"... the wardrobe of someone who has shrugged off the filters and decided to dress for herself as opposed to dressing to please (or maybe just not to upset) the largest possible constituency. Like the fits or not, there’s no denying that Mrs. Obama seemed to be having fun with what she was wearing.... Yet given how strategic Mrs. Obama was about her wardrobe choices during her husband’s administration... given how aware she has been that her every look is followed... it’s impossible not to think that the current shift is about more than just physical comfort. It’s also about the comfort of being at ease with your own self. And in that, it is a deliberate statement of intent. Of freedom. Mrs. Obama is setting her own rules, defining herself according to her own expectations, as opposed to the expectations of the role she has to fill. Who wears the pants? At this point, she does."
Writes Vanessa Friedman in "Michelle Obama’s Fashion Declaration of Independence/The former first lady dressed with a new sense of freedom on her book tour" (NYT).
It's fine for Michelle Obama to wear pants, and I like some of these new looks, notably the "Versace zebra stripes," but, good Lord, can we stop saying "Who wears the pants?" This is a retrograde sexist slur. I'm sure Friedman didn't mean it that way, but why does anyone ever feel the call to use a cliché? It's supposed to be funny and lighthearted because — what? — she actually is literally wearing pants?
That's been a stale twist for decades — flipping a well-worn metaphor back to its original meaning.
So why do it — especially where it necessarily entails sideswipe at Barack Obama's masculinity? It puts Friedman in a set with some of the lowest political humor on the internet, which portrays Michelle as the man and Barack as the woman.
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62 comments:
Dressing with a “sense of freedom”… my, how brave!
What????
St. Hillary wasn't available for deification.
I'm guessing that Dr. Jill ain't filling the empty headed women's magazines with her vapid comments. Next week's PeepHole magazine will flounder on the news-stands.
Do people actually read this drivel?
What a stupid thing to talk about, wear what you will and don’t expect normal people to drool over you about it. Your value to humanity is not related to your clothing budget, feed some poor people, asshole.
Another book tour? How Much money? Do these people need?
Barack Obama's net worth is $70 million. That is a combined net worth with his wife Michelle Obama.
All Dems are immune from all criticism by the NYT.
At least the Obamas run a legal grift by selling books. The Bidens run their grift through Hunter and Jim.
I just think of Michelle as stupid, not that that's bad but it might explain lack of interest.
If it zips up the side or the back it's not wearing the pants.
Pantywaist is the corresponding men's role.
Yes, but is her hair in corn rows?
Queue the references to Diane Fossey in one two three...
They are prepping her for 2024. When you are praised for dressing like that, it's an in-kind donation.
I guess they are also tired of the Big Mike memes
The point is to keep Michelle in the news at a low simmer, keep her name in front of you with anodyne feel-good feature writing. There’s no news there. It’s part of the current DNC scam to have her book tour serve as a shadow campaign so that Joe can keep up the fiction that he’s running again. The point is to freeze out the potential challengers (Gavin is playing along) with continual hints from Joe he’s about to run for reelection. The only way they can clear Kamala out of the way is to substitute another black woman of higher stature and Michelle will be their magical solution when at the last moment Joe is suddenly unable to run. They are hell bent on making Barack’s wife the first woman president. Watch it unfold here.
Why does anyone care what Michelle Obama says, does, or wears. She has no more earned a place in our thoughts than Chelsea Clinton or Baron Trump. (Or anybody from the Kennedy clan, or any descendent of Martin Luther King, Jr.)
She dresses like a clown. Those are clown pants, as is her argument in the article that Americans weren't ready for her to wear her hair in braids because, you know, our racism.
What America didn't want then, and doesn't want now, is a First Lady who dresses like a clown. Or a teletubbie. Or a giant baby in oversized denim.
The reporter probably didn't notice her surely unintentional mild sneer because she was too busy straining to say anything nice about the dog's lunch that is Michelle's hideous fashion choices.
And if you don't want to be compared to a drag queen, maybe leave the incandescent plastic crotch-high stiletto boots and dresses slit to way up there back home in the closet.
Somehow they still write about Michelle Obama as a fashion leader. When we had an actual fashion leader in the White House, they ignored her, or if they mentioned her at all, it was to throw verbal mud at her.
It all sickens me. The love affair with everything Obama is a mind disease.
Althouse: I'm not sure why you indulged in pointing out Trump's feminine side;* and yet you get all sensitive to doing this for Obama. The could be subtile racism on your part.
_______________________
*I believe you even have a tag for it.
Ehhh, those bright yellow bell bottoms were hideous. Some of the other outfits I saw before the paywall came up were fine, but for someone in their twenties. Michelle Obama is close to 60. It's ok to dress age appropriately, yet still be stylish.
So why do it — especially where it necessarily entails sideswipe at Barack Obama's masculinity? It puts Friedman in a set with some of the lowest political humor on the internet, which portrays Michelle as the man and Barack as the woman.
What is the problem here?
Why are you so touchy about how people observe and comment on the Obama's?
Michelle Obama is a terrible corrupt mean person just like her Husband.
She dresses really poorly as well. Barrack's mom jeans fetish is absurd too.
Also, what Temujin wrote at 8:16AM
Michelle Obama has always been lovely in a non typical way. Her choice of clothing now suits her and I love her hair. She’s aged well. So much hate for her, why? Strong woman and strong black women especially are treated with disrespect and derision by hateful people. Lots of hateful people on these threads.
"her every look is followed"
Is this true? Sad if so.
"as opposed to the expectations of the role she has to fill"
She is just playing a new role, as this very article shows.
"good Lord, can we stop saying "Who wears the pants?" This is a retrograde sexist slur."
Not at all. It's actual feminism, and it serves the prog cause.
"I'm sure Friedman didn't mean it that way"
Oh? Really?
"So why do it — especially where it necessarily entails sideswipe at Barack Obama's masculinity?"
It's actual feminism, it makes women feel better, and there isn't much to sideswipe at anyway.
Talk about retrograde sexism! Loving someone for being the wife of a powerful man is pretty up there.
Michelle fashion icon and POTUS 2024. Why not. Between the propaganda, cartel money and cheating Dems and the leftmedia can have anyone they want in the WH.
In that context, it is interesting to compare counties won by Trump and Biden in 2020. It's something like 500 for Biden and 2500 for Trump. It's data that simplifies cheating.
Michelle as the man and Barack as the woman.
Reminder: This is in the process of being revised.
The science is unsettling unsettled.
Good Lord, can we stop talking about MFO like she's a fashion icon?
How about a truce? If these idiots stop pretending she's particularly stylish, maybe we can get the other idiots to stop pretending she's a man.
I'd be okay with not talking about fashion icons at all, but that's not going to happen.
Am I the only person who looks at her and thinks.....there's no there there?
Lots of hateful people on these threads.
Could you please stop pretending that it's always only the other side that hates?
“Could you please stop pretending that it's always only the other side that hates?”
No one seems to hate in a more natural way than conservatives, like it’s so easy for them. Sorry, not sorry.
People with anxiety suck the life out of everything around them. We should not accommodate these people at all. They are mean bastards who are quick to anger. Watch out -- if these people get overstimulated or if their environments are a little stressful (otherwise known as real life), you are going to hear about it nonstop. And the friggin' crying. Seriously, shut up already.
Tina Trent said...
She dresses like a clown. Those are clown pants, as is her argument in the article that Americans weren't ready for her to wear her hair in braids because, you know, our racism.
What America didn't want then, and doesn't want now, is a First Lady who dresses like a clown. Or a teletubbie. Or a giant baby in oversized denim.
The reporter probably didn't notice her surely unintentional mild sneer because she was too busy straining to say anything nice about the dog's lunch that is Michelle's hideous fashion choices.
And if you don't want to be compared to a drag queen, maybe leave the incandescent plastic crotch-high stiletto boots and dresses slit to way up there back home in the closet.
12/14/22, 8:12 AM
THIS.
And Jill Biden dresses like a piece of furniture. How I miss THE REAL Fashion Icon of a First Lady, that the left couldn't bear to look at, never mind put on a cover of a magazine.
So why do it — especially where it necessarily entails sideswipe at Barack Obama's masculinity?
Barack Obama possessed masculinity? Gullible females fall for another hoax!
Strong woman and strong black women especially are treated with disrespect and derision by hateful people. Lots of hateful people on these threads.
True...the left hates Condi Rice, Candice Owens, Janice Brown, Star Parker, Alveda King, Winsome Sears....
Why is the left so hateful to strong, black women, inga?
Not “Obama’s”, “0bami “
Re Michelle, I like to remember that her first job was a sinecure position obtained through her hubby's buddies, where she earned $300k a year as a hospital counsel/admin of some nebulous sort. Her primary accomplishment in that job was instituting a process to remove to other hospitals those patients who showed up at her hospital's ER with serious problems but without insurance. And that is Michelle Obama, in toto.
She could give Hillary lessons on corrupt politics.
MFO: If the large, ugly shoe fits...wear it.
One of the things I found interesting about the Obamas was how normal they looked, more specifically how much Michelle's looks reflected her African heritage, which is pretty common for typical African American couples. They appear to be a strong family; too bad he didn't use his position to promote strong family values, like his, instead of choosing the course of racial division.
igna said..
Strong woman and strong black women especially are treated with disrespect and derision by hateful people.
Lots of hateful people on these threads.
Then Lazarus said...
Could you please stop pretending that it's always only the other side that hates?
but, You SEE? Lazarus? According To IGNA: Hate is DEFINED as:
disrespect and derision of a democrat
It is Inconceivable to igna, that Anyone COULD be hateful towards the other side, because;
to igna, That makes No Sense.
The other side aren't democrats (in fact, aren't Even humans); HOW Could someone be hateful to them?
Red Shield Store hardest hit.
She's no Melania Trump, that's for sure.
The resident dullard: So much hate for her, why? Strong woman and strong black women especially are treated with disrespect and derision by hateful people. Lots of hateful people on these threads.
Angry black women are not attractive even if they don't look like an NFL linebacker. It was interesting to see her depicted as a fashion model when Melania Trump was ignored.
"So why do it "
Because it's useful shorthand and it irritates feminists. Those are great reasons to do things, even if inadvertently done.
"So why do it "
Because it's useful shorthand and it irritates feminists. Those are great reasons to do things, even if inadvertently done.
"So why do it "
Because it's useful shorthand and it irritates feminists. Those are great reasons to do things, even if inadvertently done.
"This is a retrograde sexist slur. I'm sure Friedman didn't mean it that way..."
Why are you so sure of this?
“Sorry, not sorry.”
Nurse that shame!
I think she's fantastic! So...so...heroic! Yes! Heroic! And deep! Very deep! And the things she's involved in! Like...um...like things that shame those dippy Carters with their hammers and saws! She MUST run for President! Must! Must! Must! And bring back neat clothes! And coifs! And be a beacon of WOW for all people with her visionaryness!
president momjeans
his self-regard approaches
angry first lady’s
Big Mike has more money than God.
Big Mike can wear what Big Mike wants to wear...
'Barack Obama's net worth is $70 million.'
Seems far too low...
Strong woman and strong black women especially are treated with disrespect and derision by hateful people. Lots of hateful people on these threads.
LOL what a crock. Just ask Janice Rogers Brown, or the AG in VA who is twice as smart and more correct than Michelle any day of the week and actually offered themselves up to voters (unlike Michelle's shadow campaign going on now). If you broaden your definition then ask Miguel Estrada, kept off SCOTUS specifically because he was an Hispanic republican, but since republicans got a pick it is really only because he was the wrong kind of minority. Take your hate assertions elsewhere, Inga. You sound like Jemele Hill.
Disagreeing with you jerks isn't hateful, it is helpful.
It is difficult to imagine "Obama the Boyfriend" being pegged by Michelle? Sounds about right to me.
Oh, the "burden" h/t Obama... I mean, burden, we conceive.
Men, women, and "our Posterity" are from Earth. Feminists are from Venus. Masculinists are from Mars. Social progressives are from Uranus.
At 58,will MO soon be entering the territory of old invisibility, where she stops caring about fashion altogether?
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
Strong woman and strong black women especially are treated with disrespect and derision by hateful people. Lots of hateful people on these threads.
LOL what a crock. Just ask Janice Rogers Brown, or the AG in VA who is twice as smart and more correct than Michelle any day of the week and actually offered themselves up to voters (unlike Michelle's shadow campaign going on now). If you broaden your definition then ask Miguel Estrada, kept off SCOTUS specifically because he was an Hispanic republican, but since republicans got a pick it is really only because he was the wrong kind of minority. Take your hate assertions elsewhere, Inga. You sound like Jemele Hill.
Disagreeing with you jerks isn't hateful, it is helpful.
12/14/22, 11:40 AM
THIS!!!^^^^^
@Joe Smith, I trust you ain't talking about me, bro.
If perchance you are, I'm wearing a pair of jeans and a very old sweatshirt.
None of those outfits look like the freedom of dressing for oneself. They all look like carefully-selected ensembles precision-engineered to send certain messages to certain audiences. I have no idea what those messages might be; the only signal I'm getting is that I'm not her intended audience.
"... Mrs. Obama was about her wardrobe choices during her husband’s administration..."
Let's see, I know, sleeveless again.
The male equivalent is referred to as a "wife beater".
'If perchance you are, I'm wearing a pair of jeans and a very old sweatshirt.'
: )
So much hate for her, why?
When someone clearly says they hate me and people like me - as Michelle Obama did countless times - the tendency to hate them right back seems appropriate.
She lives in mansions, has done nothing to earn the wealth thrown upon her and yet she comes across as the most miserable person on the planet.
Nothing to like about that.
Strong woman and strong black women especially are treated with disrespect and derision by hateful people.
Diversity (e.g. racism, sexism, ageism)? DIE doctrine under the Pro-Choice ethical religion. Albinophobia?
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