Friday, October 12, 2018

FLOTUS Friday: Bully For You, Old Bean.

When First Lady Melania Trump said in an interview during her African trip that she “could say I'm the most bullied person on the world,” or at least “one of them, if you really see what people are saying about me,” the media guffawed: what would she know about bullying, being a privileged white woman and all?

Of course the media immediately validated her claims by criticizing everything she said - and wore - during her trip:

On Saturday, Twitter users compared Melania’s Egypt outfit — a Ralph Lauren jacket, wide-leg pants, and a Chanel blouse — to the clothing worn by the villain in Raiders of the Lost Ark, who was a Nazi sympathizer. – Vox

back of the busImperial colonialist Melania Trump in Africa, making the native guide sit at the back of the bus

Her highly photographed Kenyan safari on Friday featured the week’s most controversial outfit: an Out of Africa-esque getup complete with calf-high safari boots and a pith helmet, headgear that was worn by British explorers and colonial administrators in Africa and has endured as a longstanding symbol of European colonial rule in the continent.

181006-melania-trump-Egyptian counterpart Intissar Amer al-Sisi in Cairo.

Yes, God forbid our FLOTUS wear modest clothes that respect local traditions. Far better to be a cutting edge “fashion icon.”

michelle blouse falling off

And CNN further illustrated the First Lady’s point by running the following headline: Melania Trump's destructive message to sex crime victims in which they accused her of being a hypocrite in addition to distorting the law. Of course it’s CNN, so whatever. In other headlines from the network in the past week:

And my personal favorite:

  • Why the Kanye West-Jim Brown lunch with Trump was a disaster – which concludes with “The result was about what one would expect -- a hard-to-parse, bizarre Oval Office moment with very little substance fueled by West's desperate need for attention and Trump's need for open adoration by famous people,” so no editorial content there.
  • jay-z-barack-obamaThe Jay Z and BO mutual admiration society – remember that? That was sooooo kool!