Courtesy of the Presidential Inaugural Committee/Flickr Creative Commons License
In a recent article published in The Economist, Lexington laments that ever since Michelle Obama stepped into the White House, the media has done nothing but obsess over her ‘perfectly toned’ arms and her love of J. Crew and Jason Wu.
It is certainly true that women should be looking to the First Lady for lessons on how to lead a balanced life that is mixed with a healthy dose of family, work, and environmental consciousness. In the past months, Michelle has done everything from serve food to the homeless to present the State Department Women of Courage Awards, yet all we seem to be reading are remarks such as how ‘an eye popping bright yellow shift by Jason Wu perfectly offset…her black belt and long line jacket…’ It would do no harm for journalists to cover the substance of Michelle’s praiseworthy work without constantly referring to her fashion sense or to her appearance on Vogue’s March cover.
Yet it isn’t wholly accurate to describe the First Lady’s stylistic choices as being what Lexington calls mere ‘fluff’. The White House is using this particular aspect of Michelle’s multi-faceted personality to add a touch of humanness that was missing in the former occupants of the White House. By intelligently using fashion ‘fluff’ as a political tool, Michelle Obama has captured the attention of countless women, many of which probably never cared about what the former First Lady was doing during the Bush administration–a feat which is praiseworthy in itself.
The bottom line is that if someone wants to find out what Michelle Obama is accomplishing politically and socially, such information is but a Google search away. Whether one wants to also follow her latest fashion fluff is ultimately and simply a question of personal choice.
