First Daughter Ivanka Trump has had an interesting week. Along the way, a message was delivered that performance art solely created to denigrate a woman associated with the Trump administration is a-ok, even if it is his daughter.
The new interactive exhibit at CulturalDC from Jennifer Rubell is titled “Ivanka Vacuuming.” People are encouraged to throw crumbs on the carpet, and an actress portraying President Trump’s eldest daughter and senior adviser vacuums them up.
The actress is wearing pink in a pink three-walled room with a pink carpet.
Ivanka Trump is rightfully insulted. That was the intent of the artist, right? Mission accomplished. Trump was interviewed on ABC by Never Trumper Abby Huntsman, a regular member of the angry gals who sit around the table on The View. Huntsman’s father, the wealthy former governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, is Trump’s ambassador to Russia, by the way. After asking Ivanka if she’s concerned that “people in her life that she loves” may be in trouble due to the Meuller investigation (she’s not) Huntsman asked Ivanka about the exhibit and Trump said that the exhibit is sexist. I agree. Also, a 16-year-old girl depicts Ivanka in the exhibit for two hours each night.
Asked about an art exhibit in Washington, D.C., that essentially invites people to throw crumbs at a model that resembles a vacuuming Ivanka Trump, Trump called the exhibit “a very sexist representation of a woman.”
“What bothered me about this image … is that they hired a 16-year-old girl. I don’t know what her situation is. But they hired this model to stand there and have crumbs thrown at her for two hours a day for a couple of months. So I have a real problem with that … and that was what infuriated me, more than anything,” she said.
EXCLUSIVE: Ivanka Trump has "zero concern" about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. https://t.co/U2TxvVcO42 pic.twitter.com/dk7YLRxLLz
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 9, 2019
I’m the first to admit I’m not much for performance art. It bores me. In this case, it is one more example that any woman in the world of conservative politics is fair game for personal attacks in a way that liberal women are not. Imagine the outrage if a liberal woman was dressed in a pink dress and high heels performing a domestic chore, much less by a teenager. How about the daughters of Nancy Pelosi? They are adult daughters in the working world. They weren’t run out of restaurants during the last administration or mocked in performance art, either.
The only way Ivanka will satisfy the left will be to go off the rails and denounce her father. That’s not going to happen. She’s looked upon as weak because she doesn’t create headlines due to public disagreements over policy decisions in the Trump administration. Behind the scenes, though, she has tackled some weighty issues. Abby Huntsman could have concentrated on Ivanka’s latest accomplishment, Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative. President Trump signed off on the initiative Thursday. Ivanka Trump does not take a salary in her role as an adviser to the president.
We are proud to help launch @POTUS' whole-of-government approach to advance women’s economic empowerment. Through the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, @StateDept will continue to support women’s economic participation & advance their rights worldwide. #WGDP pic.twitter.com/t0jwPguxF3
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) February 8, 2019
Ivanka rose above the fray and responded appropriately on Twitter to the attempt at public humiliation.
Women can choose to knock each other down or build each other up. I choose the latter. https://t.co/MFri4xKhNI
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) February 5, 2019
Remember when Madeleine Albright said there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women as Hillary Clinton ran for president? What she meant was that all women should support liberal women, not conservative women. The irony is that Ivanka isn’t a conservative woman. Her politics have aligned more closely with Democrats and I think that is what irks liberals the most. She chose family over a political party and works to advance policies that help women and children in her father’s administration. Ivanka is considered complicit in whatever the left is angry about at any given moment. It’s ridiculous, like lots of things are in 2019.
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