So ends "The Inscrutable Glamour of Melania Trump’s Mother In public, Amalija Knavs did not adhere to the stereotypes of an American grandmother" by Rhonda Garelick, in The New York Times.
I was surprised to see this very positive-looking presentation on the front page:
Is the article positive? We're told in the end that Amalija Knavs could have been exploited to greater political effect, and we don't even know exactly why she wasn't. There was all this great material that could have been deployed to soften Melania Trump. Maybe when Melania dies, the NYT will discover material that could have been used to soften her.
The unexamined premise is that women are supposed to be soft. And that human beings are supposed to be used.
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Men aren't interested. It's all women's magazine stuff. The examined premise is that it sells.
We're told in the end that Amalija Knavs could have been exploited to greater political effect, and we don't even know exactly why she wasn't?
The intent is to deflect from the partisan hatchet wielding judge that denied Trump leave from the trial. There is no interest in any nutritional value or point of view regarding Melania’s mother, only to publish her picture and offer the impression of empathy without actually offering empathy…
You cannot be too cynical in an election year.
"And that human beings are supposed to be used."
For the NYT 5th Avenue crowd, they couldn't think of it any other way. Putin landing a one megaton ss18 airburst over The Pierre would do the world and us an immense favor.
Maybe when Melania dies, the NYT will discover material that could have been used to soften her.
Discover? Shouldn't that read "safe to reveal"? Once Trump is finally, really, totally and completely gone it may be safe for the media to treat him and those around him as actual, interesting people [again] instead of "Hitler raised to infinity".
Like those power plants the utility runs only a few days a year in summer, the propaganda makers are firing up the machines that sit idle outside of election season.
…or all hands on deck if you prefer.
I read some of the comments. Many NYT commenters believe that there is such a thing as an illegal alien and that such a person is Melania and her parents.....The article doesn't actually say anything nice about the Knav, only that nice things could be said about her.
The unexamined premise is that women are supposed to be soft. And that human beings are supposed to be used.
And that the NYT tries to accurately portray the people it writes about.
"The unexamined premise is that women are supposed to be soft."
Aren't we all taught to be hard to survive?
Inscrutable? That's what my great aunt used to call the Japanese. How about the "unexploited glamour" of Melania's mom, since that's what the journalist expects.
The media didn't bother learning about or reporting on Amalija Knavs because there was no interest in softening the coverage of Melania.
The media picks a narrative, and runs with it whether or not it fits. Melania is professionally gorgeous and accomplished. She didn't get the kind of glowing coverage that Michelle Obama did. Michelle is fine, softball thick I've heard it called, but she isn't the paragon of elegant beauty as she was covered. Dr. Jill is promoted as smart, but a PhD in Education? As a teacher, I doubt she got more than a 27 on the ACT.
It looks like the NYT has a hard time finding a way to say nice things about otherwise private and innocuous people - people that they can't posthumously insult. How dare they be successful as relatives of the Orange One, is the unspoken thought.
Happy Birthday Professor
If trump was a Democrat or GOPe, Melania would be haled as the New Jackie O. Bringing class to the White House. But everything is politics with the MSM. Its not news its propaganda.
Wow, someone not using their children/parents/spouse for political gain. How very un democrat of them.
"Maybe when Melania dies, the NYT will discover material that could have been used to soften her."
Maybe they will even discover she was beautiful enough to put on the cover of magazines. But give progs credit: they use all means at their disposal for propaganda purposes, all the time, down to the details.
"The unexamined premise is that women are supposed to be soft."
If not soft, then at least more "human," as an interviewee on the Marketplace radio show said recently, unchallenged by the host, about groups of female venture capitalists compared to male colleagues.
The underlying premise is that they can be kind to her because now that she is dead because she cannot negatively impact Democrats. Reagan wasn't as much a Hitler after he died, either.
The underlying premise is that they can be kind to her because now that she is dead because she cannot negatively impact Democrats. Reagan wasn't as much a Hitler after he died, either.
Soft women cushion the landing for baby, "our Posterity", a "burden" for some. Thanks, Mom.
The unexamined premise is that women are supposed to be soft. And that human beings are supposed to be used.
As a number of folks have noted, expectations are always adjusted to fit the narrative. That negates the first premise, unexamined or otherwise.
Does "soften" mean "make more likable"? The NYT wants to know why a woman wasn't used to make another woman more likable? Heh. It's a sexism twofer.
Imagine the NYT articles if Melania were someone chasing likability.
I wonder if "middle class" Amalija Knavs was given a new Corvette as a wedding present?
You know, Althouse, they have to write something. Either some editor tells them to write something about Melania Trump's mother, or else, while they are standing in the line at Starbucks, desperately wondering what might be left to throw into the insatiable maw of the NYT, their little phonicle tells them that Melania Trump's mother has died. Bingo! Something to write about! They have to write, constantly, or they don't get fed. Like sharks, that must constantly be swimming, to keep the water flowing through their gills. There is a little wire in the brain of an NYT employee, and if he has not written recently, that little wire begins to grow hot. Hot!
So, it's not like Rhonda Garelick has, for months now, been somberly pondering the nature of the mother-daughter bond, in the light of inevitable mortality. She had a hook, she needed an angle, she found a photo -- Bingo! They have to write something. But you don't have to read it.
Anyone growing up with communism at that time lived a hard life, unless they were part of the state who oppressed the masses.
Kind of like democrats what democrats are doing to the U.S. now.
Point of information. After Tito fell out with Stalin in 1948 Yugoslavia* was not part of the Soviet Bloc, though it remained a communist nation. In fact Yugoslavia was a founding member of the “Non-Aligned Movement.”
__________
* Slovenia, along with Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and a portion of what was once Alexander the Great’s Macedonia, was a component of Yugoslavia. Each component had a somewhat different history and different language (sort of — Croatia and Serbia have pretty much the same spoken language but use different alphabets and follow different religions so of course they hate each other passionately) so no surprise that Yugoslavia fell apart when no longer ruled by a strong dictator.
“ Mrs. Knavs was presented to us as a near clone of her daughter…”
Could it be at all possible that Melania is a more glamorous and successful clone of her mother? Is not that how things usually work?
Apparently, Mrs. Knavs was quite stylish and photogenic…
It's the "strange new respect" phenomenon for some in Trump's orbit. All you have to do is die.
The NYT comments are sickening.
Mostly they dump on the dead woman and many mention Melania Trump's allegedly inappropriate citizenship reserved for people with unique gifts. Well, lots of models and others in the fashion industry qualify for that status. So do other successful people from international industries.
Ms. Trump grew up in an oppressive state, performed manual labor at a young age, learned several languages, became a successful businesswoman, and is probably one of our best-educated First Wives. She attributes this drive to her mother, who lived through some very tough times in her homeland and also rose above her circumstances.
Better than a lying, affirmative action brat, no-show Chicago grifter like Michelle Obama, whose own family seemed far more principled than their daughter.
I’d say they were walking in to the Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley but the lamp posts aren’t right…also, not leftie enough…
There are an awful lot of South Florida grandmothers who wear high fashion and the best make up.
'The Inscrutable Glamour of Melania Trump’s Mother'
Glamour... grammar... grandma. So clever.
The way both of the Knavs women have been treated by the womens' media establishment, especially the mean-girl fashion press of Manhattan, validates every nasty stereotype about those insufferable, barren box-wine cat ladies.
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