ivanka trump can do it all . throughout this interminable campaign, she has been able, with very little backlash, to promote for her $100 million apparel brand, which she markets with the female empowerment hashtag #womenwhowork, and also support her father, whose campaign is rife with misogynistic language, and who has been accused of sexual harassment by more than a dozen women. ms. trump describes herself as a feminist, and while her feminism might not be a type that betty friedan or gloria steinem would recognize, it<u+2019>s a mercantile variety that is familiar to the women the ivanka trump brand hopes to reach. the defining feature of mercantile feminism is its use of values <u+2014> those of political, social and economic equality for women <u+2014> to make money. and it works only for individuals and brands with real credibility. like many brands, including dove, pantene and always, the ivanka trump clothing line uses a marketing slogan evocative of girl power, the somewhat nebulous #womenwhowork. ms. trump is selling an affordable work wardrobe, and the target is her contemporaries. fortunately for ms. trump, 35, stumping on the campaign trail has given her business increased visibility. after talking about child care tax credits and maternity leave policies at the republican national convention, she tweeted out a link to <u+201c>shop ivanka<u+2019>s look.<u+201d> (the dress in the link, the one ms. trump wore for her speech , sold out.) but now, as the accumulated effects of her father<u+2019>s campaign sink in, ms. trump is testing the limit of how far she can take her mercantile feminism. <u+201c>there was a tipping point with ivanka trump <u+2014> it was right after the billy bush tape came out and she went back on the campaign trail,<u+201d> said shannon coulter, a san francisco-based marketing executive who, a few weeks ago, started a campaign , #grabyourwallet, to boycott the 21 retailers, including lord & taylor, zappos, nordstrom and macy<u+2019>s, that carry ms. trump<u+2019>s wares. ms. coulter<u+2019>s own tweets about #grabyourwallet have reached five million impressions on twitter. last month, on <u+201c>good morning america,<u+201d> george stephanopoulos asked ms. trump about the boycott . ms. trump, who did not look pleased, said, <u+201c>people who are seeking to politicize it because they disagree with the politics of my father <u+2014> there<u+2019>s nothing i can do to change that.<u+201d> more than a week after the <u+201c>access hollywood<u+201d> tape came out, ms. trump issued a short statement to fast company saying that her father<u+2019>s remarks were <u+201c>offensive.<u+201d> she has not said anything publicly about the women accusing mr. trump of unwanted sexual advances. but ms. trump, who has also seemed to hold the promise for women of something better than her father, is showing her true colors. young women were hoping that she was a real compatriot, that her brand and words of encouragement to women were real, not just a ploy to get us to open our wallets. <u+201c>initially, ivanka seemed like the most rational and sane one of the bunch,<u+201d> said 29-year-old lindsey ledford, a student at the university of maryland university college. after ms. trump tweeted the link to the dress she wore at the republican convention, ms. ledford visited ms. trump<u+2019>s social media platforms and website. <u+201c>so in that sense it worked,<u+201d> said ms. ledford. but shortly after the <u+201c>access hollywood<u+201d> tape was released, ms. ledford joined the #grabyourwallet campaign, saying that seeing the trump name on apparel was <u+201c>like a slap in the face.<u+201d> at the beginning of her father<u+2019>s campaign, ms. trump had some plausible deniability that she was anything less than a heartfelt advocate for women, even if she was doing it under the aegis of her commercial brand and profiting from the exposure. but in the last month, she has violated the terms of mercantile feminism that are unspoken but clearly understood by both the buyers and the sellers. as it turns out, allegations of sexual assault and mercantile feminism do not mix very well. mr. trump now represents something that<u+2019>s offensive to many women. in other words, it<u+2019>s not a minor thing that can be brushed off. yet at fortune<u+2019>s most powerful women summit in the middle of october, ms. trump said of her father, <u+201c>i<u+2019>m sure he didn<u+2019>t remember<u+201d> his conversation with billy bush. as gabriel sherman at new york magazine reported recently, ms. trump took her father<u+2019>s side after the tape became public and insisted that he had to fight back. (she also said he had to apologize.) <u+201c>i think what ivanka is doing is extremely cynical,<u+201d> said kim france, the founding editor of lucky, a shopping magazine for young women. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s not female empowerment, it<u+2019>s business.<u+201d> and the trump campaign has apparently been good for her company. sales in the first six months of 2016 were up almost $12 million compared with the year before, according to public filings . her editorial director, sarah warren, recently said that web traffic is <u+201c>through the roof<u+201d> and the company<u+2019>s newsletter database is 275 percent bigger than it was last year. <u+201c>you couldn<u+2019>t pay for this visibility,<u+201d> ms. warren recently told a reporter. so far, retailers have not responded to the #grabyourwallet boycott by dropping the ivanka trump brand. but in a national online survey of registered voters by morning consult conducted after the release of the <u+201c>access hollywood<u+201d> tape, 75 percent of democratic women said they would not purchase clothes from ivanka trump<u+2019>s clothing line, compared with close to 60 percent of independent women and a third of republican women. a smaller survey conducted by brand keys of millennial women found that 51 percent of respondents were still <u+201c>extremely<u+201d> or <u+201c>very<u+201d> willing to buy ivanka trump. how will her brand fare after nov. 8? will she use a trump victory or concession speech to sell more dresses? as for ms. coulter, she says she has no plans to end her campaign for a boycott after election day. when a mercantile feminist misses the mark, it can backfire with savvy consumers. <u+201c>i think her biggest mistake was underestimating the intelligence of other women, as voters, consumers and humans entitled to equality,<u+201d> said ms. ledford, who finds ms. trump<u+2019>s products aesthetically pleasing, but has never been a customer and now doesn<u+2019>t plan to on principle. <u+201c>she wants to preach an ideology of female empowerment, through #womenwhowork, yet practice another, all while profiting off the very demographic she<u+2019>s essentially working to oppress by helping to elect donald trump as president.<u+201d> hannah seligson is a journalist based in new york. follow the new york times opinion section on facebook and twitter (@nytopinion) , and sign up for the opinion today newsletter .
what ivanka trump can<u+2019>t sell
hannah seligson