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Michelle's Closet Agenda
Don’t be fooled by her Brady Bunch moments. The Mom-in-Chief will promote feminism, speak out on Iraq, and tackle America’s public health crisis.
Last June I profiled Michelle Obama for a cover story that appeared in October’s issue of More. Because the magazine’s target readership is women over 40, and the Obama campaign was still, at that time, somewhat concerned about winning over disaffected Hillary-ites in that demographic, I had better than usual access: time on the campaign trail during and after the primaries, a one-hour, wide-ranging sit-down interview in Chicago and a meeting with Michelle’s remarkable mother, Marian Robinson.
But one revealing moment came outside of the on-the-record sessions, when I hung around as a fly on the wall to observe the photo shoot for the magazine’s cover. Matthew Rolston, a renowned glamour photographer, had set up a makeshift studio in a Chicago hotel suite near the Obama campaign offices and, as his squad of assistants tweaked lighting and backdrops, the magazine’s fashionistas fluttered nervously around a garment bag. “Do you think we can open it before she gets here?” one asked. “I’m dying to see...”
She is smart enough and subtle enough to have worked out that so-called Mom issues can make for meaty public policy.
The reason for the angst: Michelle Obama had insisted on wearing her own clothes for the shoot, “even though,” lamented the fashion director “I had designers in New York ready to jump out windows for the chance to make something for her.” Eventually, under the guise of checking to see if the clothes needed pressing, the bag was unzipped to reveal two Maria Pinto sleeveless, knee-length sheaths. One was a tone-on-tone appliquéd organza in aubergine and rich brown, the other a plain, extremely vivid fuschia crepe with a purple satin bow affixed to the round neckline. The fashionistas murmured approvingly over the subtle beauty of the first dress but concurred that the pink was a better “sell’ for the cover.
But that bow! Their collective noses crinkled. “Do you think we could ask her to lose that? Who could we get to, like, ask her?” They worked the room, trying to recruit one of Michelle’s regulars—her local Chicago hairdresser or makeup artist. Whomever they got to make the anti-bow demarche, it was unsuccessful. As she draped her almost-six foot frame into effortless poses, the purple bow was right there, front and center. The fashionistas peered anxiously at Rolston’s computer as the images came up. “The bow!” they quelled. “It’s just right! Look how it draws the eye to her face!”
The point of this long-winded anecdote is not to add more fuel to the bonfire of the vanities surrounding the fact that, my God, we’re finally gonna’ have another first lady like Jackie who knows how to dress. The point is twofold: Michelle seems to be able to do everything she sets her mind to, and to do it at a high level of excellence. And, more importantly: she knows this, and isn’t about to be “handled” into any role in which she is not supremely confident and comfortable.
So why then has she gone out of her way to stress the Mom-in-Chief bit? Why hide her Harvard and Princeton exceptionalism—as she did in her convention speech, and again in her weekend appearance on 60 Minutes—and highlight her common-Mom interests in the Dick Van Dyke Show and (lord help us) The Brady Bunch?
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Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who worked for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Wall Street Journal. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2006 for her novel March, and her novel Year of Wonders is an international bestseller. She is the author of Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence.
dagdavid
What an incredibly stupid article. Your long-winded anecdote is just that, long-winded and absolutely pointless. This is one of those articles where you start off with an assertion and then go back and try to find evidence. The Brady Bunch? Come one.
janeeh
I enjoyed the article in More and I enjoyed this little blog. Good points made on how those "pet issues" can and likely will be expanded into more global ones. But I appreciate also hearing that Michelle Obama clearly understands and values the job she needs to perform as her daughters' mom if this transition is going to be a good one for them. The last thing I care to see in the White House is another set of bratty presidential daughters.
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n--Y--FiredUpanxious1
What a bunch of hooey. Do you people just make up stuff? And since when do journalists predict the future? What a waste. And shame on the Beast.
thefamilygardner
This blog post gives a little twinkle of insight into an extremely complex woman and I appreciated it. I'm glad to hear an intelligent woman profess that Michelle Obama's tremendous drive and obvious capabilities don't just disappear because she says she is going to focus on getting her family settled.
theblender
perfectly insightful article! I had guessed at these conclusions, yet it's gives me great satisfaction to be confirmed. further, M Obama is lovely lady, quick and care-full...you conveyed it very nicely. that rebuke up there... geesh... probably a republican looking for fodder...cha know? LOL nice piece! ta
donatello
Said with a twinkle in her eye and a smile "Mom-in-Chief". This is a powerful position, not an idle one.
My mom was Mom-in-Chief and took on whatever role or position she desired and no-one, no-one dared think of her in a Brady Bunch or Dick Van Dyke way.
Zephyr
Thank you for the article. It's all about strategy. The "mom-in-chief" approach is a stealthy way to grapple with issues that would otherwise be deemed unbecoming of a first lady. She has to be stealthy to placate those who cling to the notion that the first lady cannot and should not engage in public discussion regarding complex national issues. She IS a fox.
JABMICH
Ms. Brooks, were you complimenting Michelle Obama or suggesting she is lying and conniving?
Ultimately, YOU appear the"fox" trying to convince us you admire her one hand, yet suggesting she has somehow been untruthful. That is 20th century feminism.. breed mistrust of other women. You giveth with one hand and stab with the other. Sorry, Ms. Brooks, you just don't get it and this is the 21st century.
tomfarr
Yes, Mrs. Obama will be a dynamo of political activism and the proof of this is that she insisted on picking her own dress for the photo shoot. I read a lot of fatuous stuff in the Daily Beast, but this beats most of it.
sallyma
Wow, i went to Ivy and have accomplished a long list of items that surpass what Michele has done. from what i read of Michele she is good at thinking she is smarter than she is. and this "story" blows me away! the women is a wonder b/c she knows her bows? comon! As i read on a feminst blog today, and i paraphrase, Michele is retro-fitting all women for a nice 50s style girdle!
Kneeb0ne
As someone who is supported feminist causes their entire life, I believe it is a bit counter-intuitive to dismiss Mrs. Obama's desire to first and foremost be a mom. Let her do whatever she wants, its her life. If she doesn't ever speak out on any cause during her husband's tenure as president, who cares, its her life.
Maybe she just wants to be a mom right now. People can choose to be different people at different points throughout their life.
She is Harvard and Princeton educated which hopefully makes her smart enough to realize that her number one priorities are her kids (as it should be for Barak also).
So please cut the lady some slack, she has two small kids which is enough for any one person to deal with moreover having to carry the torch for feminism.
bryanlevi
Hmm, that Brady Bunch reference really threw this thing off-track.
Other than that, an article like this would have more impact if the author seemed to have any point-of-view at all. What (I think) the author is describing is something that will be railed against by the Righties and rallied around by us Lefties.
And why shouldn't the First Lady have an agenda, particularly someone like Michelle Obama with stellar intellect, experience, curiosity in and concern for the world. It is, after, the 21st century, and it would seem a bit of a mockery to have a woman in that kind of postion to be sitting there with her hands folded and blank smile on her face, no opinions, etc.
MissLead
Who says she knows how to dress? She looked like a Lava Lamp in that red and black dress at her husbands acceptance.
somebody
So you're saying that Michelle Obama might be the next Hillary Clinton? Because that seems entirely plausible.
Thank you.
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