Former first lady Michelle Obama bemoaned Wednesday how the media highlights fashion choices, shortly after joyfully touting her choice of outfit.
Obama appeared on the feminist “Call Her Daddy” podcast Wednesday, where she touted her new autobiographical book, “The Look.” Its description on Amazon says, “Michelle Obama explores the joy and the purpose of fashion and beauty and how — when wielded with grace and care — they can uplift and affirm the values one holds most dear.”
The former first lady recalled her early trajectory in the public eye, connecting with the American people as she supported her husband, saying, “As my popularity rose, I was being covered more, right? And, so, the press enters the scene, and there are now reports, right?
“And the first thing after all this great conversation and connection, the top of the article would be, ‘She was wearing.’ You know, not my education, not my, you know, not my professional career, but it started with appearance, and it got worse as we got better.”
She argued that this emphasis on her fashion choices and appearance was a political tactic to slow down husband Barack Obama’s political momentum.
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“They weren’t doing that to my husband, right? They weren’t describing him physically, and he was out there more than I was. So, I was like, ‘OK, well, this is where it comes from.’ It’s like, ‘Wow, whoever is doing this, when it comes to how we put women in their place, it’s like, OK,'” Obama said, adding the same thing happens to other female candidates, spouses and celebrities.
“There wasn’t comment about the substance that I was saying. It was like, ‘Why did she wear this’ and ‘was that appropriate?’ And ‘what does this mean?’ And it’s all about how we look.”
However, in a moment some online have highlighted as ironic, “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper had asked her guest about her outfit within the first minute of the interview, the second question after asking her how she was doing.
“Talk to me about your outfit, how did you pick it?” Cooper asked 45 seconds into the interview.
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“My outfit, this is a Meredith Koop original. And as we were thinking about promotions for the tour, there is a picture that a lot of people have been showing of me at Princeton, and Meredith Koop had the idea of updating. This is the updated version,” Obama said as she showed an old photo of herself at Princeton displayed in her book. “It’s a redo, it’s the next version.”
“Oh, that’s so good,” Cooper said.
“My campus look, 2.0 or 5.0,” Obama said. “So, we were like this is the perfect place to do it with Alex.”
