D (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
Melania Trump gets another snub from Vogue magazine, this time by its very first guest editor who just happens to be former Suits actress, now Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. The First Lady of the United States is missing from the ranks of fifteen women who appear on the September cover issue of British Vogue.
Markle, who is responsible for doing the magazine's cover titled Forces for Change and does not appear on it, selected the featured women, thinking they would invoke a sense of inspiration among the magazine's following.
Among those picked were Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist who would miss a certain day from school at age 15 years, to make her protest known outside the Swedish parliament regarding climate change and the imperative need to act on the issue.
Another woman featured on the said cover is the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who is the world's youngest female head of government at age 39 years. Her sense of leadership, global outreach work, and the rising rates of global approval and importance of her country has led her to be considered the most powerful woman in the Southern Hemisphere and also ranked her among the most powerful women in the world.
This collaboration with Edward Enninful, the magazine's editor-in-chief, was declared by the Duchess of Sussex Monday, who has since received criticism for how she has handled this assignment which has been dubbed by an expert on the Royals, Camilla Tominey, as a "circle" of privileged people "patting themselves on the back."
The 15 who made it to Markle's circle include American model and charity founder, Christy Turlington Burns, who has been the face of the Calvin Klein Eternity campaign back in 1989 and 2014 as well as of Maybelline.
Then there's actresses Jane Fonda and Salma Hayek, the aforementioned Thunberg and Ardern, as well as Jameela Jamil, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Adwoa Aboah, Laverne Cox, Ramla Ali, Yara Shahidi, Adut Akech, and Gemma Chan. Completing the count are Sinead Burke and Francesca Hayward.
Markle's circle of 15 make up the individual rectangular portraits of the said magazine issue's cover, except for one which is right smack on the center. The 16th one is not a spot reserved for the FLOTUS, but is rather, according to the Duchess, a mirror for readers to see their own reflection as "part" of her handpicked "collective."
Fans of the U.S. First Lady who were part of the readership base of the publication went on social media to ask how come Mrs. Trump had been left out, when, they believed, the latter had "shined" during her visit to the United Kingdom.
Many expressed their wish to have seen Melania Trump among those included, with one Twitter user saying that "maybe" at the next opportunity the First Lady would be part of the list for the "strongest of the strong."
Still another nominated Melania as an "excellent candidate" as she has been able to keep out of the "political media" while keeping her "composure" in her role as the wife of the president.
The uproar later evolved into how come Indian as well as Chinese women had also been left out and off the cover of the said issue of the magazine.
Social media could not keep from noticing who else were counted out. Those who wanted to see Indian females on the list pointed out that the Duchess could have had her pick: Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Mindy Kaling, Lily Singh, Aishwarya Ray, or Liza Koshy. It was pointed out that Markl;e had only picked out white and black women, and a lone Far East Asian.
Another user criticized saying there was not much representation or "diversity" among the chosen 15. The same user concluded rather cryptically, that maybe "Asia" was not part of the royal's "world." Still another echoed the sentiment, questioning, "where" are the "Asian faces" on the cover.
