The media’s Michelle Obama problem: What a selfie says about our biases

[ismnotwasm]

The overanalysis of the first lady's expression speaks volumes about America's expectations of black women

Not even President Obama is above taking a selfie in the least appropriate selfie-taking venue possible. While attending a memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Obama posed with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt. It is probably a bit tacky for these world leaders to pose and preen together, but they are only human. We are all helpless when we have such photographic power in the palms of our hands.

In the already widely circulated image, Michelle Obama is sitting to the president’s left, staring into the distance. In two other images, the first lady looks in the president’s direction as he speaks with the Danish prime minister and then looks straight ahead.

The media (and everyone else) have reacted, trying to frame Michelle Obama as “angry” or “disapproving” when maybe she wasn’t even paying attention to her husband being silly with his world leader friends.

At the Washington Post: “The first lady looks stern — dare we say disapproving? — throughout.”

In the New York Daily News Michelle Obama “sat at a distance, as if in disapproval of the digital display.”

Someone at Business Insider quipped, “That stare can kill.”

The headline at The Huffington Post boldly declares “Michelle Obama is having none of it.”

Over at D.C. political blog Wonkette, “Michelle Obama Pissed, Y’all.”

On and on the punditry goes, ascribing very specific, historically racialized narratives to what Michelle Obama is thinking and feeling in one candid moment.

Setting aside how sad it is that this story is even being reported as a “story,” we have no possible way of knowing why Michelle Obama isn’t grinning and posing and presenting herself the way people apparently expect her to at a memorial service for one of the most beloved world leaders of our time. Has it gone unnoticed that in these images, she’s the one person acting like she’s at a memorial service?

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/10/the_medias_michelle_obama_problem_what_a_selfie_says_about_our_biases/

Oh for Gods sake.

[BainsBane]

1. Did you see the thread in GD?

"Who wears the pants?" They don't even try to hide their sexism any more.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. They don't even try to hide their sexism any more.

They never did.

[CTyankee]

8. Is it me or is DU strangely "attracting" more sexists to post here?

I'm not saying that bashing feminists is something new...I've been around too long to think that. But I don't recall DU having that much interest for sexists in the past. A few, yes, but IMO it's gotten bad here for feminists and I NEVER thought I'd see that much of it here...

[seabeyond]

10. the whole system has been created to give power to the sexist and the system shuts women up.

the majority have the power over the few.

that is what all of du is today.

since the need to have all male space across the spectrum of the nets is so powerful, we should expect no less from du.

this post will probably be alerted on. as my other posts speaking about factual reality of du today, was. and a close 3-3 hide. one more person that does not like what i say, and it is an easy hide.

this was created. purposely created. every step empowers the majority, and takes away the ability to speak from the few.

[CTyankee]

29. I don't know if you saw my art Challenge last Friday but some sexist stuff surfaced

which IMO was pure harassment of BainsBane and a violation of the whole spirit of the thread.

So I did respond:

89. why are you keeping this up?

This is just a nice little place where art lovers come on Friday afternoon to talk about and share experiences with art. The Challenge is a gentle place. I am not at all happy with what you have come here and done. In fact, I am very angry, even more so because you are persisting with it. Please leave us alone.

It is very discouraging to say the least. I have been doing these Challenges for several years now and have never seen anything like that whole exchange. BainsBane's interest and participation was in the art under discussion. Yet here was dragged in Femen and snark about mild nudity in a 350 year old Dutch masterpiece. I was truly not expecting such outrageous behavior and I"m still a little shaken over it.

[seabeyond]

30. Yes. It is thru out du and even your thread. Had to throw out a nipple and "tit" joke

It wasn't about your op. It was to continue, even harassed, the sexism on du. By gosh, the right even in art, to objectify the woman. And you were clearly blindsided with the immaturity brought into your thread.

[CTyankee]

31. I once did a Challenge here on "The Male Gaze" in art and put that up for discussion because I think

that it is an important political question. When is it great art and when is it pure objectification of women for sexist purposes? I don't shy away from that discussion but, as you said, the purpose there was to harass BainsBane and in the process show an embarrassing display of boorishness. I'm thinking I may do a "Male Gaze, Pt. 2" at sometime in the future but if the sexists want to come in and track mud and break furniture, they will have to deal with me and not stalk other DUers.

[seabeyond]

32. we had a really good OP on this. i learned a lot. they didnt shy away from using women in a

certain way for the male gaze, her tilt of head, body language, as opposed to the male nudes that had nothing to do with a "gaze" but there individual empowerment. very interesting and insightful. i wish i knew where it was in all this mess of hof, lol.

and ya. a group will see it purely as titillation.

[redqueen]

12. Yep.

This saying sums it up:

"What you allow is what will continue."

When someone posted the pic of a woman with dick photoshopped into her mouth from Hustler, and it was defended as not being misogynist - not something that should be hidden - something that's just fine and dandy to have here on DU, that was pretty much the green light to any misogynist-leaning person. That should have been the first wake-up call to feminists on DU that things were fucked up and set to get worse.

Then we had the consensus among feminists here that we needed to have misogyny and sexism added to the TOS. When that request was ignored, that was another huge wake up call.

The victim blaming and the bullshit thrown at women like Oprah and Michelle Obama is more run of the mill sexism, stuff that I'd expect to see everywhere because, well -- because we live in a patriarchy. But the general tone is moving more toward allowing more of than stuff than shaming the people who post such misogynist bullshit into shutting the hell up until they manage to learn.

I don't know how people can stand to spend much time here, honestly. Between the standard-brand-misogynist bullshit mentioned in the OP; the nonsense from the group that's the main source of MRA bullshit on DU, the members of which have stalked this group from Day 1; the sickeningly misogynist bullshit that gets posted routinely, and if it gets hidden by a host then scads of people join as hosts of that group specifically to defend the offensive post and ensure such things aren't hidden; and the fact that someone here repeatedly posted rape-apologist bullshit in an effort to claim date rape is really just a misunderstanding? And the person who posted was not just not PPR'd, but is actually a host?

Yeah, I sincerely don't see the appeal. I miss the smart, outspoken women who post here, who call out this shit each and every time.

[seabeyond]

15. i had a post hidden for saying dick in womans mouth in a thread justifying violent porn... they can

justify their violent porn. but, they were offended when i use the words that talk about the violent porn.

they can show a picture. they can use it to shut a woman up.

but i also got a post hidden, six months later, when i responded about sticking a dick in a womans mouth to shut her up.

twice. in calling the misogyny, twice i got the post hidden for using words, as the misogyny was allowed to stand.

how do i make the point, if i am not allowed to make a point.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. Pictures are allowed to stand. Descriptions of the pictures are hidden. Yes.

This happened to me with a picture. The picture was hugely offensive and bigoted to the south. I go in thread and describe the picture to a T. My post is hidden. Picture OP still standing offensively to this day.

I Never Alert. I have No One on a Jury Blacklist. I do my best on Jury Duty because I see it as My Duty as Good Citizen of DU3.

[seabeyond]

18. if it absolutely does not prove how hypocrites need their offensive to be sugar coated

so it is digestable, i do not know what would be a more clear picture for them.

if it cannot be said out loud, without creating an eeew, PROBABLY there is an issue with it.

wrap prostitution up so pretty and clean to not look at the ugly. as they pretend the ugly really does not exist. yet... suggest you are on the side of the prostitute! if you cannot even look at the real picture, trust me. you are doing the judging, not me.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

22. Just because a woman has pretty silk ribbons does not mean that she is still NOT

bound, gagged and blindfolded. Wrapped up really pretty. Still woman is bound, gagged and blindfolded. over and over these pictures were posted in the Lounge. Over and over.

I never Alert.

[seabeyond]

24. so fuckin right on. blur the edges, white on red, candle light... oh the romance

as bound and gagged to take it

fuckin .... ya.

blood red on white. implying the violence of. fuck

[seabeyond]

19. and i gotta say. i keep hearing administration. i keep hearing these very people state 1A.

that is what it is about. speech. but the pure hypocrisy, the speech can be presented in ONLY one way.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

23. Not just 1A but, omg it is the sacred Art Form!! Yee Gads. ART!!!!! Express yourself.

I am with Bob on this:


If this then is the highest form of Art: to inspire, then what does rape porn inspire in a person?

[seabeyond]

25. only ONE way. you went their way in art, then veered off in the other direction. NOT allowed

shut your mouth.... woman.

and jury. since i have had so many hides suggesting i said something really really absurd like....

a huge ass.... no.

turned into calling the poster a huge ass. ya, right. uh hu. as people tell me how good the jury system is.

i am not REALLY telling tuesday to .... shut your mouth.

she, i and now you know this.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

16. plus One Million, redqueen. what you said.

I can see Fonzie jumping the shark from here.

[MadrasT]

27. What was striking about that was that feminists who often don't get along on any other issue...

...agreed on this:

Then we had the consensus among feminists here that we needed to have misogyny and sexism added to the TOS. When that request was ignored, that was another huge wake up call.

It was nearly a consensus among feminists for like the first time on DU, ever.

[ismnotwasm]

3. Yeah

Pants? What the hell does that even mean in today's world?


And all that glee over a couple of photos. What bullshit.

[maddezmom]

11. Saw it this am and alerted on it

It was hidden 4-2. Not sure why no one alerted on it before this am.

[seabeyond]

13. i gave up. i almost never alert cause it is almost never hidden. pavlov.... nt

[BainsBane]

14. I didn't think it would be hidden. I figured it was pointless.

I just alerted on a post where someone said, in relation to Assange, "the b.... set me up." It was allowed to stand, whereas my post on Assange in HOF was hidden. There was nothing offensive about it other than the fact people don't want to be confronted with the truth.

[maddezmom]

20. Found the post

To be honest I can see why it wouldn't be hidden for the quotation of Marion Barry because as you and I have discussed before unless the word is directed at a DU'er it rarely gets hidden. But I would bet it would have been hidden if it was alerted on for the source because the author is a antisemitic holocaust denier and conspiracy theorist.

[BainsBane]

21. Yeah, that I didn't realize. I focused on the last line. That was shocking to me.

because it was in the context of victim blaming

[seabeyond]

26. well, since assange is being accused of treating women like "b****". and he makes that

statement toward a woman claiming abuse. it suggest to me that it is merely the nail in the coffin, suggesting how little respect assange has for women, and how totally plausible these claims are, made by women.

[maddezmom]

28. The quote is not from Assange

It is from Marion Barry 3x mayor of Washington DC. The quote is from when his was caught on tape smoking crack. I lived in the area at the time and it was all over the news.

[ismnotwasm]

5. +1

Thank you

[Tx4obama]

6. Michelle Obama had just spent 20 hours on a plane - I figured she was just tired THAT IS ALL.

Also the phone was NOT President Obama's - it was the phone of the Denmark prime minister.

[In_The_Wind]

7. On this morning's news, ABC reported that Michelle was smiling soon after the original photo.

[seabeyond]

9. the reality is, if she was pissed, she would have whispered to hubby to knock it the fuck off. she

would not have changed seats in this public setting so all could giggle like a bunch of little boys over this crap.

it is the constant pitting woman against woman. and look who feeds this bullshit. the men on du.

cameron was in the seat on the other side of the woman. later, another woman is sitting there. likely, obama sat there to chat with the woman, what he does, is his job. and later went to his seat. but between the miogyny on du, and in our media, and the play and fun of a cat fight, how many photos did the man have to take to create this story for all of us to giggle about

pure disgusting.