What's With Our Obsession with Michelle's Clothes?
Today's news includes a great picture of Michelle working up a sweat in her garden as she tends her veggies. But folks still insist on commenting mostly on what she's wearing. Is that really more important than the amazing fact that a First Lady of the United States believes that growing local food is important and has put her trowel into action on her own lawn?
I really feel badly for Michelle. After 40 years of working to free women from "you are what you wear," we're still trying to slot this amazing, talented, highly educated woman into stupidities like "that pink floral top really doesn't flatter her." She's gardening for heaven's sake! What do you wear when you garden?
As an ecotherapist, I'm just thrilled that the White House has dug up some of their lawn, started a veggie patch and that the first couple care about the health of what they and their kids eat. So many Americans have no clue about where there food is coming from, who grows it, what pesticides might lurk on it, or how it got to their table. We have epidemics of obesity and eating disorders of various kinds in towns all over the country. Much of our food lacks nutritional value because it's been in the air, on oil-guzzling trucks and in distribution centers for days or even weeks before it even arrives in the local supermarket, let alone on our table.
Talk about disconnection from nature! If we don't even understand the importance of the visceral connection between our bodies and our food, we're in big trouble.
So bravo, Michelle! You keep on digging and ignore the mindless twits who have nothing better to do than to criticize your gardening outfits.
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Well, it's MO's clothes or Octomom or Kate and whathisname. The media is saturated with inconsequential reporting. Oh, well, if J. Crew has had to hire more people, that would be positive. I bet rogersma is buying them cardigans in all colours.
If the media is going to concentrate on her fashion wear, perhaps they could look at the eco-viability of the fabrics she is wearing and where those fabrics and textiles come from...I am hoping that the First Lady will set some standards in that area too.
You know I love Michelle Obama. I voted for her husband. But let's get serious here. She is an okay looking woman who wears okay looking clothes. Nothing more, nothing less. Style icon? GET REAL.
Thank you, I thought I was the only one here disputing MO as a fashion icon. She is nowhere close to being a fashionista. Everyone loves her because she is the first black first lady and will say anything to validate that. She dresses like an average American woman. She is not a fashion icon. Pretty? Yes. Beautiful? No. All this comparing her to Jackie Kennedy is heresy. Wearing a cardigan when being presented to the Queen of England was an embarrasment to the US. Carla Bruni threw MO to the curb!
Well, the queen wasn't upset about it, so why are you embarassed?
She's not because you sit behind your keyboard and say so?
Thanks for clearing that up.
It's really great to see all of this discussion about whether or not the media is putting too much focus on what Michelle is wearing as opposed to what she's doing.
I'm an ecotherapist (just co-edited Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind for Sierra Club Books) and am a lot more interested in the fact that Michelle is modeling a healthy, nature-connected lifestyle by planting an organic garden at the White House than in her choice of weeding outfits.
I think we've all been trained for so many years to focus on every aspect of celebrities' lives and maybe don't realize that our country and the world are facing serious challenges. The availability of local, healthy food is a big deal. Growing a few veggies or herbs in a pot, on a patio or balcony or in a yard is a great thing to do! And research has shown that when we spend time outside in nature we suffer less from depression and anxiety.
Fashion is wonderful as an expression of beauty but surely our health counts for more than how we coordinate the clothes we wear?
I think all her clothes look two sizes too small for her and to wear a cardigan when being presented to the Queen of England was the epitomy of bad taste.
I have always said that there is more to Michelle Obama than what she is wearing. I remember when the First Lady spoke to those young girls at that London school on the first trip she and the President made. It seem people were talking more about what she had on, HP is guilty of this too. People were talking about what she had on, instead of how she reach out to those young girls. How those girls were so move by what the First Lady had to say and how she treated them. Yes you want to look nice, but don't judge someone entirely on that. I like the fact that Mrs. Obama wears what she likes. I have not always agreed with everything she wears, guess what? I know people will feel that way about me, about you, or anyone. Because you can't please everyone, and Mrs. Obama isn't going to try too. That is one of the reasons why I like her.
I'm not sure why you have to drag in the "epidemic of obesity" here. Seems like someone always has to demonize other people rather than promote one's own values and lifestyle. If you support access to gardens and fresh vegetables in the urban environment, why not work to change policies that don't provide people access to these? Why not as well do something about the minimum wage, which makes it impossible for people to garden because they have to work at least two jobs to subsist? Many people would love to garden, but they're life is such that they can't afford to.
I do not think the 1st Lady cares what people think about what she wears. Her message to woman was wear what you love.
I think people just like looking at her because she is so openly warm and loving and they still find that surprising. And she is FINE. She wears clothes well on her long lean frame. She is hawt.
We also like her.
Either we turn Michelle into the next Jackie Kennedy or we turn her into what the New Yorker cover portrayed.
Does anybody even remember that she's a lawyer?
Comparing Michelle Obama to Jacqueline Kennedy is a media thing. It just ain't so. (plus being an insult to Jacqueline Kennedy). Why? Because she has fluffy hair? Well you would too if you had a make up person working on you every day and straightening your hair and picking your wardrobe?. Jacqueline Kennedy needed none of that she was a natural, not a manufactured look-a-like dreamed up by the NY Times plastico to suit their circulation. Give me a break.
M0 is interesting because she is not PLASTIC
Plastico all the way!! Completely made up professionally every day. Have you seen what she looks like on the make-up persons day off?
Because there is still a hangover from the days when it was thought that women couldn't possibly have anything of value to say, so let's just talk about how pretty they are or aren't. Give them time - better reporting will emerge, though the fashion rags will always exist.
Public interest in Michelle Obama's clothing is a result of a public relations campaign by the Obama PR team to promote the First Family as the 2nd Camelot. MO mentioned early on that she loved clothes and would wear whatever she wants which may be coming back to haunt her. It certainly detracts from her very important message on obesity prevention. Increasing numbers of young people in their twenties are having obesity related diseases including heart attacks, joint replacements and thousands are applying for social security disability due to obesity. Obesity in children is rampant especially in minority households. Processed foods which are cheaper than fresh fruits and vegetables are loaded with fat and have little or no nutritional value. I would like to see MO travel around the country talking to pediatricians, nutritionists , parent groups and children about good eating habits, portion size, and bring back nutritious home cooking rather than eating out at fast food places. Her constant eating out does send a mixed message. She could at least forget the fries as Maureen Dowd suggests.
It is unfortunate that the fashionista label has been attached to her by her self proclaimed interest in clothing, her flashy style, the fawning magazines and media because it has reduced her to a Barbie Doll rather than a First Lady with a serious message.
The only reason she mentioned she would wear whatever she wanted was that interviewers kept asking her about clothes. Duh. SHE doesn't want to talk about clothes.
She wants to talk about education and organic food and feeding the poor. She invites school children to the white house for gardening and meals made from the garden. She is trying to promote healthy eating. THESE are the kinds of things she would like to have reported.
No matter what she is doing, she will always be wearing SOMEthing. And somebody will try to make a big deal out of it.
Very well said!!
What gets to me is the utter banality of the news about the First Lady: not only what she wears but what her arms look like, how she touched the Queen, and so forth. This is the best that can be reported about her?? Who in the world is interested in this stuff, the people who buy People Magazine and National Inquirer? Reading it feels like being at one of those parties where all people do is gossip about each other while images of mowed-down rain forests flash across the TV screen.
Putting aside the article was in the Style section, the title of the article was about MO's clothes and the captions were about MO's clothes, if you read the comments 90% are about MO's positive role, the strong message she's sending to an obese society and how she's admired. There are a few trolls but overall the posts aren't about MO's clothes.
Ummm...nope I'd say the majority of the comments are about her clothes or her weight or her eye brows and eye lashes!!! Some say they like her but then follow it up by saying how much her clothes don't flatter her. She says she likes clothes because that's what they usually ask her about and as long as the public keeps feeding into the craze the more the media will continue to exploit it. If the majority of the comments weren't about her clothes then HuffPo wouldn't keep putting stories about her in the style section.
It would be nice to focus on the message instead of the messenger. I'm personally thankful that a someone this intelligent had the caring and foresight to plant a ORGANIC garden at the WH--and enlighten children about its benefits on the spot. I wouldn't care if she wore mukluks and a hair net, but apparently the message connects only if she looks great. Now we know who we are.
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