WASHINGTON — Lengthy, blond, wavy hair, heavy make-up and beauty injections: like many ladies in Donald Trump’s orbit, political marketing consultant Melissa Rein Vigorous wears her help for the U.S. president on her face.
With the rise of Trump’s Make America Nice Once more (MAGA) motion, a bunch of well-connected and well-off Republican ladies have come into the highlight sporting what the U.S. media have dubbed the “MAGA look.”
“This has all the time been my look. I simply discovered my tribe,” stated Rein Vigorous, 40, founding father of “America First,” a public relations company that gives “anti-woke” companies.
“It is a lot greater than politics. It is friendships. It is relationships,” she instructed AFP in a current interview. “That MAGA look actually alerts to different individuals that you just’re on the identical crew.”
These new-style conservatives, virtually all the time religious Christians, espouse conventional values whereas pursuing private ambition.
Because the September assassination of prime MAGA influencer and Trump ally Charlie Kirk, his widow Erika has taken the reins of his youth mobilization group.
Throughout a memorial service for her husband, the 36-year-old former Miss Arizona dabbed her impeccably made-up eyes with a handkerchief and praised a Christian marriage. She cited a New Testomony passage that instructs wives to undergo their husbands for cover.
“It is so exhausting to articulate the fantastic thing about an Ephesians 5 marriage whenever you even have a person that is price following,” she stated.
Not simply vogue
Whereas professing household values and non secular beliefs, these MAGA ladies are something however shy of their look.
Clad in skirts and attire, virtually all the time carrying their hair lengthy, they are often acknowledged by heavy make-up, which incorporates well-defined eyebrows and “contouring,” a method that makes use of darkish and lightweight shades to sculpt the face.
Many go for beauty interventions, together with fillers and surgical procedure to attain fuller cheeks, plumper lips and a refined nostril.
Rein Vigorous factors to Trump’s daughter Ivanka and his daughter-in-law Lara as her position fashions.
“It is a mistake to dismiss this as nearly vogue, nearly make-up,” stated Juliet Williams, a professor of gender research at UCLA. “It is really completely central as a result of this Trump MAGA motion was in a position to return to the White Home in 2024, I consider, primarily due to leveraging the gender struggle.”
‘Two hours within the fitness center on daily basis’
The 79-year-old Trump has mobilized many younger voters together with his nationalist, pro-business and macho attraction.
The MAGA face is political as a result of it’s “a means of signaling to all ladies that your worth relies on your attractiveness to males,” stated Williams, including that Trump used to run a magnificence pageant.
Rein Vigorous, nonetheless, rejects any concept of submission or coercion.
“By completely no one’s volition apart from my very own do I spend two hours within the fitness center on daily basis, get my hair executed each three and a half weeks on the button, get my nails executed, get my eyebrows executed, get my skincare executed, get Botox,” she stated.
The PR marketing consultant vied for the job of White Home spokesperson for Trump’s second time period, however the president finally picked long-time loyalist Karoline Leavitt.
Leavitt, 28, has surrounded herself with younger assistants who emulate her impeccably groomed look, which incorporates excessive heels, even on journeys that contain lots of operating round.
“I take a look at these MAGA ladies and I do not see them as vogue victims… however I see it as struggle paint,” Williams stated. “And, you recognize, embracing a system that’s finally designed to work in opposition to them.”
‘It’s ironic’
One of many ladies most continuously cited as embodying the so-called “MAGA face” is Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, who has led Trump’s hardline immigration coverage.
“The long-hair extensions, the large lips, the large cheeks, the make-up, the lash extensions, it is like she’s doing drag,” stated Daniel Belkin, a dermatologist in New York.
Belkin finds it paradoxical that MAGA supporters are hostile to tug queen reveals and condemn breast augmentation and facial reconstruction surgical procedure for transgender individuals. They typically resort to comparable procedures to intensify their femininity and masculinity.
“It’s ironic, as a result of they’re so in opposition to gender-affirming take care of trans individuals, however they’re doing gender affirming take care of themselves,” Belkin stated.
In a current episode, the favored animated collection “South Park” ridiculed Noem as a shrew with a face butchered by beauty procedures, which her assistants should consistently patch up for the cameras.
“It is so lazy to simply consistently make enjoyable of ladies for the way they appear,” Noem protested throughout a current interview.
