Jill Biden in a miniskirt criticized on social media: was Melania Trump more elegant?
Short skirt and almost fishnet stockings for the American first lady, 69 years old: who attracts the same criticisms already had by Brigitte Macron, Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris. But her message is "political"
Skater skirt, black embroidered stockings, heeled ankle boots: this is how Jill Biden got off Air Force One last week and her clothing was heavily commented on on social media. In an often negative sense: for many too informal for a woman of her caliber, for some unsuitable for her age according to the well-known tacit rule, already disavowed by Brigitte Macron and Melania Trump with varying degrees of elegance, who after 50 - Jill Biden has 69, Brigitte Macron 67 and Melania Trump 50 - both mandatory to lengthen skirts and shorten hair.
At the same time, the opposite wave of comments rose: if he were a man, the social networks thundered in chorus, no one would comment on his clothing (but that's not so true, one could argue thinking about the meme of Bernie Sanders with mittens at the Inauguration Day) and his right at any age is to dress the way he wants.
🟥 REPUBLICANS on JILL BIDEN: "This is how it starts, America! First she's wearing patterned hosiery that we call 'fishnet stockings' because we don't know what those are, next thing you know she's sending emails and trying to get healthcare for everybody" https://t.co/bZbYpbrmBx
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) April 5, 2021
The criticism comes mainly from the Republican side: many conservatives equate the look of Jill Biden to that of Madonna (almost the same age). "These conservatives are right," writes the journalist @sethabramson, "first these socks and then he will try to get basic health care for everyone." Also widely used is the argument that Melania was challenged for every look, while Jill Biden, who also dresses in a more informal way, even lets a faux pas like this one pass through. A more elegant version of this outfit - fitted blazer, A-line midi skirt, total black - Melania Trump has also worn in the past.
In reality, criticism of the physical appearance of a woman of power is a bipartisan practice, the ferocity of which doubles if the charge that moves the lady is to want to rejuvenate herself, or not to dress up to her role. : Melania Trump herself, who has always focused on a less daring look possible, feminine in the canonical sense, high-necked rather than low-cut and with midi and longuette skirts rather than short, some outfits have been contested. Like when she went to a migrant facility wearing a parka with the words "I really don't care, do you?" . That is: "I don't care, what about you?". A choice of style so out of the lines for a first lady so always cautious and reluctant to take a position that many thought of a gaffe without intention. For the rest, however, Melania, whose conventional and somewhat icy elegance was built over years of apprenticeship as a model, overwhelmed by criticism on all fronts, has instead almost always saved herself from aesthetic stardom. And she did well, for example, next to Brigitte Macron in the first official visit to France of her husband president, on July 14, 2017: Melania in a Dior suit long below the knee, Brigitte in a very short white dress, a Mary Quant-style trapeze model, a harbinger of now inevitable social criticism.
Which recur from time to time. Like at the funeral of the French politician Simone Veil, where Brigitte Macron had gone in a miniskirt (at a funeral, the press took offense) and when she sat down, the hem went up too much. But the French première dame, with her slim and slender figure, now 67 years old, has a typical look made of very short flared dresses or cigarette pants, which show off her muscular legs from the always prominent knees. It is her stylistic signature of her, and also serves to show nonchalance about the aura of irony about her age - with varying degrees of malice - which she does not get rid of on social media and in the newspapers; even the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, speaking on Facebook against the French president, had shared a post that called him "envious" of him because his wife, at least, was young.
Who wore it better ?
— Terrence K. Williams (@w_terrence) April 5, 2021
Jill Biden or First Lady Melania Trump pic.twitter.com/qPOJKNB94Y
The other great workhorse in the critique of first ladies' clothing - less ferocious is generally in judging the appearance of powerful women on their own, such as Angela Merkel's Queen Elizabeth-style suits, Christine Lagarde's white mop, Rider's jackets by Ursula von der Leyen - is the inappropriateness of the institutional position. Jill Biden's contested look condensed both objections: "too old" for that skirt, it was said, and too informal. Informality is an argument often used against Kamala Harris, who started her US vice presidency with an Instagram photo, posted by her staff, in which she learns the news over the phone and is wearing leggings. And that she posed for a Vogue cover wearing a pair of Converse. Too informal, he told himself. And the cover was then changed.
From Michelle Obama - also criticized several times: sometimes too brash, sometimes with too short shorts - onwards, democratic women have often deliberately chosen to move away from the official Washington dress code, based on monochrome suits, décolleté with heels and flesh-colored tights. With fluctuating results from the point of view of fashion, but with a message of freedom from a clear and very current canon of femininity. And which also concerns "rival" women: to those who objected on Twitter that while one is scandalized by Jill Biden's pantyhose, one also forgets that Melania Trump in the past posed naked, the same objection can be made: they are not, after all, personal choices that it is not obligatory to judge?
