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[Makonero]

Why won’t the first lady show up for her job? Why? I became obsessed with this question and eventually looked to Melania’s Twitter history for answers. I noticed that in the three-year period between June 3, 2012 and June 11, 2015 she tweeted 470 photos which she appeared to have taken herself. I examined these photographs as though they were a body of work.

Everyone has an eye, whether or not we see ourselves as photographers. What we choose to photograph and how we frame subjects always reveals a little about how we perceive the world. For someone like Melania, media-trained, controlled and cloistered, her collection of Twitter photography provides an otherwise unavailable view into the reality of her existence. Nowhere else — certainly not in interviews or public appearances — is her guard so far down
.
What is that reality? She is Rapunzel with no prince and no hair, locked in a tower of her own volition, and delighted with the predictability and repetition of her own captivity.

Why not move to the White House? Let’s see.

In three years, Melania only posted one picture of herself and Trump. He dominates the frame; her face is in shadow and cropped out. It is both a selfie and an erasure, a depiction of her placement within their world.

This, as a little side note, is a hermit crab, and the only photograph of an animal that she ever posted, aside from the show horses running races at Mar-a-Lago.
A creature which lives inside its own shell. She must relate, no?

Melania only posted one photograph of her and Barron together. It was also the only occasion when she posted a photograph of his whole face, but she disguised him the same way she disguised herself, in the little boy-version of her big sunglasses — ski goggles.
The public reason that Melania gave for staying in New York that she wanted to let Barron finish his school year. She didn’t want to disrupt his life. This is nonsense, an absurdity that she might have considered before supporting her husband’s run for president.
Melania wants Barron’s world to be bigger than her own. He occupies a totally different, bigger, vaster, compositional space than she does. She also wants to protect him, I think, more than anything. To Melania, protection means hiding.

So, why not move to the White House?
She’s hiding. She needs to hide so badly that she doesn’t care about anything else. Not her country, not how bad she looks, not the money it costs us. She has no shame because, for her, hiding is shameless. It is safe.
She lives behind glass, in cars, in her house, on private planes and private resorts. She doesn’t even get out of the car to see landmarks or walk in the park. She is never among the public, not for a second.
Melania Trump is the woman least fit for public service in the entirety of the United States of America. We should expect nothing from her. She’s living inside a dark fairytale, and in fairytales the women trapped in towers never save anyone but themselves.

Much much more here


A really interesting analysis. Obviously there's a lot of reaching, but since we have no access or transparency with this administration, this is where we are at when it comes to understanding those that lead us and their families.

 

[Manoko]

Obviously there's a lot of reaching

My reaction perfectly summed up.

 

[platakul]

Why won’t the first lady show up for her job?

Seriously? That's gross

 

[Dynomutt]

 

[Captain Zyrain]

My reaction perfectly summed up.

qft

 

[Hickbilly Deluxe]

Oh no, the first lady is choosing to live a private life instead of under the all seeing eyes of the public! How awful!

 

[norm9]

If author is a clairvoyant, she should spend her powers doing more important things.

 

[Akuun]

Yeah, that's a lot of reaching.

I think pointing out that she's rarely posted photos of Trump and her together says something about their relationship, but you can't really go much further than that.

 

[Ogodei]

I would think that's the obvious conclusion. If she loved and/or enjoyed being around him, she would do so. Even if she wanted to keep Barron in school in NYC (which is a valid concern), they could drop by every weekend, or Trump would actually go up there and see them (which hasn't happened even as we move into spring).

Same time, scummy shit like her bold-faced claim in the Daily Mail lawsuit that she was going to use her status as First Lady for personal profit shows that she knows exactly where she is, even if she's not happy as she does it.

It's tragic, but tragic in the sense of a person willingly throwing away their happiness for wealth and power.

 

[dc3k]

Maybe she's just dumb and has no talent so that's why her photos are all terrible and of the same thing.

 

[Goldenroad]

Oh no, the first lady is choosing to live a private life instead of under the all seeing eyes of the public! How awful!

The point is, if you don't want to be in the public eye, than your husband is an abusive figure if he would push that life on you by running for president.

 

[Shanlei91]

Kate Imbach is an American fiction writer and visual artist living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Yes.

 

[Kill Your Masters]

Google knows.

 

[DOWN]

This seems like huge bullshit assumption

And is medium.com a site for alleged mediums to preach their "readings"?

 

[AuthenticM]

Melania did not want this shit, I guarantee you this. She married a millionnaire so she could secure her life as well as that of her child, not so she could share the spotlight with white supremacist traitors.

 

[Jonnax]

This seems like huge bullshit assumption

And is medium.com a site for alleged mediums to preach their "readings"?

medium.com is a blogging platform.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_(website)

 

[Vyse The Legend]

It's definitely weird how she blinked out of existence after the inauguration, casting an odd shadow on her relationship (or lack thereof) with Donnie. However, that point is fairly moot. The less Trumps in the White House, the better.

 

[Boem]

Yeah this is some nonsensical level of armchair psychology. It's basically gossip rag writing. Not that she and her choices aren't interesting, but come on.

Oh no, the first lady is choosing to live a private life instead of under the all seeing eyes of the public! How awful!

To be fair, being the first lady historically pretty much includes being very public. Much more engaged with the public than she is, really.

 

[Betty]

 

[commish]

Yeah, that's a lot of reaching.

I think pointing out that she's rarely posted photos of Trump and her together says something about their relationship, but you can't really go much further than that.

Says what though? I haven't posted a single picture of me and my GF. What is that saying, other than I don't publicly post pictures of me and my GF?

 

[Corronchilejano]

Maybe she's just dumb and has no talent so that's why her photos are all terrible and of the same thing.

I hope this is a reference because this is just an awful post.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

What's with this bizarre narrative some people keep trying to push that Melania is there against her will and doesn't completely support her husband? She just doesn't give a shit about all the things he's doing. She stays in NYC because she can. There's no hidden meaning behind her actions

 

[norm9]

What's with this bizarre narrative some people keep trying to push that Melania is there against her will and doesn't completely support her husband? She just doesn't give a shit about all the things he's doing. She stays in NYC because she can. There's no hidden meaning behind her actions

She's a delicate woman and therefore needs saving. People can't fathom that she's also a terrible person.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

by the end of this people will forget First Ladies had a role in the White House

I don't think she should be pushed into a role she did not ask for so I'm glad she is doing her own thing

 

[RPGCrazied]

Wonder why she doesn't leave. The money must be great. It can't be the sex. Just look at him.

 

[LosDaddie]

My reaction perfectly summed up.

Trump Derangement Syndrome

or, at best, lazy armchair psychoanalysis

But hey, this writer was able to get some clicks from the article. So she wins...?

 

[Anoregon]

Google knows.

Bottom left pic is technically incorrect, Clooney is a trophy husband.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Only safe thing you can really infer from her lack of photos with Donald is their marriage, which you can compound with him having never gone to NYC to see her from the time he moved into the White House. He'd rather go to Mar-a-lego than go to NYC to see his wife and kids. Everything else is just reaching.

She's a delicate woman and therefore needs saving. People can't fathom that she's also a terrible person.

Same phenomenon with Ivanka. Ivanka can't possibly be a greedy, out of touch with every day people despite the numerous time she basically states such in her book, who stands for nothing, she's pretty!

 

[Lionel Richie]

This is pretty fucking sexist.

 

[Lights and Waves]

I have zero sympathy for her. She's a morally corrupt bigot living the life of a queen.

 

[RPGCrazied]

This is pretty fucking sexist.

"I just grab them by the pussy, and they let you do it! " -DJT

 

[hollomat]

Pretty disgusting article.

 

[Akuun]

Says what though? I haven't posted a single picture of me and my GF. What is that saying, other than I don't publicly post pictures of me and my GF?

True, it could very well just be something that simple.

It could imply that her life doesn't overlap with Trump's that often, which correlates with things such as her living arrangement, but as you say, it could also simply mean that she doesn't want to post pictures of her and Trump together.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Reminds me of

 

[ModBot]

It's certainly plausible that the President and First Lady are in an unhappy marriage--many people are. It also has no relevance to anything. This obsession with Melania to the point of armchair psychoanalysis of her photography has no real value and is frankly kind of weird. Let's not indulge it.