EJ Dixon

Hi, my name is EJ Dixon, and I am a senior writer for The Cut at New York Magazine.

So the article that I wrote about for that piece was an essay I wrote called, it's embarrassing to even say the headline, Why I Want Donald and Melania's Marriage.

Well, OK, so some context.

I had just gotten engaged at the time.

So something I was thinking a lot about was compatibility and the way that two people can sort of craft an ideal partnership for themselves.

And there was a lot of talk at the time because Trump had either just won the nomination or was about to win the nomination.

about Trump and Melania and there was a lot of scrutiny on their marriage and a lot of questions as there are questions today about their marriage and how they make it work because she is never around and sort of like recedes in the background and people were very confused about that.

And I guess the argument I was trying to make was that this is a dynamic that works for them, even if we don't necessarily understand it on the surface, like that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't work for them.

But I think that the way it was framed was probably the most reductionist way, an embarrassing way possible.

And obviously, I mean, it aged like milk.

So I'm talking about like how much I hate the Trumps and how gross I find their marriage and how like I don't want my marriage to be anything like that.

But then I have this caveat.

And yet I can't help but admire how the Trumps have settled on a clearly defined division of labor in their marriage, how both partners have negotiated their terms to carve out their own spaces for each other and for themselves.

To me, the Trumps represent not the 21st century ideal of an equal-footed feminist relationship, but a more complicated and, frankly, interesting conception of marriage.

That two people can enter a partnership carving out specific roles and maintain a harmonious domestic balance accordingly.

They are not two halves of the same whole, so much as they are two complementary pieces in a 1,200-piece jigsaw puzzle reproduction of an abstract expressionist painting.

That last sentence is, like, that's a very cringe sentence to write about the fucking Trumps.

But, like, I agree with that, you know?

Because they're still, how long have they been married?

Yeah, I mean, they're still together.