Melania Is Not Your New Feminist Icon

Melania did not have time and it was the hand swat seen around the world.

Almost immediately it became the image that could, website like this burning its way through social media sites and resulting in numerous memes and gifs. The speculation behind the swat made a promising focal point in many a discussion over the past few days. Honestly, check there is something deeply satisfying in watching how out of touch those two people in the white house are with each other. Believe me, web the irony is not being lost that the way their relationship looks to the public eye, has large parallels to how they interact and treat the citizens this country… but that’s for another day and time. This hand swat is the visual manifestation of the long-held perception that this woman truly despises this man as much as the majority of us do, and that’s absolutely delicious all things considered, HOWEVER.

Let’s get blunt: Melania is not your new feminist icon.

I’ve watched media pundits scramble and scrape the proverbial bottom of the information barrel to make this woman likeable, relatable even. “She’s just one of us. She can’t stand him either.” “She didn’t ask to be thrust into all of this!”

True, it’s obvious that she isn’t a fan of her husband. It’s also true that she didn’t ask for him to decide to run for political office and somehow win. True, her life and her actions are under even more scrutiny now, but it still baffles me how quickly many were to try and turn her into the face of the feminist revolution. For swatting his hand.

Why are people trying to give her cookies for being fed up one time and getting caught being fed up?

It’s a slap in the face to the women and allies that are doing the actual work to resist this man and his cabinet of horrors at every turn. It’s an offense to all the women who are facing the reality of their existence being threatened by her husband, whether it be physically, emotionally, financially or spiritually. Now, usually it isn’t fair to heap the wrongs of the husband onto the wife, but in this case- Melania is complicit accomplice. She is benefitting from her newfound status, using it as a business model in which to sell her jewelry and other business and commercial exploits, which are all for her personal gain and bottom line.

There’s an adage that a broken clock is right twice a day.

So, she wasn’t a fan of his that day. Do not reward her for showing a base human quality known as irritation. Further, do not mistake her irritation with her husband as an act of defiance for the greater good. That hand swat is not in anger for the people, it’s in annoyance for herself in that moment. It could’ve been just a peek of her ire at her husband for his disrespect and general disregard for her as a wife and mother to his child, while serving in the capacity of first lady.

I mean… we’ve had some really good examples of what loving presidential couples look like, the receipts don’t lie. There isn’t much affection there, and for that, it’s unfortunate. It’s also absolutely maddening that in the span of time since the inauguration, everything has downhill spiraled to the point where people are willing to throw proverbial cookies and life lines to someone who would just as soon overlook their pleas and cries of injustice for something as menial as not wanting to hold hands.

Don’t crown Melania for being human and over it. What has she done for the people? Nothing. What has she done for the women in this country under attack? Nothing. That’s saying something.

Written by Aubri Elle

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