Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Op-Ed: R E S P E C T

Is anybody else sick of Michelle Obama being judged day to day on her appearance, fashion, arms, and nothing more? What about the fact that she is an extremely intelligent, capable, successful, driven woman who has a lot more to contribute to the world aside from being somebody's wife? It's disgusting that already society has tried to define and contain her sphere of influence to the realm of women's fashion, as if to say that a woman cannot be beautiful, a mother, or an intellectual all at the same time. This is ridiculous. She's the First Lady, and the first black First Lady. Get over it and let her define herself and what she wants her role and influence to be.

Upon winning his Oscar for best leading actor in 1964 (the first black American to do so for a leading role), Sidney Poitier had this to say when confronted with all the media hype about what this win in particular meant to him: "I am artist, man, American, contemporary. I am an awful lot of things, so I wish you would pay me the respect due."

So please, America, pay Michelle Obama the respect she's due, too.

~J-Mad


*Not that by acknowledging a blog post as an op-ed piece is too different than what the blog format is all about in the first place, but I just thought I'd make it clear exactly what's going on here. This post is a little different than most other, headline-driven blog posts but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.

1 comment:

Hannah Rajala said...

Sarah, I totally agree. I am really, really sick about hearing what brand name she's wearing and how muscular her arms are. Neither of those things define her.