{"id":9525,"date":"2018-06-27T07:32:11","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T05:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=9525"},"modified":"2018-06-27T07:32:11","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T05:32:11","slug":"trump-and-women-a-marxist-critique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2018\/06\/trump-and-women-a-marxist-critique\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Women: A Marxist Critique"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacobin<\/a>\u00a0– One could say that Trumpism and corporate feminism are two sides of the same coin.<\/strong>\"\"<\/a>We all know that Donald Trump is a\u00a0misogynist<\/a>. But that\u2019s not the end of the story. Trump uses women in a calculated way to promote his business empire and political image.<\/p>\n

This promotion is part of a broader dynamic, where the construct of femininity is wielded as an ideological cement for capitalists: women in business and politics are required to maintain the soft, tender caregiver image on the outside while needing to be tough, brutal, and cut-throat on the inside to get to the top. The way in which Donald Trump associates with women in his business and personal life is a microcosm of larger trends. Trump\u2019s daughter, Ivanka, and his political opponent (and former friend) Hillary Clinton, both represent the same corporate feminism.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0The Art of the Deal<\/em>, Trump describes his father as bold, relentless, and hardworking; his mother, on the other hand, is described as \u201cthe perfect housewife,\u201d who \u201ccooked, cleaned, darned socks and did charity work at the hospital.\u201d According to Donald, his mother was glamorous, supportive, and beautiful \u2014 like many women in Trump\u2019s life, Mary was subordinate to a domineering husband and only played an auxiliary role in the family.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that Trump internalized his parents\u2019 dynamic, which carried over to his first marriage to Ivana Zeln\u00ed\u010dkov\u00e1, a Czechoslovakian immigrant. Ivana\u00a0recounts an incident<\/a>\u00a0with Donald\u2019s father Fred at dinner, where Fred insisted on controlling her menu choices: \u201cI told the waiter, \u2018I would like to have fish.\u2019 O.\u00a0K., so I could have the fish. And Fred would say to the waiter: \u2018No, Ivana is not going to have a fish. She is going to have a steak.\u2019 I said, \u2018No, I\u2019m going to have my fish.\u2019\u201d Donald insisted to Ivana that Fred was acting out of \u201clove.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fred Trump was against hiring a woman for a managerial position, which he considered to be a \u201cman\u2019s job.\u201d Even though Donald broke from his father\u2019s attitude by hiring women, he still exploited and groomed them to his liking. When Donald hired Ivana as president of the Plaza Hotel, he told reporters, \u201cMy wife, Ivana, is a brilliant manager. I will pay her one dollar a year and all the dresses she can buy!\u201d Ivana felt\u00a0humiliated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the long run, Donald reverted back to some of his father\u2019s attitudes about women, saying that the biggest mistake with Ivana was \u201ctaking her out of the role of wife and allowing her to run one of my casinos in Atlantic City.\u201d Donald preferred coming home after a long day to a woman ready to discuss \u201cthe softer subjects of life,\u201d rather than a wife who treated her work seriously. As he put it, \u201cI will never again give a wife responsibility within my business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout his books, Trump goes into detail regarding his various sexual exploits. What makes these passages so disturbing is the way in which he projects his predatory creepiness onto women. One example is recounted in\u00a0The Art of the Comeback<\/em>\u00a0(1997), concerning a dinner with a high-profile, unnamed woman with power and prestige:<\/p>\n

.\u00a0.\u00a0. All of a sudden I felt her hand on my knee, then on my leg. She started petting me in all different ways .\u00a0.\u00a0. She then asked me to dance, and I accepted. While we were dancing she became very aggressive, and I said, \u201cLook, we have a problem. Your husband is sitting at that table, and so is my wife.\u201d \u201cDonald,\u201d she said, \u201cI don\u2019t care. I just don\u2019t care. I have to have you, and I have to have you now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Trump characterizes women as deceptive, manipulative, and vicious. \u201cThe smart ones act very feminine and needy, but inside they are real killers. The person who came up with the expression \u2018the weaker sex\u2019 was either very naive or had to be kidding. I have seen women manipulate men with just a twitch of their eye \u2014 or perhaps another body part.\u201d For Trump, successful women never lose their \u201cfeminine\u201d exteriors, which hide their cold and cunning cores.<\/p>\n

Trump defines his personality as split between the businessman and the showman, and casts Ivana and his second wife Marla Maples as representing two different extremes of his personality. Both are \u201cblond and beautiful,\u201d but Ivana is portrayed as a \u201ctough\u201d businesswoman, while Marla is the \u201cperformer and actress.\u201d<\/p>\n

His marriage with Marla also failed, since business was the higher priority. \u201cOne thing I have learned [about relationships]: There is high maintenance. There is low maintenance. I want no maintenance.\u201d This time around with Marla, Trump made sure the prenuptial agreement was perfectly clear and without complications. He did not want a repeat of the legal strife of his previous divorce.<\/p>\n

Trump bought the Miss Universe pageant for $10 million, which also came with Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, \u201cthe triple crown of beauty.\u201d Trump claimed these pageants were about \u201cfun\u201d and \u201cbeauty, the ultimate beauty \u2014 that of a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Howard Stern\u00a0interview<\/a>, Trump bragged about the pageant being his ultimate access to women, crudely joking that they should be \u201cobligated\u201d to sleep with him as the owner of the organization. Trump\u2019s behavior wreaked emotional havoc on the first Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, whom he shamed and humiliated. Trump described his constant pressuring of Machado to lose weight as \u201cgentlike.\u201d His control over her left behind deep psychological scars and she suffered from eating disorders as a result.<\/p>\n

If Miss Universe was more about exterior beauty, then\u00a0The Apprentice<\/em>\u00a0focused on women\u2019s killer instincts at business.\u00a0The Apprentice<\/em>\u00a0ran for fourteen seasons, with Trump as the judge of over a dozen businesspeople competing for the prize of running one of Trump\u2019s companies. According to\u00a0Scott\u00a0<\/a>McLemee<\/a>,\u00a0The Apprentice<\/em>\u00a0changes \u201cthe normally precarious conditions of employment under neoliberalism into the entertainment of a high-stakes game.\u201d Trump ends each episode in his boardroom, shouting \u201cyou\u2019re fired!\u201d at the losing contestant.<\/p>\n

The women on the show were caught in a double bind, where acting \u201cfeminine\u201d or \u201cmasculine\u201d could be detrimental depending on the situation. As Trump put it, \u201cNegotiation is a very delicate art. Sometimes you have to be tough; sometimes you have to be sweet as pie \u2014 it depends upon who you are dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the course of the show, stereotypically \u201cmasculine\u201d behaviors such as insulting and interrupting others, attacking and putting people down, and dominating the conversation were selected over so-called \u201cfeminine\u201d ones: shying away from conflict, speaking minimally, emphasizing interpersonal relationships, and providing constructive feedback.<\/p>\n

Trump himself set the \u201cmasculine\u201d tone, and described himself as the \u201cdictator<\/a>\u201d of the show. It was imperative for women on the show to adopt a calculated mindset and to manipulate others to win. In effect, they needed to internalize Trump\u2019s business style.<\/p>\n

If Ivana was too much of a businesswoman for Trump to handle as his wife, and Marla resisted Trump\u2019s neglect of his family life, his third wife Melania, a Slovenian-born model, seems to bridge the gap and function just the way Donald wants her to. Melania is quiet: she supports her husband, tolerates his work ethic, and is content to take on the responsibilities of raising their ten-year-old child Barron.<\/p>\n

But even Melania has had to\u00a0condemn<\/a>\u00a0her husband\u2019s lewd 2005 comments about groping women. Trump made those comments while Melania was pregnant with Barron, but they are not a deviation from other crude jokes he made at Melania\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n

For instance, Howard Stern asked Trump during a\u00a0radio interview<\/a>\u00a0whether he would stay with Melania if she were in a terrible crippling car accident. Trump responded, \u201cHow do the breasts look?\u201d \u201cThe breasts are okay,\u201d Stern replied. Trump answered then sure, \u201cbecause that\u2019s important.\u201d It is no secret that Melania\u2019s physical appearance matters to her husband. As for her professional life, Melania might have her own jewelry line, but her business and lifestyle are no threat to her husband\u2019s ambitions.<\/p>\n

The disturbing sexist offenses don\u2019t end with Trump\u2019s wives: he has been known over time to publicly sexualize his daughter\u00a0Ivanka<\/a>. When she was just sixteen, Trump said to the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>: \u201cDon\u2019t you think my daughter\u2019s hot? She\u2019s hot, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

It gets even creepier than that: in a 1994 clip of Trump with his then-wife Marla Maples, interviewer Robin Leach asked about their one-year-old daughter Tiffany, and Trump replied: \u201cWell, I think that she\u2019s got a lot of Marla, she\u2019s a really beautiful baby, and she\u2019s, uh, she\u2019s got Marla\u2019s legs. We don\u2019t know whether or not she\u2019s got this part yet,\u201d Trump said, motioning to his chest, \u201cbut time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

When confronted with her father\u2019s obscene remarks, Ivanka has refused to criticize him, shrugging off claims that he is a misogynist and instead turning the discussion to how many women he has hired for construction and development throughout the years.<\/p>\n

At the age of thirty-four, Ivanka Trump is executive vice president of development and acquisitions at the Trump Organization and has her own line of fashion items. She is also married with three children. She speaks often about the interrelation between business and personal life, with a heavy emphasis on the business. She is a strong proponent of a corporate-style feminism, coining the hashtag #WomenWhoWork as part of her\u00a0brand campaign<\/a>\u00a0to promote female entrepreneurship. Ivanka is fulfilling the role that her father forecasted for his children in the 1990 book\u00a0Surviving at The Top<\/em>: that of his managerial follower.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I\u2019m just being an overprotective father, but if I have any influence in the matter, my kids may well be managers, not entrepreneurs. It would give me a great kick to know they were just living a good life and maintaining the Trump empire \u2014 whatever that turns out to be when this weird adventure of mine is all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, Ivanka sources her mother Ivana\u2019s work ethic as her main professional inspiration \u2014 the same work ethic that Donald Trump detested during their marriage. For Trump, the difference between Ivana and Ivanka is that Ivana was competition for Donald, and Ivanka has been groomed as his successor, so she poses no threat.<\/p>\n

Ivanka\u2019s corporate feminism is in no way unique to her. In fact, we see the same neoliberal jargon from other top women in business like Sheryl Sandberg \u2014 women who have endorsed Hillary Clinton. Indeed, without the accident of birth, one could imagine Ivanka Trump being a staunch Hillary supporter herself. Her message of female empowerment in a deeply stratified society is at one with Hillary Clinton\u2019s Wall Street\u2013backed feminism.<\/p>\n

The message is simple: \u201cLean In\u201d at your workplace; \u201cuse uncertainty to your advantage;\u201d \u201cstep up and get noticed;\u201d \u201cget the most out of any negotiation.\u201d In her book\u00a0The Trump Card<\/em>, Ivanka cites Arianna Huffington and Russell Simmons as inspirations: two firm Clinton supporters.<\/p>\n

But such a feminism devoid of class isn\u2019t that far removed from that of her father\u2019s. His vulgarities might be shocking, but in his everyday business practice he defined the dialectic of this feminism as something \u201csweet on the outside\u201d but ruthless on the inside. One could say that Trumpism and corporate feminism are two sides of the same coin. In corporate feminism, patriarchy celebrates its domination as feminine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all know that Donald Trump is a\u00a0misogynist. But that\u2019s not the end of the story. Trump uses women in a calculated way to promote his business empire and political image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":9526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,85,43,11,88,17],"tags":[915,158,914,826],"class_list":["post-9525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor-selection","category-human-rights","category-human-rights-online-library","category-issues","category-slider","category-women","tag-corporate-feminism","tag-feminism","tag-misogynism","tag-trumpism","country-usa","Documents-statements-multimedia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9525"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9528,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525\/revisions\/9528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}