Donald Trump and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway celebrate during an election night rally. CREDIT: AP Photo/John Locher.
On Thursday morning, the Trump transition team announced that former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway will serve as counselor to the president. In that role she’ll be the highest ranking woman in the White House.
A statement released by the transition team announcing the move is boilerplate — “I am pleased that she will be part of my senior team in the West Wing,” Trump is quoted as saying — until it gets around to discussing Conway’s role in Trump’s victory, where it makes the claim that Trump “shattered the glass ceiling for women.”
President-elect Trump’s victory on November 8th also shattered the glass ceiling for women. Conway is the first female campaign manager of either major party to win a presidential general election.
Hear that, women? The glass ceiling hath been shattered, it is no more. From this point forward, there is nothing at all to prohibit women from the highest reaches of endeavor. Nope. I do have to wonder if it occurred to anyone that there’s a lingering stench of “hey, she rode there on my coattails, but still, it’s good” to the message.
While it’s true that Conway is the first woman campaign manager to preside over a presidential victory, the statement overlooks that Al Gore’s 2000 campaign was managed by Donna Brazile. Like Hillary Clinton, Gore won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College, after the Supreme Court shutdown a Florida recount.
The statement also overlooks the obvious fact that Clinton this year became the first woman nominated as a major party’s presidential nominee and his victory denied her the chance to shatter the “highest, hardest glass ceiling.” Trump scolded her during the campaign for mentioning the historic nature of her candidacy, accusing her of playing the “women’s card.”
Oh, there’s that stench wafting by again. Yes, it’s fine if a man holds a woman up to tap that glass ceiling, but if a woman dares to do such herself, there’s that terrible woman card again. Silly women, right?
“I have to assess people based on what I see in totum,” Conway said. “And this is a man I’ve been alone with many times who’s never been anything but gracious and [a] gentleman and elevated me to the top level of his campaign, the way he’s elevated women in the Trump organization for decades, because he respects women.”
Yes, there you have it. Elevated. Trump elevates women, because they aren’t capable of doing that themselves. The above was part of Conway’s response to the revelations of Trump’s long line of sexual assaults. Sure, he respects women, he just thinks various parts of them belong to him, to be used and discarded at will. Elevator Pussy Grabber. Got it.
Before coming aboard the Trump campaign as a “data and messaging expert” in July, Conway helped conduct some of the flawed polling Trump has invoked to justify his proposed Muslim ban. In her role as counselor, she’ll be responsible for helping Trump “carry out his priorities and deliver his message from inside the White House,” the New York Times reports.
So, basically, a secretary. Oh, I meant counselor.
Full story at Think Progress.
Words don’t mean things anymore.
How long before he installs Conway as First Lady?
denisevincent:
Pretty sure that role belongs to daughter Ivanka.
A (fun?) fact:
It bugs me no end that Trumps have named their daughter “Ivanka”. Correct form of the name is “Ivana”. The “k” added is diminutive, so the (now adult) woman is essentially named “little/child Ivana”. It seems infantilizing and it grates on my nerves.
Did he elevate her by grabbing her by the pussy?
She deserves better, the amount of shit piling she did during this election put a lot of the professional shit pilers to shame. #MorePower4Kellyanne
Charly@4: A quick check of Ye Pfft! of All Knowledge indicates that Ivanka is Ivana’s daughter (which I would have guessed anyway just based on the name), so the diminutive form is probably intentional, something like calling a son “Junior.”
As for it being infantilizing, are you really surprised?
@inquisitiveraven #7
Only in Czech/Slovak this diminutive it is not used like “junior” is in English at all. Ever. It is used either a form of conveying affection towards someone (like when talking to/about your partner or indeed your child), or as a way to comunicate that someone really is a child, or -- when talking about objects and animals -- that something is small/juvenile. The diminutives in Czech and Slovak do not have functional equivalent in Engish at all, AFAIK.
As a way to clarify: Suppose my name is Ivan. To my parents, as a child, I would be Ivánek, or even more diminutive Iváneček or shortened Váňa. As an adult, my parents still might call me Ivánek, my hypothetical wife or very close friends under certain circumstances could have called me Ivánek or Váňa, but if my boss, casual aquintance, a coleague or even a total stranger ever tried to call me that, it would be demeaning because without close affection it would imply they consider me juvenile.
I am not sure whether it is significant of anything. I am not making armchair diagnosis. But Trumps have given their child intentionally a name that carries with it the implication that whatever she might become, she will always be a little child and will be called as such. Whether it was the decision of Ivana or Donald or both of them, I consider it to be stupid, despite the context and language related implications being of course lost on Americans, to whom her name is like any other.
Charly
Remind me to never tell you what I called my oldest daughter ;)
BTW, since my first name is Russian, I get the “jushka” treatment as well, usually whenever my sister needs something ;)