Reebok Mocks Trump's Sexist Comments To Brigitte Macron

Pre-Trump, it wasn’t that often a huge corporate fashion and lifestyle conglomerate got into a politically charged dialogue. But that’s exactly what Reebok did after President Trump remarked that the French first lady, Brigitte Macron, was “in such good shape — beautiful,” during his recent trip to France. However, recently, Reebok took to Twitter, Trump’s media platform of choice, to jokingly admonish the president for commenting on President Emmanuel Macron’s wife on her appearance.
Macron, who at 64 is 25 years older than her husband, received the assessment, made with the presumption that for a woman of her age, she is “in such good shape — beautiful,” with dignity and shrugged it off. (For the record, Trump is 24 years older than his wife, Melania.) Reebok, a company owned by Adidas, picked up on the fact that many people found the president’s comments sexist. After all, the notion that a woman’s appearance is up for scrutiny by a man in power is the definition of the male gaze, a term coined by feminist scholar and filmmaker Laura Mulvey.
The exchange occurred on June 13, when the U.S. and French presidents toured the museums at Les Invalides with their respective wives. After completing the tour, Trump gestured to Macron’s body, and remarked on her physique. The exchange, which was captured on video and posted to the French government’s Facebook page draws many parallels to the infamous Access Hollywood tapes where President Trump confesses, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

The following day, Reebok, in an attempt to disprove the aforementioned claim that “you can do anything,” posted the following on Twitter:

In case you were wondering when it IS appropriate to say, “You’re in such good shape…beautiful,”… THIS: pic.twitter.com/Z1cnnRD8Ut
— Reebok (@Reebok) July 14, 2017
The question now becomes, how far will players in the free-market go to criticize the Trump administration, and/or the individual behavior of the president?
A post shared by Dior Official (@dior) on Jun 18, 2017 at 7:04am PDT
For the past two seasons, the fashion industry has used international fashion weeks to broadcast political messages of resistance to the current regime. Take for example, Christian Dior’s “We Should All Be Feminists” t-shirts (which debuted two months before the U.S. election), or Prabal Gurung’s entire collection of slogan tees, with messages like “The Future Is Female,” “We Will Not Be Silenced,” and “Nevertheless She Persisted,” (which followed the outcome of the election).
A post shared by Prabal Gurung (@prabalgurung) on Jul 10, 2017 at 8:36am PDT
It so seems that when it comes to fashion, the personal is most certainly a political matter, especially in this climate.

About the author

Jill Di Donato

Fashion Editor

Jill is a New York native who holds a BA in Literature from Barnard College, and an MFA in writing from Columbia University. She is the author of the novel Beautiful Garbage (She Writes Press, 2013) about the downtown Manhattan art and fashion scene in the 1980s. A former staff writer for The Huffington Post and Bustle, Jill comes to Culture Trip after working with Refinery 29, Vice, Salon, Paste Style, Los Angeles Times, Nylon, Shopify, Autre, and producing content for emerging fashion labels. She teaches classes about fashion and culture at Barnard College and The Fashion Institute of Technology. Her prized possessions are her Gucci fanny pack, vintage rocker t-shirts, and her grandmother's collection of costume jewelry. She's always on the lookout for a gem-encrusted turban.