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In reply to the discussion: To Ivanka Trump. Don't ever think to speak for me about empowering women again. [View all]demmiblue
(36,875 posts)14. I finally found a video of the event...
but I can already feel my blood pressure rising even thinking about watching it!
Even watching this makes me sick:
This article from Elle keeps coming to mind:
Ivanka Trump Will Not Fix "Women's Issues"She Will Distract From Them
...
Her work isn't feminism, but femvertising.
Patriarchy has always had room for the Exceptional Womanthe one woman smart enough, sweet enough, strong enough, soft enough, pure enough, sexy enough to satisfy all of our culture's contradictory demands on women, and thus make it to the top of a sexist system on merit alone. Patriarchy needs that woman. She provides men with an excuse to blame women for their own pain and struggles while simultaneously assuring women that sexism only needs to be outwitted to be overcome. She tells us that the system is survivable for womenyou simply have to be the right kind of woman.
Exceptional Women don't exist in real life. No one is unaffected by sexism; no woman, no matter how well-behaved, is ever safe. But some women, by dint of privilege and good luck, are fairly convincing avatars. This year's Exceptional Woman is Ivanka Trump, and she's such a convincing Exceptional Woman that she's helped make a self-confessed sexual predator who ran the most openly misogynist presidential campaign in modern history palatable to a large number of Americans.
Of course, Trumpism is unsurvivable for women who do not happen to be exceptional Ivankas. "Being the best mother you can be" probably doesn't sound aspirational to a woman who's lost her birth control due to the repeal of Obamacare and can't abort her resulting pregnancy due to increased state abortion restrictions, lack of federal funding, and/or the overturning of Roe. The support staff who provide Ivanka's soothing greige lifestyledomestic and child care workers who are predominantly femalewill not find their work-life balance enhanced by child care proposals that don't cover the cost of caring for their own children, or by the lack of a livable minimum wage.
The goal of Trumpism is not to benefit women. The goal is to benefit one woman, Ivanka, or the one type of woman she represents. She provides her father with a human credential and downplays his sexism; in exchange, she gains an invaluable boost for her aspirational lifestyle brand (only $10,800 for the bracelet Ivanka wore on 60 Minutes!) and the opportunity to charge strangers $50,000 for a "coffee chat," thus proving that women really can succeed after all. We're not meant to benefit from her; we're meant to look at her, and think about how we can be more like her. We're meant to blame ourselves for falling short, as we have with every other Exceptional Woman to date. Ivanka is the Disney princess; we're the peasant chorus members who watch, and serve, and sigh at her pretty hair. Hell, maybe we'll even pitch in some background vocals on a few of the big musical numbers. Peasants always do, in those movies, even though they're probably all starving.
http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a41444/ivanka-trump-distraction/?src=socialflowTW
...
Her work isn't feminism, but femvertising.
Patriarchy has always had room for the Exceptional Womanthe one woman smart enough, sweet enough, strong enough, soft enough, pure enough, sexy enough to satisfy all of our culture's contradictory demands on women, and thus make it to the top of a sexist system on merit alone. Patriarchy needs that woman. She provides men with an excuse to blame women for their own pain and struggles while simultaneously assuring women that sexism only needs to be outwitted to be overcome. She tells us that the system is survivable for womenyou simply have to be the right kind of woman.
Exceptional Women don't exist in real life. No one is unaffected by sexism; no woman, no matter how well-behaved, is ever safe. But some women, by dint of privilege and good luck, are fairly convincing avatars. This year's Exceptional Woman is Ivanka Trump, and she's such a convincing Exceptional Woman that she's helped make a self-confessed sexual predator who ran the most openly misogynist presidential campaign in modern history palatable to a large number of Americans.
Of course, Trumpism is unsurvivable for women who do not happen to be exceptional Ivankas. "Being the best mother you can be" probably doesn't sound aspirational to a woman who's lost her birth control due to the repeal of Obamacare and can't abort her resulting pregnancy due to increased state abortion restrictions, lack of federal funding, and/or the overturning of Roe. The support staff who provide Ivanka's soothing greige lifestyledomestic and child care workers who are predominantly femalewill not find their work-life balance enhanced by child care proposals that don't cover the cost of caring for their own children, or by the lack of a livable minimum wage.
The goal of Trumpism is not to benefit women. The goal is to benefit one woman, Ivanka, or the one type of woman she represents. She provides her father with a human credential and downplays his sexism; in exchange, she gains an invaluable boost for her aspirational lifestyle brand (only $10,800 for the bracelet Ivanka wore on 60 Minutes!) and the opportunity to charge strangers $50,000 for a "coffee chat," thus proving that women really can succeed after all. We're not meant to benefit from her; we're meant to look at her, and think about how we can be more like her. We're meant to blame ourselves for falling short, as we have with every other Exceptional Woman to date. Ivanka is the Disney princess; we're the peasant chorus members who watch, and serve, and sigh at her pretty hair. Hell, maybe we'll even pitch in some background vocals on a few of the big musical numbers. Peasants always do, in those movies, even though they're probably all starving.
http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a41444/ivanka-trump-distraction/?src=socialflowTW
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To Ivanka Trump. Don't ever think to speak for me about empowering women again. [View all]
Solly Mack
Apr 2017
OP
I know. And for what? Be polite to the daughter in hopes of ingratiating a madman?
Solly Mack
Apr 2017
#15
And she'll take the podium with a long meaningless speech delivered in that meaningless monotone.
calimary
Apr 2017
#50
I only wish she'd nip and tuck her mouth shut about things she has no real knowledge of.
Solly Mack
Apr 2017
#56
I watched his show that night. IT is her father with a somewhat better vocabulary.
Solly Mack
Apr 2017
#8
She offers no real check on him. She merely crafts his image as something he, and she, is not.
Solly Mack
Apr 2017
#10
They had to dance around certain subjects which took away from the importance of the panel.
Solly Mack
Apr 2017
#13
Here is the full video, if anyone is interested (the one above was just a clip of the arrival):
demmiblue
Apr 2017
#17
SNL got it exactly right, she's complicit. It's that simple. One word, complicit. nt
stevenleser
Apr 2017
#25
I find her every utterance an insult. Her affectational voice modulation like nails on a chalkboard.
Stinky The Clown
Apr 2017
#30
She was booed by audience members but those probably didn't penetrate her bubble.
Solly Mack
Apr 2017
#31
That voice, that voice. Do you know she says the same things as Daddy, just self-controlled & soft?
Hekate
Apr 2017
#85
ITA, I wanted to puke when I heard a reporter say Ivanka is representing American women. GAH
iluvtennis
Apr 2017
#49
She's the "face" of the Trump brand and they really mean face, since they are hoping her looks
Solly Mack
Apr 2017
#57
She 'supports her Father is ok. To "pretend" shes pro woman with a daddylike him is WRONG!
Sunlei
Apr 2017
#52
She hasn't a clue what poor or working women have to go through and how much they had to
nikibatts
Apr 2017
#62
You can be a champion for women's rights, or you can be a part of the Trump administration.
Scalded Nun
Apr 2017
#64
Word! She has no idea how to relate to us; that gold spoon gets in the way. nt
babylonsister
Apr 2017
#74
She and Jared are the pretty faces on this foul ugly corrupt Administration. Crown Princess ...
Hekate
Apr 2017
#75
Who better to speak for women's empowerment than a woman whose daddy bought her a new face?
SunSeeker
Apr 2017
#86
She's the same evil person on the inside, no matter how much silicone they pump her up with.
SunSeeker
Apr 2017
#90
based on the video today it looks like she has had even more work done. but then again plastic
JI7
Apr 2017
#97
I think she was as well and AM probably had a motive but her presence and her words were no less
Solly Mack
Apr 2017
#98