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Five myths about Michelle Obama
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Michelle Obama entered the White House as a chimera. To some, she was emblematic of fully realized African American womanhood and an incomparable fashion icon. To others, she was the voice of racial grievance, the nanny state and Seventh Avenue vanity. She has proved herself to be neither vengeful nor the patron saint of activist feminism. Yet misperceptions linger. So as she celebrates her 50th birthday, here are a few facts in the face of persistent fictions. 1. Michelle Obama is the most fashion-friendly first lady. Obama has been a pronounced and polished advocate for American style, seamlessly moving from custom-made evening gowns to mass-market fare. She has made the fashion industry swoon with her willingness to embrace the work of some of its most eccentric players, such as Thom Browne , and its lesser-known talents, such as Isabel Toledo and Duro Olowu. One 2010 study in the Harvard Business Review estimated she could boost a company’s stock 16 percent by wearing its clothes. Yet other first ladies have had more personal relationships with designers — and opened the White House doors to them in a way Obama has not. Jacqueline Kennedy designated Oleg Cassini her official dressmaker, and the style they created inspired generations of women and designers. Lady Bird Johnson in 1968 hosted a formal fashion show that involved models parading through the State Dining Room as the wives of visiting governors looked on. Nancy Reagan had let’s-meet-for-lunch friendships with several designers, and she received the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s lifetime achievement award — which she accepted in person. In 2005, Laura Bush’s presence at New York’s Fashion Week rippled through the industry like the Second Coming. Obama has celebrated creativity through the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Design Awards, but she has maintained distance from the industry. Jason Wu , designer of her two inaugural gowns, didn’t meet her until the first was installed in the Smithsonian a year after she wore it. She doesn’t attend fashion industry events. When Seventh Avenue honored her in 2009, she sent her thanks via video message. 2. She is a food tyrant of Bloombergian intolerance. The first lady is renowned for her Let’s Move campaign to fight childhood obesity through healthy eating and exercise. One of her first projects upon settling into the East Wing was sowing the White House Kitchen Garden. She even gave out dried fruit on Halloween — President Obama joked that it would get the White House egged. Her focus on the nation’s eating habits has led to complaints that she wants to deprive Americans of dessert. But Obama repeatedly expresses her belief in moderation, talks about her affection for French fries and unapologetically went in for a 1,700-calorie splurge at Shake Shack in 2011. As for sweets, the first family’s Thanksgiving last year featured nine types of pie, as righteous a display of dessert democracy as one can get. 3. Her legacy will be Let’s Move or Joining Forces. Fighting childhood obesity and supporting military families have been the first lady’s most formal and most publicized campaigns. But the guiding principle of her tenure has been a belief in youth mentoring and “paying it forward.” She introduced mentoring as an institutional commitment at a 2009 lunchtime meeting, pairing 13 Washington area high school girls with top female White House staff members. A similar program for boys came later. In addition to getting personal time with the first lady, the students sat down with Supreme Court justices, met with a curator from the African American history museum and sampled a state dinner menu while learning about diplomacy. The same ethos has guided how Obama has positioned herself abroad. At a London school, she described seeing herself in the faces of the students, who were overwhelmingly from disadvantaged backgrounds. The centerpiece of a Mexico City trip was a speech at a Jesuit university, where she said: “We have seen time and again that potential can be found in some of the most unlikely places. My husband and I are living proof of that.” White House arts workshops, visits to underserved schools and the inclusion of young people at state events are now standard practice and may be her most lasting legacy. 4. She hates Princeton. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama’s senior thesis, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” was exhumed from the archives of the university and fueled the perception that she detested it. “My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘Blackness’ than ever before,” she wrote. “I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with Whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be Black first and a student second.” After she declined invitations to return for special events and skipped her 25-year reunion with a reference to a scheduling conflict, speculation about her animosity intensified. Princeton alumni — I’m one — celebrate reunions with ferocity. Skipping one’s 25th? That’s heresy. Still, there’s no active vitriol. The conclusions of her thesis are nuanced and measured. More than a reprimand of a school struggling with diversity, they explain her determination to stay connected to the black community. Obama also has not been wholly disengaged from Princeton. She accepted a position on the sociology department’s advisory board in 2005, though the presidential campaign soon kept her from going to meetings. In 2012, she did a fundraiser in the town of Princeton that included university students, alumni and faculty. Obama has reserved most of her campus speaking for historically black colleges and universities, and schools serving disadvantaged students or military families. She hasn’t delivered an address at her alma mater, but she has upheld its informal motto: “Princeton in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations.” 5. She represents an unusual success story. Her story — as a successful wife, mother and professional who happens to be black — is not unique. The Labor Department estimates that by age 46, almost 70 percent of black men and women have, at some point, been married. According to the last census, 45 percent of black children are raised in two-parent households. More than one-third of employed black women work in professional fields. But popular culture hasn’t normalized women like Obama. Columbia law professor Patricia Williams laments: “The jurisprudence of the entire 20th century was about black people trying to get into school.” Popular culture, she said, renders the results of that striving “invisible.” Women like Obama were thriving long before the 2008 election, but a lot of people hadn’t noticed. |
美國第一夫人米歇爾?奧巴馬17日將迎來五十歲生日。這位白宮傳奇女主人向來引人矚目,有人稱她為時尚教主,認為她完美地詮釋了非裔美國女性的自我實現(xiàn)之路;有人批判她是種族仇恨和保姆政府的代言人。人們對于她的評價褒貶不一,然而其中卻存在著諸多誤解。在其五十歲生日之際,美國《華盛頓郵報》列舉人們對米歇爾常見的五大誤讀,試圖向讀者展示一個真實的第一夫人。 1. 她是史上最愛時尚的第一夫人? 從私人定制晚禮服逐漸轉(zhuǎn)向大眾服飾,米歇爾被外界公認為是美國平民風的踐行者。她對桑姆?布郎尼、伊莎貝爾?托萊多、奧羅武等平民設(shè)計師和小眾品牌的偏愛更是使美國時尚界為之心醉神迷。據(jù)2010年《哈佛商業(yè)評論》的一項調(diào)查估計,米歇爾能夠為其所穿服裝的公司帶來16%的股票漲幅。
2. 她完全無法忍受不健康食品? 為降低兒童肥胖率,米歇爾發(fā)起“讓我們動起來”活動,號召國民健康飲食,加強鍛煉。她邀請兒童到白宮廚房菜園參加蔬菜種植活動,她在萬圣節(jié)期間向孩子們分發(fā)干果。她對國民飲食習慣的關(guān)注引起部分人的不滿,認為如果按照她的號召,人們將無法享受美味的甜點。 然而事實上,米歇爾并非徹底否定所謂的“不健康食品”,她曾反復(fù)強調(diào),她真正倡導的是適度飲食。她曾坦誠自己對薯條的鐘愛,至于甜點,第一家庭去年的感恩節(jié)晚宴上共準備了9種餡餅,完全足以供客人大快朵頤。 3.她的主要成就是“讓我們動起來”或“支持軍屬”活動? “讓我們動起來”與“支持軍屬”一直是第一夫人最廣為人知的活動。然而這背后反映的是她對青少年輔導的重視和“把愛傳出去”的教育理念。 2009年,在與13名華盛頓中學女生共進午餐時,她將青少年輔導作為一項制度性承諾提出,隨后又發(fā)起了一項旨在幫助男生的類似項目。在這些活動中,除了可以與第一夫人共處外,學生們還將有機會與最高法院的法官、非裔美國歷史博物館館長交流。 即使在國外,她仍然踐行著同樣的理念。在訪問倫敦一所學校時,她說可以從那些來自貧困家庭的孩子身上看到當年的自己。在墨西哥城一所基督會大學的演講中她說:“事實證明,奇跡總發(fā)生在最不可能的地方,我和我的丈夫就是鮮明的例子。” 4. 她厭惡母校普林斯頓大學? 在2008年總統(tǒng)選舉期間,米歇爾的畢業(yè)論文《普林斯頓教育的黑人和黑人社區(qū)》被挖出來,在論文中她寫道:“在普林斯頓的經(jīng)歷讓我比以往更加意識到自己的‘黑人特征’……不管我的一些白人教授與同學如何試圖向我展現(xiàn)思想開明的一面,我有時仍會感覺自己像是校園中的一個游客,就好像我真的不屬于這里?!比藗兙痛瞬聹y她厭惡自己的母校,尤其是在她拒絕了學校很多活動的邀請以及她的畢業(yè)25年周年聚會后,這種猜測進一步加劇。 然而如果對她的論文進行細致入微的研究就會發(fā)現(xiàn),這篇文章更多的顯示了她心系黑人社區(qū)的決心,而非對母校的譴責。事實上,米歇爾從未完全脫離普林斯頓大學,2005年,她接受了母校社會學系咨詢委員會提供的職位(盡管總統(tǒng)選舉使她無暇顧及這邊的工作),2012年,她還在普林斯頓舉行過一場募捐活動。 米歇爾絕大多數(shù)的校園演講都是在黑人或貧困生聚集的學校舉行,她從未在母校發(fā)表過任何演講,但她非常認同母校的非正式校訓:為國家服務(wù),為世界服務(wù)。 5. 她呈現(xiàn)了一個非凡的成功故事? 作為一個成功的黑人妻子、母親和專業(yè)人士,她的故事其實并不獨特——據(jù)美國勞工部估計,70%的黑人在46歲時已經(jīng)結(jié)婚,45%的黑人兒童在雙親家庭中長大,超過1/3的黑人女性在專業(yè)領(lǐng)域工作,只不過流行文化淹沒了米歇爾們。哥倫比亞法學教授Patricia Williams哀嘆道:“整個20世紀的法理學都是關(guān)于黑人女性如何努力接受教育?!比欢餍形幕谏w了她們奮斗的成果。 事實上,在2008年米歇爾名聲大噪之前,像她這樣的成功黑人女性早已比比皆是,只是沒有人注意到她們而已。 (譯者 陳白 編輯 丹妮) |
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