GUESS WE SHOULD BE GLAD SHE WAS FULLY CLAD but the whole hat and coat ensemble was too suggestive of the iron curtain and the cloak and dagger assignments of heavily accented Eastern Europeans deployed to America.
Of course, we are used to our First Lady bringing a more demure attire to the office, acknowledging that they were the face of the nation’s women.
And though we’re not reaching back to Rosalind Carter’s appropriately styled outfits for inaugural day, we do recall the Wives’ Bush and Hillary Clinton being dressed for the occasion; with Michelle Obama adding a more youthful touch to First Lady appropriateness …so much so that there was no question as to what their roles were in the office they would assume as the nation’s primary female.
But this whole James Bond get up was sinisterly inappropriate.
The steely rim of the hat was too suggestive of the hat worn by OddJob in ‘From Russia with Love’.
And the squint, with no hint of sunshine on her face seemed portentous, as if she were daring us to remember her background, largely built on her back. Then, the 8 inch heels on the ice – memories of Rosa Klebb from Russian Intelligence with the knife blade in the shoe tips…
The obliteration of norms by Trump includes the woman who, again, occupies the seat of example.
She is indeed, the first lady….the first to be known in her nakedness and to have literally plied her ware to make a living.
So, this whole dress thing may be some sort of gimmick to this lady of disreputable firsts. Whatever her deficits, we have an obligation to insist on the etiquette that embodies the office and dictates the dress code.
It’s not beyond her to show up naked on a horse…nakedness being a big part of her professional portfolio.
It’s our duty, though, as tax payers, to ensure that the White House, in its pursuit of the improper to brazenly remove dignity from decency and redefine morality to any behavior along the vulgarity scale, fails; and does so decisively.
We’ve been prepared for the onslaught on our sensibilities since he was given the first shot at defacing the Office in 2016.
Unsurprisingly, the staging of this term’s inauguration, as some royal exaltation, was another bawdy attempt at some manufactured status.
Bawdy, Better, Best is the grammar of their comparison to quality.
The only thing historic about it was that a rapist felon was elevated to the Presidency with his wife, a former Slovenia social stroller, at his side….in a tag team assault on what America used to call social fabric.
And for those thinking that her outfit was not a contrarian statement , feel free to have your thoughts.
We’ll continue to pay close attention to the avalanche of disruption that has begun, as of Jan 20th, 2025.