Watching Michelle’s Tonight Show appearance, I couldn’t help but think back to the “softening tour” that she embarked on last summer to rehabilitate her image after ReallyProudOfMyCountryGate and TerroristFistJabGate and (the fictional) WhiteyGate and the like: the rather unfortunate media journey undertaken by the highly educated lawyer, business executive, and all-around Sassy Lady to prove to the American public that she is, you know, Just Like the Rest of Us. (She shops at Target! She loves Sex and the City! Et cetera!) As I said at the time, there’s something disturbing and disappointing and just a little bit disgusting about the whole thing, something distressing in the tour’s tacit admission that to make Michelle more “palatable” to the American electorate means to soften her, which means to feminize her, which means to minimize her wholeness as a person. Girly-girls and SuperMoms aren’t threatening to average Americans; high-achieving community activists, apparently, are. So why talk shop when you can talk shopping?
And the media have, paradoxically, amplified this narrative of reduction when it comes to Michelle. (Take the hour-long conversation she conducted with Larry King earlier this month—one of the few non-View or Access Hollywood or US Weekly interviews she’s granted—and the fact that the main takeaway of the conversation, per the mainstream press, was that Michelle wasn’t offended by McCain’s reference to her husband as “that one” in the presidential debate.) Ironically, it’s through their very tendency to siphon her spin that the media are doing a disservice to Michelle—and, less ironically, to the rest of us.
By focusing so readily, and so myopically, on Obama’s clothes—and, more broadly, by allowing the Obama campaign to drive the normalcy narrative when it comes to Michelle—the media are shirking their responsibility to inform us about the person who may well become First Lady. (And the fact that that’s a mostly symbolic office doesn’t mean we have less of a right to know its occupant.) In this, they’re cheating many Americans of a role model—and Michelle of her capacity to act as one. There’s much more to be reported about and discussed when it comes to Obama. The vast majority of which will be infinitely more interesting to learn about than where she buys her sweater sets.
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The packaging of Michelle Obama is just another example of the sexism rampant in our society. Women, democrat or republican, cannot be powerful - so Michelle and Hillary and Sarah must all be put in their places by the media. They are minimized, degraded, trivialized, all to prove that women are not whole persons. I don't like her husband, but Id' vote for the "real" Michelle!
Posted by Karen L. Pare on Wed 29 Oct 2008 at 01:25 PM
How much do we know of Cindy McCain's days as a student at USC? And how much do we care? While your argument is valid in the sense of overkill concerning fashion talk, it's also really not that important in the big picture. I'm not sure many voters really require in-depth analysis of the candidates' wives backgrounds. This may be a case of a solution in the search of a problem.
Posted by JCH on Wed 29 Oct 2008 at 09:54 PM
Hopefully, Michelle Obama will not downplay her shopping and wardrobe too much. Like it or not, people are comparing her to Jackie O, and she has great success at dressing in fabulous, sleek, and expensive clothing. She is her own person, yet she is the first lady elect, and the first one in a long time that people are enamored with in such a way as Jackie O. She has the money, so why do people have to criticize her for wearing expensive clothes. Actually, today at work people were discussing disappointment with her downplaying her wardrobe. What is wrong with glitz and glamour for someone such as the first lady? Most women love looking at her and her clothes. Leave it alone and let her dress how she so desires.
Posted by KT on Mon 5 Jan 2009 at 05:55 PM
Personally, I don't care what Michelle wears. Her clothes can never look like Jackie O's looked on her, because Michelle does NOT have the BODY, and Jackie did. Just let her be Michelle. She can wear inexpensive or expensive designer clothes. Who cares??????
Posted by joy cross on Fri 9 Jan 2009 at 02:59 PM
yes,you can compare michelle o, with jackie o, she looks great just look and wach her even her hight is a blessing and her personality heavanly.
Posted by ana mercean on Thu 2 Apr 2009 at 05:30 AM
Michelle Obama will never be able to compare to Jakie O. Jackie O was a role model without the Kennedy Adm. telling her to be. She would pend hours looking researching the country she was about to visit, just to be able to hold a intelligible conversation about something that mattered to them. She knew she would not be able to hold a very strong position in politics, since she was a woman in the 1960's, so she inspired people to support the arts and help the country. Her campaiging efforts are not well recognized since she did things not to get attention for herself, but for her husband. Michelle, a very intelligible person, must be herself and leave Jackie O as an icon never to be reserected. Michelle Obama needs to be herself, while keepingin mind that the wholeworld is watching her, not kust how she dresses, but how she acts. Her actions in England were humiliating to me and many in my hometown. Jackie O would have known not to touch the queen anywhere else, but her hand. Hopefully this will never happen again, and Michelle can assume a more informed position on international conduct.
Posted by Elena on Thu 9 Apr 2009 at 03:39 PM
Michelle Obama will never be able to compare to Jakie O. Jackie O was a role model without the Kennedy Adm. telling her to be. She would pend hours looking researching the country she was about to visit, just to be able to hold a intelligible conversation about something that mattered to them. She knew she would not be able to hold a very strong position in politics, since she was a woman in the 1960's, so she inspired people to support the arts and help the country. Her campaiging efforts are not well recognized since she did things not to get attention for herself, but for her husband. Michelle, a very intelligible person, must be herself and leave Jackie O as an icon never to be reserected. Michelle Obama needs to be herself, while keepingin mind that the wholeworld is watching her, not kust how she dresses, but how she acts. Her actions in England were humiliating to me and many in my hometown. Jackie O would have known not to touch the queen anywhere else, but her hand. Hopefully this will never happen again, and Michelle can assume a more informed position on international conduct.
Posted by Elena on Thu 9 Apr 2009 at 03:41 PM
Michelle Obama will never be able to compare to Jakie O. Jackie O was a role model without the Kennedy Adm. telling her to be. She would spend hours looking researching the country she was about to visit, just to be able to hold an intelligible conversation about something that mattered to them. This gained the admiration of the world. She knew she would not be able to hold a very strong position in politics, since she was a woman in the 1960's, so she inspired people to support the arts and help the country. Her campaiging efforts are not well recognized since she did things not to get attention for herself, but for her husband. Michelle, a very intelligible person, must be herself and leave Jackie O as an icon never to be reserected. Michelle Obama needs to be herself, while keepingin mind that the wholeworld is watching her, not kust how she dresses, but how she acts. Her actions in England were humiliating to me and many in my hometown. Jackie O would have known not to touch the queen anywhere else, but her hand. Hopefully this will never happen again, and Michelle can assume a more informed position on international conduct.
Posted by Elena on Thu 9 Apr 2009 at 03:43 PM