The Beauty of Melania Trump

 The Beauty of Melania Trump

Melania Trump’s remarks at the Republican National Convention are making news because they appear to have been lifted, partly, from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama. But Melania’s speech was distinct from the First Lady’s in a significant way. When she talked about her upbringing, she elevated the importance of beauty as a part of her narrative. It was one more way that she and her husband used their position of power on the campaign trail to send a message that a woman’s worth can be measured by how she looks.

Presidential campaigns are personality contests as much as a battle of ideas. Voters pick the people they want to represent their nation alongside a vision for how they should act. The impulse to vote for someone who can serve as a role model is part of why Hillary Clinton’s campaign believes voters will veer from Trump. But while qualities like loyalty, hard work, and respect—all of which Melania emphasized during her speech—can be learned, conventional beauty is far more difficult for the average woman to emulate—or, perhaps, identify with.
Melania Trump

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For Melania and her husband, beauty is a mark of status and a trait by which women should be judged. Trump, of course, is famous for his beauty pageants. In her convention speech, Melania spoke fondly of how her “elegant and hard-working mother” introduced her to “fashion and beauty” and recalled her time working “in the incredible arena of fashion.” A short biography on Melania’swebsite emphasizes her modeling career and beauty above all else. “In the words of Manolo Blahnik,” it reads, “‘She is a true beauty. She has it.’”

Trump has strategically deployed Melania’s appearance as a measure of worth that can be weaponized. Amid a primary-season feud with Ted Cruz, Trump famously retweeted a side-by-side image of Melania and Heidi Cruz, the Texas senator’s wife, to indicate that 1) his wife was more attractive and 2) that quality made his wife and, extension, the candidate, superior to their rivals. So far, Trump has struggled to appeal to female voters. His campaign may hope Melania can help broaden that appeal. But it’s hard to see how the candidate’s wife herself would be all that relatable to women. A central part of Melania’s life story as an aspirational narrative is that her beauty has translated to success.
But most women and girls can’t measure up to the exacting standards of beauty conceived of and enforced by the entertainment, fashion, and advertising industries. That is the kind of beauty for which Melania has been rewarded. Melania appears to value plenty of personal qualities that aren’t related to her appearance. She spoke highly of compassion, patriotism, integrity, and intelligence during her convention speech. Since many women are used to striving for a degree of physical perfection that’s not realistic or attainable, it may not matter much whether Melania sets an unrealistic standard for beauty. Every First Lady, or prospective First Lady, inevitably advertises a measure of success far out of reach for the average American. Ultimately, it is up to every woman to decide what qualities are worth imitating.

Dennis Bailey

https://extraupdate.com

Professional beer geek. Alcohol ninja. Social media scholar. Award-winning twitter fanatic. Writer. Basketball fan, mother of 2, audiophile, Saul Bass fan and communicator, collector, connector, creator. Producing at the sweet spot between simplicity and purpose to create strong, lasting and remarkable design. I'm a designer and this is my work.