There are certainly many reasons to be critical of Melania Trump, in the context of her being the First Lady of the United States.

For the last eight years we have had the immense privilege of watching and learning from Michelle Obama, as she tackled obesity, women's education and spoke eloquently, educatedly and informatively on so many of the issues affecting us, not least the threats posed to us by a Donald Trump presidency.

It is easy to condemn Melania Trump by simple virtue of the fact that she isn't Michelle or even just that she thought it sensible to marry Donald.

It doesn't help that she has compounded our feelings of mistrust and disappointment by seemingly plagiarising whole chunks of Michelle's 2008 Democratic Convention speech.

It also doesn't help that she's playing support act to a man who vigorously condemns immigration, both illegal and otherwise, when questions have been raised about the status of her own visa.

But what we shouldn't be doing is using her modelling photos as part of our critique.

In the wake of Trump's victory, a lot of people have been despairing of the fact that their new First Lady has had something of a career in posing nude and nearly-nude.

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GQ have been furiously re-promoting their own nude shoot:

And obviously The Sun have gone to town on the issue:

Yes of course it seems unfair that Michelle Obama was lambasted by conservative America for wearing dresses that showed off her upper arms, when that same group of people plumped for a FLOTUS with a history of showing a lot more.

But in reality, we shouldn't ever be using a woman's body (nor what she chooses to do with it) against her.

It's degrading, objectifying and a largely irrelevant part of her history.

Melania's suitability for her role over the next few years has little to do with whether or not she's ever taken her clothes off, nor has it got anything to do with whether or not she is attractive or sexual.

Using her body as a means to shame her is what Donald Trump has been doing to women throughout his presidential campaign. Let's not fall into that trap.

And it's a point that a lot of people are beginning to make:

She isn't the first woman to have modelled nude. She isn't even the first First Lady to have done so, see Carla Brunei for details.

So let's be more analytical in our appraisal.

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Natasha Bird
Former Digital Executive Editor

Natasha Bird is the Former Executive Editor (Digital) of ELLE.