Everyone, meet 2-year-old Parker Curry. "In the world we live in today, I'm just trying to raise a little girl who has opportunities to see women who look like her doing great things," her mom Jessica told me https://t.co/0gBu6FaHFF pic.twitter.com/FSr6Y8cTXc— David Mack (@davidmackau) March 2, 2018
The idea that the little girl would be delighted to meet the object of her adulation exists in the minds of adults, with adult agendas. Where is the care for the mind of the child? What did she actually think as she stood in front of the painting? Surely not, I adore Michelle Obama. But the image was susceptible to that interpretation and the girl was appropriated in service of that idea.
Here's the video Michelle Obama's twitter feed tweeted:
Parker, I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)! Keep on dreaming big for yourself...and maybe one day I'll proudly look up at a portrait of you! pic.twitter.com/faUVTsYWun— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) March 6, 2018
I guess that's the mother, in the background, tending to another child, a less politically useful child. The useful child, the cute 2-year-old girl, is not looking at her supposed idol, but staring at what I presume is a television or computer monitor showing her how to dance with the video "Shake It Off."
Rewatching the video, I wonder if Michelle Obama was really into this photo op. I'd like to think her social media expert PR people proposed the idea to her and she resisted.
Leave the little girl alone. She's 2 years old. She doesn't admire me, and anyway, this adulation of me is stupid. It has no content. A little girl paused in front of the painting. She was probably fascinated by the geometric patterns on the skirt, not stunned in the presence of The Great Michelle Obama. The painting doesn't even look like me! Even assuming the 2 year old girl loves me — which, by the way, could only happen if some adult were yammering into her ear about me in a way that couldn't have had anything to do with my accomplishments or my actual worth as a human being — even assuming all that, she could only know that painting was me if someone was insisting That's Michelle Obama. That's Michelle Obama. Remember how I told you about Michelle Obama? That's Michelle Obama! It's horrible! The damned painting doesn't even look like me. Everybody said that! And by the time that kid is old enough to think about anything actually relevant to me as a political figure, as a human being, that kid is going to be snapping Mom, will you shut up about Michelle Obama. I would prefer to be discovered by the new generation in a more natural, organic way.But Michelle Obama did the Twitter op, so if anything like that happened, presumably her social media PR people said something like You're overthinking this. It will take 5 minutes. We'll pick the cutest bit of you dancing with her.
I imagine Michelle resisting.
You're going to force this poor kid to dance? With a woman she's never met? In a completely unfamiliar place? With guys with cameras aimed at her?Oh, yes, I imagine they said. Her mother says she dances automatically every time she sees her favorite video.
Yeah? What video?
"Shake It Off":
Taylor Swift! Her idol is Taylor Swift! Not me? Taylor Swift!!! That's the music in the background of this stupid clip? Taylor Swift?? And that means I have to dance to Taylor Swift? What's the critical race theory on that?Come on. It will take 5 minutes. People will love it.
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69 comments:
that whole video just looks stupidly foxed. if michelle o is so wise and strong, why didn't she say no?
women who look like her doing great things
Great things = marrying "great" men?
What the F great things has Michelle ever done?
Yeah. I totally imagine her resisting, too!
Parker Curry, a good name choice, unlike, say, LaShay’Shawndra, Sha’quandra, Shaquandree,
and anyway, this adulation of me is stupid.
Never said the woman who wants to create "a thousand mes."
Althouse is projecting her desire that the Obamas are good people.
The Mooch should dance with those Boko Haram girls she hashtagged to safety. What a hero!
I wonder what Michelle has going on that they decided she needed a little PR boost?
Maybe the little girl is wondering who the new Disney Princess is in the portrait. That picture is looks like a platform for many memes.
I saw the original shot of the little girl on CBS morning news.
How thirsty are news organizations that they cover imagined adulation of Michelle Obama?
Looks like the celibate Shakers had children who can shake like them after all.
eager adults projected their adult notions onto her
It's teaching the child the meaning of astroturfing, a skill he needs to learn.
I think the creepy part is some stranger thought it was ok to post a pic of a 2 year old all over the internet
It is all about perception. And, like the Clintons and the Kennedys, the Obamas will never go away.
CBS covering it again this morning. Thirsty.
Would a child that small remember the painting at all?
Reminiscent of the monkey and organ grinder routine.
I imagine Michelle resisting.
Her imagination speaks well of Althouse, but one doubts Michelle had to be talked into this.
There have been lot of videos or pictures of Michelle Obama dancing / exercising over the last 10 years so I don't think this is something she finds objectionable. Hopefully it's other Black people encouraging her to do it because otherwise it might be seen as racist. Along the lines of all Black people can dance and play sports, so show us your moves, Michelle. Barack is Lebron baby and you're Beyonce.
Keep on dreaming big for yourself...and maybe one day...
...you'll marry a man who will make you famous.
The two year old was probably dazzled by the patterns in the dress. Two year olds aren't looking at race. Adults want you to think that.
It was an AWFUL painting and embarrassing as an American that, that was the picture chosen to represent an American first lady.
It is a Cartoonish portrait. Kids love cartoons.
I imagine Michelle Obama responding to her PR person’s suggestion that she dance with the little girl, “Fuck yeah! Get that little motherfucker in here. This will make all those motherfucking honkies’ heads explode. And maybe, inshallah, it will even get that beyatch in motherfucking Wisconsin to blog about it. She don’t like Barack in shorts? Fuck her and the horse she fucking rode in on.”
What did the girl think of Barry's portrait?
Lots of pretty flowers.
"Taylor Swift?? And that means I have to dance to Taylor Swift? What's the critical race theory on that?"
Taylor Swift dances very white.
There is a nod to the dancing of other cultures, but it is recontextualized in her (very white) movements.
Is this recontextualization:
• keeping a respectful distance from appropriating the dance of other cultures?
• a fear of social attack for appropriating the dance of other cultures?
• Taylor Swift has stereotypical white apprehension of earthy sexuality, and is unable to let loose and incorporate sexual identity into her dancing?
• Taylor Swift is doing the best she can, but she can't dance very well?
(to be continued)
(continued)
Traditionally, white culture has never been about the individual in popular dancing. Square dancing, the Western Two-Step, the Chicken Dance, cheerleading, clogging, etc.
In groups, the white person may attempt moves of individualization, but this is still confined to imitating the movement of the group as a whole: the Swim, the Monkey, the Dog, the Watusi, the Mashed Potato, the Jerk, and the Frug.
The cliche of whites dancing is a lack of rhythm; however, to be more precise, the defining characteristic of white dancing is the lack of syncopation, and the lack of instinctual understanding of the downbeat.
However, when whites attempt to move out of this cultural box the cries of appropriation can become fierce: witness the following (and not atypical) reaction to fellow pop star Miley Cyrus' attempt to dance with syncopation:
"...But recently – Miley’s been sporting something a little different from the ingénue pack that she grew up with. She’s been twerking...
...Twerking is a dance style that involves “shaking the upper and lower hips in an up and down bouncing motion,” which was influenced heavily by the New Orleans bounce music scene, and can be traced further back to traditional African dance forms. It’s been referenced in hip-hop and electronic songs by everyone from the Ying Yang Twins, Drake, to Diplo....
...That’s because We Can’t Stop – not to mention Miley’s Twitter, persona, and overall attitude – is riddled with cultural appropriation...
"...Here’s why you should give a fuck, Miley. Because you grew up steeped in white privilege; with your father’s name, you’ve been wealthy your entire life. Because your simultaneous appropriation and stereotypying of black culture is harmful and oppressive. You can twerk and pretend to be “ratchet” but it only lasts for the three minutes and 34 seconds that you’re on screen, and then you can take it all off and live life as the privileged white girl that you are. Other people of color can’t do that. They have to deal with the awful stereotypes, the racism, the discrimination that comes attached to their non-whiteness.
A comment on the youtube page for “We Can’t Stop” really sums up why everything about this sucks: “I love how miley twerks. its not the casual black girl, big ass, twerk, but a white girl showing off her moves. loved it!” Great – so not only are we into the appropriation and exploitation of black culture for profit, but now we’re mocking and degrading that very culture when it’s authentically performed by black people, only to praise it when it’s performed by white people? Ugh..."
(from Bust.com)
Now, with this in mind, watch Taylor Swift's video again: can one not see the guardedness in her demeanor, the self-concious limiting of any movement that can be deemed sexual or non-white?
(to be continued)
(continued)
To observe the difference, simply compare her dancing with the dancing found in "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo": the difference is obvious.
Even Mike Love of the prototypical white pop group Beach Boys acknowledges this difference:
"For instance, the preponderance of American pop music is based on the beat of two and four," he says. "You'll have a lot of cultural influences that cause people to do one and three. I remember being in the Vienna Stadthalle — the town hall in Vienna, with about 12,000 people in it — and it was, like, Teutonic."
However, this is complicated by the fact that the issue may not be entirely cultural:
From NPR:
"Cultural differences aside, what about those who truly can't find the beat at all? An enthusiastic music teacher might say, "Everybody has rhythm, even babies." But Jessica Phillips-Silver says it's not so. She has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and auditory development, and she says there is such a thing as beat deafness: "a form of musical brain disorder."
So the whiteness of white dance is not just culturally inherent, but the signal of a disordered brain.
Which makes white dancing a sign of victimhood.
In this light, should white dancing, of the kind employed by Taylor Swift, be seen as an empowering move against a genetic handicap?
Watch the video again, and consider: The Girl Can't Help It.
The Germans have a word for this.
In the original B&W movie of "Show Boat", Magnolia moves her hips like the black women to "Can't Help...". Her mother is scandalized. But then, she objected to everything.
How many decades has it been since a black person said "honky"? Except in a Norman Lear sitcom? Or in some script written by some other white liberal?
Taylor Swift is the Bob Dylan of her generation. Shake it Off is the Subterranean Homesick Blues of her time.
In 10 years, Taylor will have a Blood on the Tracks like album that her real true fans, who stuck with her through the highs and lows, will really appreciate. In 25 years, some laidback bar band guy born in 2015 with a nickname like Hootie will riff on a Taylor Swift line and fall ass backwards into a monster pop hit. When he was a tot, he was deemed too ugly a child to dance with political royalty, so he stuck with coloring books.
In any case, the stars being what they are, this helps ticket sales on a resurgent Taylor Swift tour where she plays all the old favourites in a sequined cowgirl getup.
Some nights she does a cover of "Trying to Get to Heaven" and it is ok.
Lower the voting age to 2.
I imagine Michelle resisting.
Althouse projects her own decency onto Mooch, of which there is precious little evidence. Someone full of resentment and a sense of entitlement, an opportunist outflanked only by the likes of Hillary.
Tank said...
women who look like her doing great things
Great things = marrying "great" men?
What the F great things has Michelle ever done?
Well, there was that $300 k no show job at a Chicago hospital after BO was elected Senator, a job that apparently wasn't needed, and was abolished after they left for Washington.
"In the world we live in today, >>I'm<< just trying to raise a little girl who has opportunities to see women who look like her doing great things," Jessica said.
I read the whole article and my first thought was, "Where's the father?"
I continue to be surprised at the things I learn on this blog. Thanks, Anne.
"Pictures of Lily" about masturbation? Man, was I ever innocent! Or stupid. I simply thought it was a silly song.
At least about that, I was right.
"this adulation of me is stupid. It has no content."
This is one of the funniest things ever written on this blog.
Thanks!
Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" is performed by cartoon characters in the very popular animated movie "Sing" and in fact my 6-year old granddaughter learned the song in her singing lessons and has made a video of her performance. Her 3-year old sister also sings "Shake It Off" and I can imagine a 2-year old watching the movie "Sing" and trying to emulate the performance.
Here's the cartoon performance of "Shake It Off": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erpHPRfvwH0
C'mon. We need thousands of her. (For what, I am not sure.)
I must confess that since she found her duties at Sidley & Austin uncongenial, I don't understand her at all. I always thought that making America's mighty economy work, employing millions and meeting the wants and needs of the world, was noble.
I guess she just wanted to boss people around.
A pickaninny dancing in a minstrel show - what'll they think of next?!?
It's patently ridiculous but cut Michelle some slack. Politicians kiss babies. Metaphorically, at least. Always have, always will. Michelle isn’t doing anything that a hundred thousand men haven’t done before her.
Cause the players gonna play
And the haters gonna hate
Better to be the Michelle the player than Althouse the hater, I say.
1)The kid is obviously thinking, "what the hell is the deal with that dress?"
2)I thought Taylor Swift was problematic because she won't declare her allegiance to the left and some white supremacists are celebrating her whiteness.
Left Bank--What's Michelle playing at? She married some guy, just like Hillary and Melania. That makes her a player? Nah, she was a player at Sidley, and she didn't like it.
Better to be the Michelle the player than Althouse the hater, I say.
Michelle is not a woman of accomplishment, but she plays one on television. So that makes her a player.
Why do you imagine Michele protested and wanted to leave the child alone, but only did it because of the PR people? Is there anything in the story that indicates that?
I imagine she knows quite well that she’s using the child for her own benefit. I don’t think she protests at all. In fact, all these PR narratives are entirely about using the little people to make you look like you think you need to look. I don’t think Michele Obama cares one iota about the girl or the public in general.... just herself.
I wonder if she’s back to not being proud of her country ?
Btw, did anyone suggest the little kid was looking at the painting and thinking “hey, a little kid like me painted this thing”?
I wonder if this is a sign that Michelle really thinks she can run?
For Senator?
For President?
The reason the 2 year-old likes the Taylor Swift song is the same reason Quincy Jones recently criticized her music.
Quincy Jones Shades Taylor Swift's Songwriting: 'We Need Songs, Not Hooks'
It's the same reason why she stared at the Obama portrait.
"Hooks."
"Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate,
Fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake,
Me, I'm gonna shake, shake, shake, shake,
Shake it off! Shake it off!"
Re Taylor Swift -
This may be related to the observation, going back many years, that little black girls preferred white Barbie dolls.
You don't hear that anymore, but I suspect its still true.
Btw, Mattel used to offer multiethnic Barbie dolls in the Philippines, which were relatively cheap as they were locally made. IIRC they mostly sold white ones there also.
Althouse, once again, shows that she is a better thinker that standard-issue Leftists.
Althouse is aware of her own projection. Althouse is aware of her own supposition. Althouse expresses her awareness. She stands back from herself and perceives about herself. That is difficult to do. It's an admirable, if ultimately tiring, thing to be able to do. Most people can't take even that first step back from their own preconceptions to challenge what they "think without thinking".
It would be nice if more people could do that. Or perhaps if more people could, did, and had the energy to sustain a critical perspective, it would be good.
I don't think she resisted, but the story line around her doing so was very funny.
My 5 y.o. great niece & I bonded over Shake It Off.
"Rewatching the video, I wonder if Michelle Obama was really into this photo op. I'd like to think her social media expert PR people proposed the idea to her and she resisted."
She resisted. But then she persisted.
I often defend Michelle O, but not on this one.
After years of observing the Obamas, I rather doubt Michelle Obama resisted the chance to use a 2 yr old for her own glorification.
So that's what Taylor Swift sounds like?! Good Lord.
You'd get more edification at a Wiggles concert from than this dreck.
Taylor Swift's ongoing silence and refusal to opine about this highly important episode is deafening.
Stay woke.
The signature dance move in Taylor Swift's video is stolen from The Big Lebowski. There's nothing on earth whiter than The Big Lebowski, including Taylor Swift's ass.
Trump made this for Chuck--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNFRuHyntW0
God help me, I like watching white women.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CRuEKPXOMY
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
Whoring a two-year-old.
Stand up and take a bow, leftists.
In that twitter pic I'm immediately seeing what looks like a mirror in the background which seems to reflect a picture of a man and woman - who is in a dress very similar to the Obama portrait?
Maybe that's what caught the little girl's eye at the gallery?
Maybe this was set up by Taylor Swift's social media people to prove that she's not an alt-right icon. "See! Little black kids love me!"
The little girl is probably thinking "Who is this lady? I thought I was going to meet the person in the painting."
So that's what Taylor Swift sounds like?! Good Lord.
That's my first exposure to her "music" as well. Sounds like every other autotuned, drum machined dance pop tune. I think they're all really Randy Marsh.
This is the second time Althouse has finally broken me down to actually listen to the latest phenomenon. She had a link to a Kanye West tune and so I finally clicked to see what it was all about. And I was REALLY surprised. I thought, "He sounds like Otis Redding!". Turns out it WAS Otis Redding for the first 30 seconds or so, and then Kanye's awful caterwauling kicked in and I couldn't click STOP fast enough.
That was a wonderful Taylor Swift video. Right up there with the Talking Head's Once in a Lifetime: https://youtu.be/5IsSpAOD6K8?t=10s
There is something about Taylor that kids love. This very song got my crying two year old to calm down at the ER for a terrifying case of severe croup.
And hey, the music is catchy if not deep, she is super pretty, and while I have no idea what her politics are, that in itself is refreshing.
That video of Darell’s did sort of make me want to visit Scotland. I love those kinds of clothes on women.
The signature dance move in Taylor Swift’s video is stolen from The Big Lebowski
It’s an homage!
Ya' gotta admit - it's a catchy tune, and a fun video, filled with self-deprecating humor.
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