Why Sophie Theallet was wrong to shun Melenia Trump

We know that the world is not as perfect, peaceful and fair as we all would want it to be, but it will not get any better if we do not put aside our differences, learn to forgive and move forward.

Some days ago, Sophie Theallet, Michele Obama’s designer for the past eight years, published an open letter online stating her refusal to work with Melania Trump on account of her husband’s racist, sexist and xenophobic comments.

After reading her words, I could think of nothing but how hypocritical they were and how victimised she made the new First Lady sound.

Though stating that her brand “stands against all discrimination and prejudice”, Theallat proceed to discrimate against a woman based on the person she decided to marry, not on her actions, accomplishments or personal ideals, and that to me, sounds both discriminatory and prejudiced.

Her sentence: guilty until proven innocent.

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What do people know about Melania Trump besides her former profession, current husband and children and future title as First Lady? Nothing.

Let’s face it, people know very little about her and nevertheless, here we are, speaking negatively, conjecturing and conspiring against her. Congrats world, we did it again.

As a woman, I can’t support the position Sophie Theallet has taken. While she encourages other designers to do the same, she disqualifies America’s new First Lady and denies her the opportunity to prove herself.

To be honest, I expected Mrs. Theallet to empathise more with Mrs. Trump, since they both emigrated to the United States to get a better life and to make real their respective American dreams, but all I have retained of her message is a woman being critical and unjustifiably judgmental toward another. The woman claiming to “strive for diversity, individual freedom and respect for all lifestyles” seems lost.

Sophie Theallet has, of course, the right to say and stand up for whatever she believes in. If there is something positive to be taken from her statement, it’s that, her freedom of speech, action and thought certainly remain intact (even if she does seem to consider this right to apply only to the women she perceives to be marrying the good guys).

When I was a kid, I learned from school to seek the good, cost what it may, to let go when someone was mean because hate and rancour would lead you nowhere, and to give second chances because we are all going to need them at some point. I wonder why schools teach you to believe in fairy-tale endings when in real life, so few are warranted the right to put theory into practice.

My parents also taught me for a very long time to be consistent in my actions because that would become a very important part of my integrity.

I also agree with Theallet on that: Money makes no integrity. But nor does disrespect towards a fellow human being whose only crime was to fall in love with a man that public opinion happens to hate.

Why Sophie Theallet was wrong to shun Melenia Trump

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