Michelle Obama is an accomplished woman. A black woman. She is strong, confident and opinionated.
It is the last three characteristics, that America can’t come to terms with in any woman, a black one in particular.
In this country, a woman can be accomplished, she can even be an intelligent woman, but not if her husband runs for the Presidency. We saw it with Hillary Clinton past and present. Add to that, this is a woman who wasn’t born with the proverbial spoon nor the the token privilege afforded her white counterpart.
Through hard work,determination and in the face of opposition both from the white male bastion, The Ivy League college and from the rank and file Americans still more comfortable with her in the role of domestic than executive.
Now she needs to be remade, redone.
A softer, gentler Michelle. Men historically are threatened by women who are powerful in their own right. She represents a power and a strength that for centuries has held this country’s soul together. She should be likable and “friendly” read more feminine, less honest, more “stand by your manesque” less aggressive.
A suitable, acceptable First Lady. The parasol is on order along with the white gloves and the frontal lobotomy.
To remake her into a “First Lady” package is an abomination, albeit necessary. America is still reeling from the nomination of its first African American candidate for presidency, it certainly isn’t ready for a real black woman. So the making of Michelle begins. Enter her new chief of staff.
Welcome to American Politics at its best.
Michele’s remaking embodies my belabored and overly simple argument that gender trumps race, even here in America.
Here is a woman, who as a friend recently mentioned to me, will be the most well educated and accomplished first woman in American history, should Obama win. Against all odds, she will stand as the best educated first lady, with the single most successful career among her first lady peers.
And the campaign is having to strategically and smartly make her over, make her not only digestible but palpable to the American fast food political market.
Michele. Standing behind her man, so that when every black in America shows up to cast their vote so that they can see the face of change in this country, they will experience an unbelievable joy that a new threshold has been broken. Hope is Obama’s mantra for good reason.
Indeed, a new threshold will have been broken. And Barack should be proud, for this symbolic step by one man will become a giant leap for mankind; an entire continent which has sat by and been exploited for the interests of white colonization will see possibilities on the horizon.
But I think it is important to note that Michele must stand behind her man, not beside him. She’s taking her ques from Laura Bush, not Hillary Clinton. She must be dumbed down, and must accept this role gracefully if Obama is going to rise to the top.
I have no doubt that he will. I have no doubt that she will.
If she didn’t know how to adroitly maneuver around the biases of white patriarchy, she wouldn’t be where she is today.
Which is what unnerves her critics. She is smarter than them, and not only smarter, but a black woman.
Comment by bluesmokeofparadise — June 19, 2008 @ 6:31 pm |
Blue,
I thought of the things you wrote when composing this essay. Gender in America may not trump race but it is just as insidious. Thank you for your thoughts. I agree with 90 percent of them. Hopefully they will get the opportunity to change history. Indeed the dumbing down of Michelle is a cautionary tale of men in power having a need to control women. A woman of equal accomplishment and intellect is not celebrated but made to fit the mold of what Patriarchy thinks she should represent. It is the truth. However distatseful and wrong headed and unfair. But the game they must play for the good of many.
Comment by zacca — June 22, 2008 @ 1:50 am |
Your last sentence is dead on.
Which is why I continue to hold to my belabored position.
He will win, I have no doubt. He is calling the shots in this campaign, and McCain won’t be able to outsmart him. And although his election will be like the passing of the 15th amendment . . . i.e., largely symbolic for vast swaths of the population, while slavery’s legacy persists in the inner cities and the south, it will be huge turn not just in American history but in human history. Moreover, his winning reinforces the American ideal of “we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,” the promise of equality unfolding with time and circumstance.
We’ve seen the power of symbols this past 7 years, and this one will even more powerful.
Just as the dumbing down of Michelle will speak volumes on the symbolic and unconscious level. Unless, of course, she is able to become Michelle again, after the election.
And as an addendum, I would like to thank the complete incompetence, greed, and criminality of our current administration, which has so driven this country from its roots, we are finally able to embrace a Black man as President, because he in the only one who appeals to our better angels at this moment in history.
Comment by bluesmokeofparadise — June 22, 2008 @ 9:21 pm |