Melania Trump: could be the very very very First Lady a target of anti-eastern European prejudice?

Attitudes towards Melania Trump have now been shaped by deep-seated cultural stereotypes surrounding the «eastern European woman», argues Jelena Prtoric, therefore we should keep this at heart as she begins her stint as First Lady

Though We have resided nearly all of my entire life entirely oblivious to Melania Trump’s presence, i have already been anxiously keeping monitoring of media headlines about her since Donald Trump embarked on their journey to overcome the White home. Melania originates from a specific back ground, the one that overshadows her personality: compared to a Slavic, eastern European girl. Regardless of the age gap and very different life trajectories, Melania and I also had been created into the exact same nation — Yugoslavia. If We had been to go out of my desk in Croatia’s money Zagreb, at this time, after an hour’s drive be in her i’d hometown of Sevnica in Slovenia.

A linguistic that is common geographic heritage don’t make two individuals kin, and I also will be the very very first to disapprove of (several of) Melania’s life choices. There’s nothing inherently empowering in being somebody’s spouse. Even more so whenever that somebody is Donald Trump, as soon as you protect their stance on immigration and women’s liberties.

Donald and Melania Trump in the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Image: Disney / ABC Television Group under a CC licence

Donald and Melania Trump in the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Image: Disney / ABC tv Group under a CC licence

Donald and Melania Trump during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Image: Disney / ABC Television Group under a CC licence

Melania Trump’s hometown of Sevnica. Image: Eleassar under a CC licence

Melania Trump’s hometown of Sevnica. Image: Marijan Latin under a CC licence

Keep in mind exactly how, despite her preventing the spotlight from the campaign path, Melania’s first public speech during the Republican National Convention ended up being a total fiasco? That took place, needless to say, because huge chunks of her message had been plagiarised, lifted from Michelle Obama’s meeting message. Scorn plus the mockery then followed, and also the Washington Post went an article that linked Melania’s plagiarism to “the tradition of cheating in eastern schools” that is european.

Based on the article, Melania’s penchant for plagiarism could effortlessly be explained by the shortcomings of the problematic communist-era academic system. During communist times, young ones had been encouraged to memorise instead of to think on their own. This misconception was debunked since, within an letter that is open a range scholars into the Balkanist, and also by Polish author Agata Pyzik in Jacobin.

In all honesty, all the news understand better right now than to blatantly insult Melania’s origins. Whenever model Gigi Hadid did her Melania impression — ducking her lips and mocking Melania’s eastern European accent — much of this media condemned her performance, calling it racist: really a pleasant shock.

Yet numerous articles describe Melania just as dull and uncharismatic: some nevertheless talk about her just as if she had been a doll (in one single brand new Yorker article she’s “the perfect body upon which to hold a brand”); numerous question her cleverness, and flirt using the term “trophy wife”. And though her being a female plus an immigrant should produce some sympathies from liberals, their silence had been deafening when she got slut shamed (by Ted Cruz supporters mostly) for posing nude.

The absolute most she is represented as a victim of her husband sympathy she gets in the media is when. Yes, the newest president for the united states of america is sexist and condescending to females, but two wrongs don’t make the right, and depicting Melania as a tool that is submissive their arms is simple incorrect.

To wit: we have all evidently written from the probability of Melania anything that is doing as very First Lady. Ivanka Trump — a high-achiever, opinionated and outspoken — has currently guaranteed the name of First Daughter. If Melania had the exact same history as Ivanka, would media objectives of her be any different? I’d say therefore.

Melania won’t ever be Ivanka. Having endured close to her spouse for the campaign, it really is very improbable that she’ll “turn against him” and turn the iconic girl we’d all want to see as very First Lady regarding the States. And unfortuitously, absolutely absolutely absolutely nothing implies that she might utilize her influence that is new to the difficulty of stereotypes about eastern European females. But nevertheless she behaves, i am hoping she’s judged by her actions alone, maybe maybe maybe not her husband’s, and never on such basis as profoundly embedded social stereotypes.

But Melania is not just a spouse. Being an immigrant, previous model and parvenu when you look at the American jet set, she actually is caught in an internet of stereotypes and cultural misconceptions that you can get into the western about eastern Europeans.

Coming from the presumed “desolate environment” of post-communism, usually the item of an unprivileged history and dealing with grim financial leads within their house nations, eastern European women can be frequently regarded as specially docile and submissive within the eyes of Western guys. Besides that, eastern girls that are european have the trustworthiness of going poor at their knees for western guys.

Needless to say, it is really not just eastern European ladies who face such stereotypes. Anti-eastern prejudice that is european a tricky concept to show and delimit. Could it be once you mock your neighbour’s hefty accent that is russian English? Can it be whenever you claim these damn Poles stole your jobs whilst simultaneously keeping that they’re sluggish? Will it be once you don’t bother to master the names of every nation east of Germany, presuming that it is “former Soviet”? One typical try this out denominator nevertheless is the propensity to characterise eastern Europeans as less educated, lacking style or elegance, labelling the guys as brutish and aggressive as well as the ladies as meaningless dolls.

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