CW's comedy Jane the Virgin has gone through its ups and downs. In the early seasons, it wasn't terribly political. Then it became political (and terrible) as soon as Trump was elected, but it actually chilled out a little this year. So why, in the February 2 episode "Chapter Seventy-Three," did they feel the need to take a random dig at Ivanka Trump?
In this episode, our heroine Jane (GIna Rodriguez) is meeting with a literary agent, hoping to jump-start her career as an author after her first book flopped. Her frenemy Petra (Yael Grobglas) has set up the meeting and, when all of Jane's pitches to the agent fall flat, he calls Petra over to make the meeting less awkward. It gets more awkward, however, when one of the agents suggests that Petra write a book - and throws in an insult against Ivanka Trump.
Leslie: I remember thinking just based on the Ocean Drive article, that Petra could author a great lifestyle book.
Narrator: Did she just say "Author"? As in "Book author"?
Leslie: I mean, she does look like the non-evil Ivanka.
Petra: Oh, please, I can't stand Ivanka. She tried to sell me a few of those bum condos a few years back.
Leslie: See? Now, that's the kind of thing that would be great in the book.
Jane: Ha ha, yeah.
The show takes place in Florida, and they're both blond women. Petra owns a hotel. So, they have some things in common, but let's compare evil. Petra, for example, is currently under investigation for murdering her twin sister Anezka (and it's not the first time she's been in that position). In addition to murder, there's the usual lying, cheating, and stealing. She also recently left a loved one's sister in a psychiatric unit for a period of time even after realizing that she was, in fact, perfectly sane. The show is supposed to be like a telenovela, and she is certainly the villain.
I don't think Ivanka Trump even comes close. In fact, she isn't even a registered Republican, something you would think Hollywood would want to celebrate. She pushes for left-wing feminist causes like national paid family leave and, unlike most women hated by the left, has never said she is pro-life (although I'm sure she loses points for not saying she is pro-choice, either). She shares articles by the New York Times, which her father hates for being liberal media, and reportedly asked him to stay in the Paris Climate agreement. So, what is their problem with Ivanka?
It is exactly because she holds these views that liberals seem to especially hate her. They see it as a betrayal and the word they've all glommed onto is "complicit," so a campaign must be undertaken to take her down, too. When Nordstrom dropped her clothing line early last year Hollywood celebrities celebrated with Nordstrom shopping sprees. They tried to encourage boycotts of her products at other stores, but failed spectacularly.
The hate comes out in their shows, too, with Saturday Night Live running a skit of a commercial for Ivanka's supposed new fragrance Complicit, Netflix's Chelsea Handler mocked her with a crude impressionist, a character on NBC's Great News expressed hatred for Ivanka and claimed "she farted in my face at SoulCycle," and let's not forget the disgusting incest jokes from the likes of Bill Maher.
Now Jane the Virgin has joined in the lame lefty parade of bad jokes about Ivanka. Hollywood and the media has to take down anything with the name of "Trump," even if that means calling a comically bad character on this show the "non-evil Ivanka."
