Would You Ever Reduce a President to his Outfit? Is Michelle Obama Only as Good as her Appearance?
First, people were shocked at First Lady Michelle Obama's sleeveless black dress with pearls for her official portrait. Now she is being slammed for wearing some seemingly benign outifts to England. She got slammed for overdressing for the Inaugural festivities. Who can blame her for erring on the side of dressing down a little this time?
It's a bad day when I am reading about our First Lady's hip to bust ratio. I saw the photos and thought not about what what she and the President were wearing, but about the amazing fact that the Queen of England was flanked by two African Americans who are President and First Lady of the United States of America, a country still very young by comparison.
I personally think her outfits were well-coordinated in color and style, but who cares what I or anyone else thinks about her clothing? She obviously liked the colors and styles or wouldn't have worn them. It is not just the Queen of England the First Lady is reaching through her visit. Young women in England probably loved her Diana-esque classic meets hip style. Real people in Europe and every other Continent are eager to see more about this fascinating new First Family. So why are we focusing on their outward appearance rather than thinking about what the reaction of the world is to our new President and First Lady?
Michelle Obama is a natural at retail politics. I watched her in New Hampshire as she spent 10 or 20 minutes with individual voters, asking repeatedly if she could rely on their support in voting for her husband. This woman is successful in her own rite, and we should be measuring her success as First Lady not in what she wears, but in the potential she has to be a role model for young women and men, and what she can teach people of all ages and cultures.
The suggestion that Michelle Obama should rewind history forty some years and look at pictures of Jackie Kennedy and emulate that is sad. It has an underlying suggestion that women have to look a certain way to be in the game and have to conform to a particular standard to be accepted. That isn't fair to the young women and men who are forming their personal and professional identities, or to the men and women who are watching the new Presidency unfold.
These are trying times, politically, economically, and Internationally. The last thing women need is a backlash against them at a time when jobs are scarce, or to be reduced to the status they had professionally and culturally in the era of the 1950s and early 1960s. The last thing the world needs during trying times are lists of Do's and Don'ts about how to dress and behave as countries struggle to keep up with the demands of a global economy that changes by the day.
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I am actually tired of this Havard grad being reduced to :'what is she wearing or not wearing'!!!
Thank you, Ms. Donahue!!!
Our First Lady is not "Jackie-O" . This is not 1960. Our First Lady is Michelle Obama and she is an individual who has enough confidence in herself to dress in clothes that she likes and feels comfortable in. She is a role model for young girls and women who are not growing up wearing designer clothing. And her message to these young women is "You can do what I did.It just takes hard work and focus. Concentrate on your studies." She dresses like an "ordinary" woman, not like a fashion model, because she is not a fashion model. I think that young women can relate to her and the clothing that she wears. She is being who she is. She is beautiful, no matter what she wears. Her daughters, being raised in the limelight, and being raised with more afflluence, may end up being the fashion icons of their day when they are grown up. But I think we should all respect Michelle Obama for her brains, her compassion, her wit, her charm, her dignity, for being a model mother and 21st Century woman. A woman with a "mind of her own," as they say, who has more important things to focus on than what the fashionistas are saying is "in" this season! I am extremely proud of Mrs. Obama, regardless of which outfit she is wearing on any given day!
I think there's a great deal more substance than meets the eye with her fashion decisions. She displays her independence, creativity and willingness to take chances. All great American qualities
That's why I like the conversation below so much. It says a lot about Michelle Obama in a short talk. Maybe that's why I like posting the story.
“Kathleen (and woman over my shoulder): “Love the bow too”
First Lady: “It’s a big bow”
Leaddog/bulldogmi: “That’s funny. All the women down here said the same thing.”
Michelle Obama: “If you’re going to do a bow, I think it should be a BIG bow.”
There is a link to the entire conversation and pictures at http://bulldogmi.com/bigbowbymichelleo
Amen, sister!
I care more about what Michelle thinks and has to say, and what she achieves, than whatever the hell she is wearing. The same as for any President. Who cares?!
Okay, folks, let's chill. All over the planet, people--frequently female--think policy and clothes the same day. We think economics and recipes. We think career and family. It's called having a full life, and Michele Obama, Esq. and FLOTUS, is a variety of getting that done. Other folks watching is another variety of the same thing.
And don't worry that anyone's going to crush that particular American woman. If there's a serious attempt, (1) we could crush them like bugs. And we won't need to, because (2) I'm entirely certain she could raise one eyebrow and vaporize them, and also (3) Oprah Winfrey and Madeline Albright could take care of the whole thing if Mrs. Obama needs her eyebrow for something else that day.
We actually are invincible. To celebrate, I'd like Mrs. Obama's opinions on Supreme Court contenders and pasta salad, please.
Would I ever reduce a President to his outfit?
Yes.
George W. Bush is the quintessential stuffed suit.
It has been very fun the past week watching what Our First Lady has been wearing - that in no way diminishes her other attributes or lessens the importance of what she says and does. We the People can walk and chew gum at the same time.
We have always commented on first ladies and their fashion...don't tell me the Obama cultists can't handle that either! I still say that Michelle's maid sent the wrong luggage to Europe; she mistakenly sent the clothes for Camp David and a leisure weekend.
Oh have we? Can you go back and show how the media fawned and speculated and blathered over Laura Bush's style? Even Nancy Reagan, a former actress with very good taste in clothes, had her outfits quickly described and then the story moved on. This is the most yak-yak about a First Lady since Jackie Kennedy, and I'm betting you aren't old enough to remember that.
I was around when Jackie was first lady and her style and clothes were talked about and emulated by every young woman. But, It was not as weird as it with the coverage Michelle is getting. The press is none stop and it is ridiculas that she is being compared to Jackie and Diana. The fawning on MSNBC is the funniest of all. It's like we are all blind and can't see what she is really wearing. Let's hope that this is the last trip they take where clothes will be the main focus.
Our corporate media would rather dismiss Mrs. Obama's education and intelligence to talk about her clothes. She has her own style some will like it, some won't. But who cares. Just be who you are Mrs. Obama because you will be criticized no matter what, simply because you don't look like your predecessors who previously resided in the White House.
Some Americans will never get over the fact, Mrs. Obama is black; however, that their problem, not yours, Mrs. Obama.
Excuse me? Where exactly has the media dismissed her education and intelligence? I have seen nothing but praise over her accomplishments.
And the issue at hand is sexism not racism and the raves that Michelle gets on that fashion front. What is racist about that? Giving someone a compliment is racist? Please! All the First Ladies are watched for their fashion sense and how they decorate the WH for example. It would be racist if she wasn't given raves and the same attention others were given, especially since she is so young and able to wear more stylish clothes.
Besides that racism theme has been debunked by independent study. There was no Bradley effect with the 2008 NH election for example.
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/what_happened_in_nh_aapors_ans.php.
The report also produces evidence that rules out a number of prominent theories, among them the so-called "Bradley Effect." The authors claim they saw "no evidence that white respondents over-represented their support for Obama," and thus, no evidence of "latent racism" benefiting Clinton. Fair enough, but they do report evidence of a "social desirability effect" that led respondents to report "significantly greater" support for Obama "when when the interviewer is black than when he or she is white" (although Obama still led by smaller margins among when interviewers were white -- see pp 55-59 of the pdf report).
Bradley himself said that he might've just ran a bad campaign after Obama's win.
I think the first lady is an intelligent, attractive woman, regardless of the color of her skin, but no moreso than thousands of her contemporaries in the professional world. She is not special, she is not a goddess, she is merely a woman who has the good fortune to be married to the current president. No more, no less.
I was appalled too... at first.
Every news network talking about nothing other than Michelle's outfits.
"Expert" clothes gurus commenting to the Left or Right.
America at the edge of its collective seat.
WOW!
Then I thought, you know, maybe the MSM has found its niche.
They certainly can't report or comment on hard news - why not give them something safe to talk about?
I do agree that the MSM should spend equal time criticizing the husbands of Politicians for their fashion faux pas.
It should just be a full time endeaver.
I almost skipped this article. I am very glad I didn't.
FL Michelle is a mystique to most of us, she's strong, brillant, successful, a mother, wife and secure in who she is, she's reachable, yet with her air of dominance with her children,mother, brother and husband we see her vulnerability.
The media being obsessed with MO's fashion is understandable because it is something that can be tangibily scrutinized and labeled, where as the emotional things and the brainy things we see with MO isn't easy to define, the way she has a shyness about her but has no problem controlling center stage. How, she can be in a room full of dignitaries ( a girl the south-side of Chicago) and has them eating out of her hands wanting her attention. She sincerely wants to make a difference in the lives of those who by no fault of their own or maybe it is their fault, to see through she and Barack they too can achieve their dream.
During the ugly period of the campaign after one of her speeches Barack gave MO a hug that was full of love and strength, we the audience saw it was something she needed from him.
Michelle is complex in a very interesting and heart warming way. Whatever she does, whether its wearing the right or wrong outfit, hugging a child, talking about gardening, walking to Marine One with her family people are going to talk about it.
The dress at the DNC convention the day she spoke was stunning on her because it wasn't Jackie-esqe. I suspect that she is being pushed towards those Jackie costumes by someone other than a journalist.
However, the idea that clothing doesn't matter and in this day and age you is naive. As a kid in the SF bay area where hippies were being confronted based on their clothing. It was because the clothing signified a politicial message. Anti-war, pro civil rights, pro women's rights, anti-establishment. As a result, they attracted a lot of daily negative attention from the conservative majority. I can tell you for a fact the supermarket ladies were exceptionally rude if you were not dressed in the establishment uniform. CA hasn't always been full of liberals. ;)
Look at the history of clothing and those same messages of class and politics are there.
You cannot strip away the fact that those first impressions last. You cannot strip away that as the First Lady she is now probably dealing with MORE people who DO care about those old fashion rules. And how they treat someone, less than, for not following them. To immediately be dismissed for not following them is not a position of strength at Michelle's level.
Go on an interview breaking some fashion rules and see where it gets you. Nice try...but naive.
Thank you so much for this real world entry. It is a breath of fresh air in the midst of some very stale conversations on style and politics.
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