Framing: Michelle Obama

Event: Michelle Obama at Macalester
Monday October 13th, 2008

When I heard that Michelle Obama was going to be at Macalester I got excited because I immediately began thinking about her and what she would say from my feminist perspective. In the past this would not have been the case, but I feel like I got much more out of her visit knowing what I do now, and having some skills to analyze things more critically.

As soon as I got into the Leonard Center where she was going to speak the coordinators began placing people on the risers on stage. These are the people who you see behind the big wig with their signs and t-shirts, etc. I thought it was interesting to see the types of people that were put on the stage and where on the stage as well. On the front row there were several white women who were 50's-ish and a younger white man and woman, probably college-age who were all towards the middle. But then, on each end of the front row there was a black man on the left end and a black woman on the right end. Throughout the rest of the crowd there was just a spattering of middle-aged white people. I think it was interesting how they only put two black people on the ends of the group on stage, as if they were the anchors or something. This is interesting to me to considering that Barack Obama has taken some heat for not paying more attention to his blackness and the ways in which he has associated with black voters.

As we talked a little bit about in class, I think Michelle Obama faces huge obstacles in presenting herself to the public. We talked about the way she has to frame herself; she is a wife, she is a mother. Mother, mother, mother. I felt like she really put stress on the importance of her being a mom and her daughters being number one. This would be great if it weren't for the fact that she's doing this because if she were to be too forward and appear too ambitious as a professional woman, she would never hear the end about how she neglects her kids. I also feel like she is pressured to stress her motherhood as well to make her capable of being resonated with by all the voting moms...maybe?

Overall, I was very impressed with Michelle Obama. I think she presented herself very well considering the position she's in and the way she has to maneuver through all kinds of crazy political and patriarchal bullshit.