"But there's always 10 lbs somewhere, right?"

Umm, no.  Not in the context that you mean.

That unfortunately was a direct quote from a prominent politician's wife.  When I read it, I was incensed.  This woman had somehow went from a Harvard law educated dynamo who sat on boards to changing the perception of her life to "fit the mold."  In a magazine interview, she tells how long she exercises and gives the details of her parenting style.  In one stroke of a paintbrush, she is reinvented.  Cue the Tammy Wynette...(Stand by Your Man, come on, I'm not that old).

What surprised me most is that is quote is from Michelle Obama, in a People Magazine interview (No, I do not read it regularly or buy it).  When placed under the spotlight, political spouses are subject to terrible scrutiny.  Now, we have a spouse who is African American.  Suddenly, the dress she wore on a television show is a smash success.  Every word she utters must be parsed carefully.  She resigned from her co-op board as it was found to have a link to Wal-Mart.  How much is subject to change?  Careful, please do not lose yourself. 

There is a disturbing trend of women "standing by their men."  Women who may have been or were accomplished in their own right.  Interesting though, many of the history's famous women were single and achieved their fame through professions or inventions that solved concern's of humanity.   

Thinking now of Hillary Clinton who changed her image to suit voters, Elizabeth Edwards who is quite formidable lawyer in her own right, Barbara Bush who was on the receiving end of many terrible jokes about age and appearance, and Maria Shriver who ended a career in journalism to follow her husband's desire to be a Republican Governor. 

If anything, the time in the spotlight could be used to further an agenda of health, positive self esteem and body acceptance for all people. 

Comments

[littlem]

I think it's interesting that you put the revamping of her image and "furthering the agenda of health and self-esteem" as inapposite.

Mrs. Obama strikes me as a pragmatic woman. I would guess that she thought it might be easier for her to advance her agenda -- and for the President to advance his -- if the populace she had to deal with daily weren't constantly troubled by their difficulty reconciling the concept of a double-Ivy-educated African American woman with *gasp!* opinions, and instead made a conscious decision to emphasize what she might have in common with the readers instead.

Now one could certainly argue that that's disproportionately assimilative strategy. However, I think the second question one might want to ask oneself, before advancing the first one, is whether or not (in the context of the current culture) it's *working*.