.
What idiot thought THIS up and WHY do the ladies think it MUST be sexy or something?
...shouldERS be seen...
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