Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado Won't Be Defined by Trump's Fat-Shaming

[Libertine]

Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado Won't Be Defined by Donald Trump's Fat-Shaming

When Hillary Clinton called out her opponent's sexism at the first presidential debate, she highlighted a woman who had experienced it firsthand.

Alicia Machado is now the face of not only the victims of Donald Trump's well-documented sexism, but also a face of those who Trump refused to pay for services rendered to his companies.

A video was released that features Machado, a former Miss Venezuela who was crowned Miss Universe in 1996, the year that Trump bought the Miss Universe organization (he sold it in 2015), talking about the ways the Republican nominee demeaned her. Speaking in Spanish, Machado explains, "As Miss Universe, I participated in more ad campaigns than most. In a year, I earned the company a lot of money. By contract, I should have earned 10 percent on all the commercials and work I did. I was never paid." The video includes infamous footage of Trump bringing reporters to watch her work out after she gained a little weight. "She weighed 118 pounds or 117 pounds, and Trump told them at the time, "So this is somebody that likes to eat." Machado goes on to describe the crushing humiliation of becoming, after that moment, "The Fat Miss Universe." Trump also called Alicia Machado 'an eating machine.'

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https://youtu.be/U8ZM58O_gBo



Machado is determined not to be seen as just a victim, risen from the ashes of Trump's destructive business dealings. Trump's presidential race may have thrust her into the public eye in a bigger way than ever before, but Machado wants you to see her as a woman with her own talents, one who is not defined by victimization at the hands of one of the most controversial major party presidential candidates in American history. As she sees it, if the 2016 election has given her anything, it's the opportunity to reclaim her past and rewrite her story in her own words.

Machado recalled another incident of Trump’s fat-shaming. Toward the end of her reign of Miss Universe, she was writing thank-you cards in the Los Angeles Miss Universe office when he asked her what she wanted to do next. “You'll never be an actress,” he told her, “because you are too fat to be an actress, and nobody wants fat girls on TV shows.”

“I was so sad. I was quiet,” she said. "That was his attitude: OK, I have a new toy. I have all the beautiful new girls for me," she said of Trump’s frequent comments about her weight and appearance.

The public humiliation and body-shaming by Trump sent Machado into serious depression. Having previously struggled with bulimia, Machado relapsed and spent the next several years combating eating disorders. “Sometimes I didn’t want to go out anywhere,” she said.

After years of therapy, the model and actress slowly rebuilt her self-esteem.

In 2006, she felt so confident that she modeled nude in a spread for Playboy’s Mexico edition.

In 2013, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, a battle that she said made her more “mature."

In August, Machado became a U.S. citizen specifically to vote against Trump, though she notes that she really does support Hillary Clinton and would like to see the first woman president. “I have a daughter, she’s American, she’s born here. And she has rights and I want to be here. And I want to vote, and I can’t say to my community, ‘OK, we need to be stronger,’ or ‘We need to be together’ and ‘We need to go in to vote,’ if I can’t vote,” she said. She has appeared at a campaign event with civil rights leader Dolores Huerta for an anti-Trump event.

Though Melania, like her, is an immigrant and former model, Machado waves off the comparison immediately. As the wife of a political figure, Melania’s job is “to help everybody around you,” she said. “It’s not to make yourself rich or more powerful” Melania made an appearance at the presidential debate but has largely ducked out of the spotlight since the RNC, where she was accused of plagiarizing parts of Michelle Obama’s speech in her own address. "I think I speak more English than her," Machado said. "I don’t see anything about this girl. She’s a doll. She’s a decoration. That is how I see her.”


Cosmopolitan
9-27-16

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics...-donald-trump/

[asiansam]

Originally Posted by Libertine

Though Melania, like her, is an immigrant and former model, Machado waves off the comparison immediately. As the wife of a political figure, Melania’s job is “to help everybody around you,” she said. “It’s not to make yourself rich or more powerful” Melania made an appearance at the presidential debate but has largely ducked out of the spotlight since the RNC, where she was accused of plagiarizing parts of Michelle Obama’s speech in her own address. "I think I speak more English than her," Machado said. "I don’t see anything about this girl. She’s a doll. She’s a decoration. That is how I see her.”

Meow, meow.