Kellyanne Conway is causing controversy once again—but not for anything she has said.
On Tuesday morning, a series of photographs of Kellyanne Conway checking her phone while kneeling on an Oval Office couch made the rounds on social media. While some Twitter users found the presidential counselor’s posture to be disrespectful to the people in the room—who were representatives of historically black colleges and universities—others felt that Conway was being unfairly maligned because she is female.
Fortune asked readers of The Broadsheet, our daily newsletter on the world’s most powerful women, what they thought. Here’s what they had to say:
The pose suggests a level of casualness unbefitting a presidential counselor, male or female.
“Her pose suggests a certain intimacy that I feel is appropriate neither for the venue nor for the audience,” Houston-based Broadsheet reader Beverly Jurenko wrote in an email to Fortune.
“If she were the president’s 16-year-old child, I think the way she is sitting on the couch is fine,” wrote reader Dave Schreck. “As a member of the president’s staff, male or female, the posture is over casual and unprofessional. Imagine Steve Bannon on the couch like that and tell me you don’t have the same thought.”
This photograph should not be in the news in the first place.
“Although not a fan of the current POTUS or many members on his team, I do believe the outrage pouring out following this photo of Kellyanne Conway is absurd. It’s ridiculous that something like this even makes news,” wrote reader Alicia Thomas.
“Focus on what is important,” suggested Jan Fields, another Broadsheet subscriber.
This is the just the latest in the counselor’s gaffes, which belie her historic successes.
“Instead of proclaiming her historic success—coming to save a campaign after two men who weren’t up to the job—and being the first woman to get a man elected, her storyline is always about her gaffes,” wrote a Durham, N.C.-based reader. “I’m officially over Kellyanne Conway.”
The pose illustrates white privilege—and shows Conway’s lack of respect for black leaders.
The North Carolina-based reader also notes the role race in the photo, in which Conway looks as though she’s ignoring the—mostly African-American men—in the room. “Let me be very clear, as a black woman, I would NEVER be able to talk my way out of that one. I wouldn’t be able to sniff the Oval Office without shoes, let alone put my feet into the…sofa.”
Kimberly Brown, another member of the Broadsheet community, posed the question of “whether or not Mrs. Conway would be sitting on the Oval Office couch with her shoes off, looking at her cell phone had the room been full of white dignitaries or CEOs that she actually respected.” Brown believes that Conway’s “posture is disrespectful to this prestigious group of African-Americans, as well as the historic room that she is sitting in.”
Whether she wants to or not, Conway represents working women.
“Politics aside, she represents all women working for fair treatment and I hope in the future she will carry herself accordingly,” wrote Jurenko.
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