What Are They Wearing?
April 2, 2009
by Contributor
|The following is an excerpt from an Associated Press article by Gregory Katz. On behalf of the men of The New Agenda, my own husband, fathers, male friends, and all the men of this country, I was deeply offended.
Obama and his wife, Michelle — wearing a black and white dress, pearls and a black coat — were two of the first dignitaries to meet the queen, who wore a salmon-colored dress and her trademark pearls.
During their private meeting, President Obama and first lady gave the queen a personalized iPod with video footage of her 2007 visit to Washington and Virginia. She was also given a rare songbook signed by composer Richard Rodgers.
In return the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, gave the Obamas a signed portrait of themselves.
REUTERS/John Stillwell/Pool
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was cooking dinner for the G-20 leaders. The main course was slow-roasted Welsh lamb accompanied by wild mushrooms, asparagus and potatoes from Jersey in the English Channel. Vegetarian leaders were being offered potato dumplings and asparagus.
Appetizers include baked Scottish salmon with vegetables and goat’s cheese from Hertfordshire with roasted shallots. Bakewell tarts and custard is on the menu for dessert.
There were at least a half dozen men mentioned in this article and yet we are left with unanswered burning questions. What were they wearing? What kind of jewelry did they sport? Which designer made President Obama’s suit? What color was his tie? Did Prince Philip wear cuff links? Who makes French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s favorite shoes? This was a reception given by the Queen of England for world leaders attending the G-20 summit and we can’t get a single description of what the fellas were wearing?
We even know what the slow-roasted Welsh lamb was wearing and that the goat’s cheese was from Hertfordshire! How will our men know what to wear without this information? Why are their fashion curiosities constantly overlooked and ignored by the media? How can they be expected to feign interest in world politics and finance without at least some description of the clothing and jewelry worn by the men who attended? Am I the only one who is outraged about the way the fella’s fashion needs continue to be ignored?
I will admit that many will view this argument as petty. It even seems a little trivial to me in light of the challenges many women are facing such as domestic violence, job loss fears, sexism in the media, fair pay, the sexualization of young women, I could go on. However I can’t help but feel these issues are somehow all connected. Is is just me?
No, it is not just you! It’s part of the big picture of how the media treats women like mannequins.
It is really obnoxious on the part of the media. Good material for a SNL spoof since it is so ridiculous. Is there any more information about the attorney that Obama appointed as the legal adviser to the State Department who apparently stated that Sharia law could be used to settle some disputes in ethnic communities? This is a really scary thought. How could this even be constitutional?
Thia – I was thinking the very same thing when I read of the hoopla over the meeting. Especially how Michelle Obama gave the Queen a hug. Apparently all of Great Britain is going nuts about Michelle’s chic designer style. Good thing she is well groomed and in shape – otherwise we would never hear the end of it!
re. AnneE’s question about Obama’s nomination of Harold Koh as legal counsel in the State Dept…
And Then They Came for Koh
by Dahlia Lithwick / Slate
http://www.slate.com/id/2215142/
Bottom line is that Steve Stein seems to have invented, out of whole cloth, the fairy tale re. Sharia law. Koh never said it.
Lithwick’s rebuttal is noteworthy also because she compares the attacks on Koh to similar mistreatment of Dawn Johnsen, another nominee who has been mentioned here at TNA. Lithwick’s acid wit exposes some old tricks:
Thou Shalt Not Blog
Obama’s OLC nominee discovers the perils of “blogging, advocating, and speeching”
by Dahlia Lithwick / Slate
http://www.slate.com/id/2212228/
In the weeks since she was nominated for this job, she has been tarred on the far right as an abortion-loving, terrorist-coddling nut job, despite unimpeachable legal credentials and bipartisan support.
[...]
(Hard even to imagine what the left-leaning parallel to John Yoo’s OLC might look like. Daily yoga drills? Forced huggings for enemy combatants?) “You have been an activist,” intones Feinstein. “You said when you go in that door you will give all that up. Can you do that?” And Johnsen, sounding like she’s an inpatient at some exclusive advocacy rehab center in Utah, is forced to repeat, again and again, that her mission at the OLC is to adhere to and promote the rule of law.
This issue on Koh came up for the first time two years ago, reported by the National Review, which published a letter from Steven Stein to Koh:
Note that he said it to Koh’s face 2 years ago. (Link to it)
This sort of “women’s issue, fashion news” has gotten far worse with the Obama administration. It is clearly a strategy chosen by the men who run the Democrat party, the women who tolerate them and the MSM who mindlessly follow Obamacon directives. I don’t remember any thing like this from the Bush administration. By the way I personally have zero need for fashion news so the Democrats are barking up the wrong tree with this crap.
“We even know what the slow-roasted Welsh lamb was wearing and that the goat’s cheese was from Hertfordshire! How will our men know what to wear without this information? ”
hahaha…this is hilarious. But Thia, you dont understand: REAL MEN dont care about frivilous things like *fashion*!!! Pshaw! REAL LEADERS, always MEN, just exude power no matter what they wear, they just stand there and speak and the masses are moved to tears….
Of course, our media is beyond fawning about Obama, but check out what the UK media has to say about Obama:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/deb.....ughed.html
“He spoke slowly, in a meandering manner. Some might say that he was thoughtful and professorial. Others might call his manner circuitous, even yarny. Am I saying that he was a bore? Oh dear. I find that I possibly am…….
“Our old donkey Gordon, by comparison to this American visitor, was for once Mr Eloquent, Mr Quick-Off-The-Mark. Mr Obama had managed to make Mr Brown look good. Another amazing achievement”
welllll……
This is great, Thia. I’m with you! I want to know the suits! Not fair!
chevalier what a refreshing view to read about the impressions from Britain. much more fun than the wardrobe.
Of course it all goes together.
The reason women’s clothing and jewelry are catalogued in this manner is that their physical appearance reflects on the wealth and power of the man to whom they are attached.
It’s just the way we continue to objectify women as members of the sex class, mostly with their consent — if consent can be had without full understanding, that is.
Why don’t we find out where to write the author of the article, Gregory Katz., and write to him and to the newspapers that published the article?
All these issues are interconnected. This is a tiny and benign form of sexism compared to what else is out there, but it is still sexist because it focuses on the superficial attributes rather than the more significant qualities that makes each woman who she is.
Contacting the people who write this crap and publish it in theory should work but remember the news papers are losing business and are in the process of failing. Of course they blame their failure on the fact that “business is changing” but the real reason why is just this sort of “news”. They publish a bunch of irrelevant, propaganda that wastes peoples time and have attitudes regarding sex that haven’t been mainstream in the culture for 50 years. They have destroyed their own relevance and credibility and this is increasingly obvious the further west you move in our country. Away from the north east coast people are just asking themselves “why do we need these elitist twits who run the government, the economy and the media? Why do we tolerate them? If they had brains and could see outside their snow globe world it would scare the hell out of them.
HAHA YES! Great article! Best yet.
Forgive me for this, but…
Michelle and the Queen
by justoffal
04/03/2009, 4:10 AM
The spectacle of the so called Queenie-hug has been covered and analyzed to the point of absolute nausea. It wasn’t a hug it was an arm across the back of a non-human shell that was born into entitlement and lived its/her entire life away from any of the issues of need or want. The rigidity and body-language snobbery of that miniature form next to the female giant does nothing more than to tell the story of human stupidity in chapters of social stratification that bear no resemblance to justice or to real humanity for that matter.
Additionally beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this beholder has grown weary of the constant attempt to make Michelle Obama into Halle Berry; It just ain’t happenin’ baby and I don’t really care one way or another except that it is constantly being shoved down our collective throats by a fawning Media. The cruel truth is that she is Ugly and awkward with facial features resembling a chimpanzee…I’m sorry it’s just the truth. Having said that she seems to be an alright person despite her militant stance on American culture and politics. It has always amazed me how people can denigrate the very country that enabled them to get where they are today…” Yeah I’m the first lady but not because of my country “….. seems to be the position du jour for her.
All of this has been couched in yet another repetitious wave of MLK history sponsored by CNN and the ever diligent Soledad O’brien, another half white half black who has no white in her only black. Alright already..yeah, I get it….Martin Luther King was shot to death….geez…I almost forgot.
Re: Michelle and the Queen
by JackDallas
04/03/2009, 4:57 AM
I have always thought that the British Royalty thing is the most useless entity ever created by a sovereign nation. It has no power, serves no purpose, and is, in my opinion, an insult to the british people. Americans would never accept a political group which is immune to criticism and has no accountability (well, Liberals willingly accept their own party’s excesses without holding them accountable…but Americans, as a general rule, will not).
As for Michelle Obama, you are right on about her biting the hand that feeds her. Few people have had the opportunity that was afforded her by this country, and for her to express the hatred and contempt which she has made quite clear that she holds for America, is an egregious act of ingratitude.
And yes, the woman is ugly. Oh, the Liberals will go on and on about what a beautiful woman she is, but Liberals do not have the balls to openly criticize a black woman. I will no longer post the video of the dancing monkeys, in reference to Michelle, but that is not out of respect for her. It is out of respect for those on the board who genuinely like her.
Michelle is a Mud Duck, and all the Gucci hand bags and three thousand dollar gowns she can easily afford to buy will not change that.
If you follow the links back to the original thread on Slate’s Fray, you’ll see that this pair of well-known bigots are mildly castigated for their racism, but no one calls them on the sexism.
This is the problem with the above article that Thia posted about: objectifying women dehumanizes them. The idiots I’ve quoted above are doing the same thing the article writer did, just to a different degree.
I find the coverage of the Queen much more offensive as she has an official position, albeit a figurehead, in world poitics.
If Michele Obama had a functional position, other than first spouse, I would expect more. At this time, her role is the same as Prince Philip’s; the difference is she has greater popularity.
What bugged me was the way only the women’s attire was described. It’s just stupid.
Love your additions Sheryl. That crud was horribly sexist but nobody seems to care? I don’t care what woman they are talking about, that isn’t relevant to me at all. I don’t want to hear ANY woman diminished that way.
At this time, Michele Obama’s commercial appeal is in her fashion style. NPR discussed this in financial terms, the retail industry, specifically US designers, is a multi billion dollar business. That translates to jobs and sales tax revenue.
That sadi, I agree, in the context of TNA’a goals, this concentration on drivel is stupid.
I would have been much more interested in knowing what the Queen, who has been a world figure for 50ish years, has to say to the newcommer. Instead, the experience and knoweldege that has sustained this woman for decades was overshadowed by her salmon dress and signature pearls.
It should also be noted that the UK papers gave much more coverage to Michele’s school visits than the US did.
Just checked the thread again. Just about everyone called out the racism. Not a peep so far about the sexism.
Hmm – where have I seen this before?
while i am just as appalled for all the reasons that you have all eloquently mentioned over this article, i am equally frustrated by the comment made by bes stating, “If they had brains and could see outside their snow globe world it would scare the hell out of them.” i will be the first to admit that there are some areas of the west that seem to live in a bubble, but we need to give them as must respect as we do anyone else. how can we truly pull together as a women’s group if we don’t feel that they are even “looking outside their snow globe world”? of course they won’t stand with us if they are looked down on by those who are supposed to be supporting them. that is the whole point of TNA. i think we all should try doing a better job of this so we are practicing exactly what we preach.
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