Smart Women Across America Are Asking: 'Where Is Ivanka When We Need Her?'

"The flaws in Ivanka Trump's feminism are, by now, well known, writes Sady Doyle for Elle.

The flaws in Ivanka Trump's feminism are, by now, well known. Any liberal woman under 35 could probably rattle off the list in her sleep: Her "parental leave" plan didn't provide enough parental leave. Her child care plan didn't actually cover the cost of child care. Her #WomenWhoWork campaign is an ad for dresses and handbags; her dresses and handbags are made at facilities that exploit female workers; her "feminist advocate" stance belies her role in an administration that actively seeks to strip funding and rights from women, and her choice to take a role in that administration (besides being a land mine for nepotism charges, the president is, y'know, her Dad) has enabled her to profit off the presidency.

The insults to Ivanka Trump are piling up in trailerloads. Sady Doyle's is one of countless, incredulous, scathing reviews of the pink frosted cupcakes baked from the wisdom of other people that America's First Daughter calls a book for working women. There is near-unanimous agreement that Ivanka Trump has a unique idea about the very word 'working'.  It's not the one that over 100 million of the rest of us relate to. 

One wonders if Ivanka isn't actually doing more damage than good with this book, even if the proceeds are going to charity. Personally, I thought Ivanka was smarter than the Stepford wife she projects in 'Women Who Work'.  Her prolific use of people's quotations, taking them out of context and giving them revised life through an Ivanka-envisioned hastag, implies a certain sympatico with her -- one that more often than not, doesn't exist at all. Ivanka Trump is smelling the roses in Hillary country, leaving many people not amused. 

When Ivanka takes Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' and its reflections on both freedom from physical slavery and a psychological prison living in the mind of its main character Sethe and applies it to the lives of well-off, working white women, our aggravation is beyond exasperation. She sounds like a heartless, clueless airhead -- or more like her father than we want to believe. 

As Gail Collins wrote in her New York Times column this weekend: 'Where's Ivanka When We Need Her?' This is our real world:

The reproductive rights war is always promoted publicly as a battle against abortion. But many religious conservatives hate birth control in general. Some just want to stop sex outside of marriage. Some don’t believe even married couples should use artificial methods like pills or condoms. Some believe that all fertilized eggs are humans and that many forms of contraception, from IUDs to morning-after pills, cause the equivalent of murder. It’s a theological principle that most Americans don’t accept. “Personhood” amendments giving the eggs constitutional rights have been defeated even in very conservative states.

Frankly, we don't care that Ivanka Trump didn't get her massages during the presidential campaign. The sky is falling on women's rights in this country, and this blond bombshell is redefining slavery for rich, white women with nannies. This is gross, frankly. Truly gross.

Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Girls Who Code tweeted at Ivanka Trump gelling her not to feature her story in 'Women Who Work' unless she is "going to stop being #complicit."

For a much more In-Depth look at Ivanka's new book, read AOC's: Hard Work Is All That Is Required, Says Ivanka Trump In A Book Drowning In Bad Reviews. 

Morning Joe Hosts Joe Scarborough & Mika Brzezinski Confirm Engagement

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are engaged to be married, cementing their relationship at a weekend proposal at the scenic Bar Bellini at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes. Brzezinski celebrated her 50th birthday on the romantic trip to the south of France and Monaco. 

Scarborough remarked to The Hollywood Reporter last month that he and Brzezinski "have a crackling on-air chemistry, and a crackling off-air chemistry, too." Scarborough divorced his second wife in 2013 and Brzezinski divorced her husband in 2016. In the same interview, Scarborough made it clear that even their pets were co-mingling. 

 For Scarborough, that's a dog named Scout and a Maine Coon cat named Oliver Meatball Scarborough. Brzezinski's brood includes two dogs (Hobson and Cajun), two rabbits (Melania and Donald), two cats (Emma and Elle) and three chickens (Gina, Donna and Nugget).

"They get along great," Scarborough says. "They will always sort of spar with each other and…" Brzezinski cuts him off: "And he lets the cat get on the kitchen counter, which is just gross."

"I do not," Scarborough replies.

"We all understand that Meatball runs the house," he adds. "Even the dogs."

Chi-chi Nwanoku's Chineke's All Black Orchestra Soars In Classical Music World

Chi-chi Nwanoku is a double bass player and professor of Historical Double Bass Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was a founder member and principal bassist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, a position she held for 30 years. The New York Times profiles Nwanoku, whose Chineke! Foundation has formed Europe's first professional all-black orchestra. 

Though Ms. Nwanoku had quickly formed a board of directors and had already selected most of her players — 62 musicians representing 31 different nationalities — she was constantly reminded that it would be hard to promote their first concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Center here in September 2015 or to even set up a website without a name.

Searching for a name for her new orchestra, the answer came to Nwanoku at 4am, causing her to bolt into a sitting position in her bed and shouting 'Chineke!' Simply stated, the word is derived from her father's Nigerian Igbo tribe and it means 'wonderful' or 'wow'. 

Chineke has been a splendid success in Europe and beyond. In May, some members aligned with the Sphinx Organization, Detroit-based and also dedicated to the development of black and Latino classical musicians, will appear with 'Chineke' in the Netherlands.

With musicians of color remaining rare in classical orchestras, Chineke's critical purpose if so inspire young people of color to pursue studies and practices in classical music. Mr. Kanneh-Mason, who last year was the first black person to win the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year award, sums up the passion orchestra members have for Nwanoku's artistic vision. “It has been inspiring to see lots of other young musicians like me,” he said. “I plan to be involved in Chineke until Chineke becomes unnecessary because eventually the aim will be for diversity to be the norm in classical music.”