Blogs and Stories
The Politics of Michelle Obama's Hair
Why she's so much cooler than Hillary and Condi.
Sometimes there’s a difference between beauty and beauty queen. And last night, on The Daily Show, Michelle Obama emerged to show us just where that line might be. Unfailingly generous in her assessments of the McCains and the Palins, she was graceful even when pressed by Jon Stewart about what would happen if Barack Obama were to win the presidency, “but you lose to Cindy McCain.” She laughed warmly: “We don’t want that to happen.”
Stewart was getting at something crucial. There has been a kind of sub rosa contest in the media depiction of our potential first ladies that always seems to pit surface versus substance. “We become part of the filler” Michelle observed wryly.
But Michelle Obama may be the first politically visible American woman to have actually combined surface and substance into one package. And what I love about her is that she looks so unencumbered by it all. It is not that she diminishes the sacrifices it took to deliver her to this threshold; it’s that she seems genuinely relaxed and happy in her role as lawyer, businesswoman, wife and mother.
Between the Scylla of Condoleezza Rice's good-little-girl page-boy, and the Charybdis of Angela Davis's 1960's Afro, Michelle Obama’s looser style provides a breezy, refreshing kind of Golden Mean.
Her optimistically upturned flip reflects an attitude that’s subtly but powerfully liberating. When I graduated from law school in the mid-1970s, African-American women’s hair was constantly being scrutinized for signs of subversion: the more “natural,” the more dangerous. So we pressed our hair flat with the weight of other people’s expectations and waited for times to change.
While curly hair, twists, short Afros, and corn rows are all much more prevalent and tolerated these days, those choices are still publicly interrogated to an unseemly degree. Lani Guinier, Bill Clinton’s nominee to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department, was deemed radical in part because of what some commentators called her “strange hair.” Similarly, when Rep. Cynthia McKinney changed her hairstyle to corn rows, Capitol security guards blocked her way, claiming they didn't recognize her as a member of Congress.
Most recently, in the most discussed New Yorker magazine cover ever, what stood out for me was that Michelle Obama’s putative politics were satirized via…an Afro! Angela Davis hair. Yes, friends, the hairdo that crossword puzzle enthusiasts find regularly described as a four-letter synonym for the fashion sensibility of protesters, armed revolutionaries, and frat boys yukking it up in “fright wigs.” We’re talking unequivocally, implacably, no bones about it, political hair. Regardless of how differently the real Davis may wear her hair today, her coif is remembered as a mathematically precise series of explosions, of radioactive microwaves pulsing outward from the sun of the universalized angry black scalp.
I don’t believe that we are anywhere near a “post-race” or a “post-feminist” moment, but I do think that Michelle Obama models a kind of post-“thank-God-A’mighty-free-at-last,” post-Condi, post-Hillary, and definitely post-assimilationist aesthetic. Looking good, but thinking about more important things.
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This is a wonderful piece. You had me laughing out loud, and thankfully, those were laughs of joy, not laughing *at* a woman in the public sphere, for a recent change. (I think you know who I'm talking about--I've laughed a lot at articles about her antics and brazen hypocrisy, but the laugh was anything but joyful.) Thanks for turning around my attitude and mood. Great work, and a thoroughly deserving subject.
Michelle Obama is truly elegant! No one can doubt it. But we also have to consider that, unlike Rice and Clinton, she's not occupying any political position so it is probably easier to look happy and stress free. Let's not forget that maybe because women like Hillary who broke lots of barriers (who can forget the scrutinity that the First Lady's hair suffered?), Michelle can be and present herself as a free and relaxed woman.
My point is, different situations and different positions maybe can't be comparable
It might be ironic, but thjis article could have been describing Sarah Palin. Make no mistake, I'm no fan, but after she loses this election she could be a force to reckon with 4 or 8 years down the road and she will no doubt emulate the First Lady's style and poise. Of course, I also think Michelle would actually make a better and more plausible vice presidential candidate than Palin.
The Bible Says;" Hair Is Your Crowning Glory"; I love the way Michelle's Hair was Did on her Wedding Day! She was A Natural Love, from Hair To Toe. I really enjoy her pristine freedom from the Wacky World, in the name of Clothes, Shoes, Style & Grace Under Fire, She does not fall to the dictates of What She Should look Like; Saying; you must look this Way, Or That Way. Do Not Wear Sleeveless Dresses, or Prints,etc... Her Astute, Casual, Educated, Legal Mind invaribly on; Smart, Sister Butt Shape; Pretty Smile, Mother/Mom Approach to Doing her Own Agenda; Crys To Hell with You'll All, As A Beautiful Smile crosses her face, Without a Word of contempt or looking angry... I love the way she speaks, how she addresses the subjects put to her by any commentator... Go Girl, better Yet, You Go FIRST BLACK LADY in the White House; I am Excited; Already I am Dancing for the Two Of Them... Don't Hate, Celebrate.!!!
Michelle Obama is as much a part of the ticket as Senator Biden is. She is an intelligent, beautiful, lawyer, wife, and mother. I love your characterization of her. It is spot on. I love it that he defers to her and adores her and that she plays a big part in who he is. She will be a wonderful First Lady and Ambassador for the US wherever she goes. Thanks for writing this poignant article about her. I hope she gets to read it.
I dont think there any "sub rosa" contest re Palin vs. Michelle! My circle of politico pundit addicts often mention how (awful, ignorant, disappointing) repulsive a Sarah VP would be.
Hair can reflect anything but in Palin it surely reveals an ignorant, cheap and coarse VP. Michelle can easily wear a"looser style" because she is extremely sharp, aware, and a truly sensuous woman.
Does anyone think that Cindy McCain's hair reveals what a zombie she is?!
You know I'm pretty certain that the reason the wives of black political figures aren't front and center is a little more evolved than the theory that African Americans are "overwhelmingly socially conservative: so traditionally stay-at-home that they're doomed to invisibility." In these two specific examples Perhaps Jackie Jackson has made her peace with Rev Jackson but feels no need to sit in public and appear to accept the indignities she's been exposed to by her husband. Maybe Rev Sharpton's wife loves him and their children but feels no need to live his public life.
The issue of spouses is completely different for some reason when we're talking about individuals running for president. Nobody knows the spouse of our Congresspeople or members of the US Senate unless they've stood by while the member admitted some ethical violation. Nancy Pelosi's husband isn't a widely know pubic figure perhaps outside of SF. No one can identify Kay Bailey Hutchinson's spouse. And they are both elected officials tied to their spouses not only by marriage and social conventions but federal financial reporting requirements....
@phillyjim,
Palin can barely speak English. I hope after having an articulate, well educated person in the White House again, people would not be willing to elect and uneducated, illiterate shrew.
Michelle Obama wears the pants in that family, guess who people are electing to office?
I know the history and that sexuality is as fraught a topic as hair for Black women, but I am still bothered by your characterization of Michelle as successful and happy in part due to her "hero" husband. A bit heteronormative and a bit conservative. I'm no fan of Condaleezza Rice, but it's an open secret in Washington that she's a lesbian. Lesbian does not equal "asexual" and Rice is also "loved."
P.S. Thanks though. I do love your work.
Good piece. I saw her on Jon Stewart's show and instantly felt that here is a genuine person, who is being brought to limelight and deserves to be there, as a relief for all of us who wish reality to be present in political life. As Obama acknowledges and also Michelle does, let us hope she keeps him tethered to our reality. I hope she remains unscathed by her 8 years in official life! Keep us informed of her passage through these years. Your writing is pleasantly enabling.
I am not sure a comparison ever works...Other wives were there at other times in our history..Michelle Obama has her own ideas and her own history that drives who she is today. Clearly these two people help elevate one another by their enormous love and respect for one another. A really really good haircut always saves the day. Also what we see is a woman thoroughly comfortable with herself in every role she has to play and a partner whom she trusts...
Thank you.
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