What happens when a congenital grifter writes an “inspirational” book with a feminist theme?
If said grifter happens to be Ivanka Trump, the book will be almost entirely lifted from earlier works by actual writers and thinkers, with the occasional hilarious misquote or false attribution.
And Samantha Bee will be sorely tempted to produce a stinging review — as she does in this sequel to her earlier Ivanka profile, The Great Feminists In Feminism Herstory Hall of Fame.
The Full Frontal host begins with Ivanka’s bizarre repetition of an invented verb — “architecting” — and charts the downward literary trajectory of Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules of Success from there. Given the First Daughter’s facility with our language, it’s not surprising that she relies almost entirely on material “borrowed” from others, tarted up with lots of fancy typefaces.
Sometimes her appropriation of an actual author’s words is horrifically inappropriate, as in a quotation ripped from Toni Morrison that made Whoopi Goldberg grit her teeth. And sometimes her clueless rich-girl attitude is enough to make Sam want to throw down with a broken beer bottle. But she is generous enough to admit that even if Ivanka hadn’t been born to wealth and privilege, the woman’s own talents would at the very least have allowed her to become “one of the more successful realtors in the southeast Tampa area.”
Bee closes with clever advice about what to do if you come across this “book” in a public library. Let’s hope you’ll never need it.
