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.
Thanks for clearing that up.
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 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.
Does anybody even remember that she's a lawyer?
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.
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.