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NY Times’ Sexist Takeaway From RNC: Attacks Tiffany, Ivanka, and Guilfoyle

Posted on 30 August 2020

New York Times “writer at large” Sarah Lyall issued a snotty, sexist story for Saturday’s edition, “The Trump Show’s Supporting Female Cast,” arbitrarily bashing the female members of Trump’s family and any other women who have the bad taste to be in the Trump Administration’s orbit. Read these highlights and remember this is a “political memo” in the paper’s news section: If you were to create a chart showing the hierarchical position of each of President Trump’s four adult children, judging from how often he sees, mentions or is photographed with them, you would surely place the golden child of the family, Ivanka Trump, at the very top. Next would come the two sons -- Donald Trump Jr. and Eric. In last position, sadly, would be Tiffany Trump, who can’t seem to shake her image as the Little Match Girl of the Trump clan, the outsider looking wistfully at the party through a rose-colored window. Yet there was Tiffany at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, dressed in a wide-legged powder-blue pantsuit, her hair styled for maximum platinum impact, smiling beatifically as she denounced the evils of mind control and implored voters to re-elect her father to prevent disaster in America. (….) Visually, the Trump women come across as variations on a theme, in the Fox News mold -- long glossy hair, high spiky heels, clingy outfits, sparkling teeth -- but their job is to help improve Mr. Trump’s standing among women. They are there to prove that despite all the unpleasant stories, despite the decision to roll back equal pay regulations, despite the “Access Hollywood” tape, despite the many women who have accused him of harassment and assault, despite the fact that he cheated on his pregnant wife with an adult-film star and then paid her (the star) to keep quiet, Mr. Trump is a champion of their gender. The tone was less ideological (save for some "far-right" labeling) than gossipy, but serving Lyall’s anti-conservative politics (click “expand”): [Tiffany] is 26, the only child of the short-lived marriage between Mr. Trump and Marla Maples, the model who was quoted as saying that Mr. Trump had given her “the best sex I’ve ever had” during their affair, at a time when Mr. Trump was a tabloid personality in New York City. (Mr. Trump hastily divorced his first wife, Ivana, and then married Ms. Maples two months after she gave birth to Tiffany.)... (….) Tiffany began her speech on Thursday night by saying that she could “relate to so many of you who might be looking for a job.” But if she tried to appear gentle and relatable, just a girl standing on a stage in a cavernous empty room asking people to love (or vote for) her father, then Ms. Guilfoyle -- older, brasher, louder, the chairwoman of the Trump Victory Finance Committee -- came across as some sort of avenging Valkyrie, raining terrifying visions of a dark, apocalyptic future on the television audience. Standing in high heels, swathed in a form-hugging red dress, Ms. Guilfoyle yelled about anarchists, arsonists and socialists, declaring that the only thing that could save the country from sliding into smoldering ruins was four more years of her boyfriend’s father as president. But remember, it's still sexist to remind people about Kamala Harris's relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown: Ms. Guilfoyle, 51, has said that she enjoys going on hunting and shooting trips with Mr. Trump Jr., 41, in a way that recalls how Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate and Alaska governor, talked about those pursuits. With her brash persona and over-the-top, hate-the-libs message, Ms. Guilfoyle is the perfect icon for the president’s far-right base, [liberal author Jill] Filipovic said. Lyall typically tries to froth her stories up into something more exciting than what the actual facts relate, invariably to make the conservative side look ridiculous (which sometimes backfires, as in the case of her bashing of Brexit-supporters).