Portraying her role as a typical housewife and mother has done more to mainstream black women than anything but commercials. While it might not seem "correctly" feminist much of the time, her role has been very powerful in this respect. She has known exactly where the line is and how to walk it. I think she's an absolute master of PR. I am in awe of her ability to hold it together.

Had she been a fire breathing feminist, she'd have turned off a lot of women that she has reached, instead.

no matter what she does sis.

Personally, a feminist is a person who chooses their life. Period. No woman out there should live their life for anyone else unless they choose it. She is a miracle of dignity in a shit world.

but I agree with you re Michelle Obama.

She's always savaged by the opposing party and sometimes by people in their own party. She's the lightning rod for all criticism and shaming pushed at all women. She gets it the worst.

all first ladies since Eleanor Roosevelt.

but it hardly matters since no matter water she does,she can't win.

I swear it is never ending around this place.

Sorry, but this article reads like solution desperately seeking a problem.

I think it's about time for everyone "[l]ean back. Way back," and try to remember what feminism is supposed to be about. Feminism is the philosophy that women are equal participants in life and therefore should have the opportunities for self-fulfillment as men. Are people upset that Michelle Obama has chosen to look after her children after engaging in a successful career? Are they upset that she dedicates her life to helping the President of the United States achieve an agenda they both likely share?

In my view, Michelle Obama is very much a feminist, or at least is a living model for what feminists can achieve. She has educated herself and worked on par with men on an equal footing. She is raising children. She runs the East Wing of the White House. She advises the President. She has set her own goals, sometimes in conjunction with her husband, and has succeeded in each of them.

What more could any feminist demand?

As for inserting race into the equation, Brittney Cooper's article manages to be just as stereotypical as the arguments she tries to battle. All black women do not see themselves the same. Some black women see themselves first as black while some see themselves first as women. Then there are some black women who could not compartmentalize the two categories and see both as historically repressed minorities who have had to struggle for equality in a white man's world. There are even some black women who think all of this is load of crap and set their own course in life irrespective of what anyone else thinks.

I see Michelle Obama as an empowered woman who has made good decisions in her own life and is now raising two young women who will be equipped to do the same. No, she isn't holding daily rallies to condemn racism and sexism. No, she's not writing articles that lambast a white, male-centric worldview. Instead, she's setting a daily example of black/feminist self-fulfillment.

After all, true equality isn't about which choices one makes; it is about having the ability to freely choose for oneself.

Still, I'd like to hear what she should have done that she hasn't done.
The only thing she hasn't done for me is wear her natural hair.

Not as a statement, but because I think it would frame her face very nicely. However, if that's the biggest complaint that either of us has, she'd doing something right.

Anyone who knows my opinions here at DU knows I'm not President Obama's greatest supporter. On the other hand, I despise petty, shallow, and misleading attacks based on nothing but an agenda and a gullible audience to soak it up. I believe this article falls in that mode. If there's one thing that President Obama has absolutely done right, it's to marry an incredible woman who has managed to stand strong in the face of withering personal attacks. It says a lot about him that he wasn't afraid to marry a woman who could challenge him on an intellectual level.

I am glad you wrote it, and I agree with the ideas you have presented.

I have never understood why so much of the discussion of feminism takes the form of women telling other women how they should behave and what they should do that they are not doing. To my mind, the underlying tenet of feminism is that women can chose what they want to do and how they want to live.

so much of the discussion of feminism does NOT take the form of women telling other women how they should behave.

but appreciate your demonstration of the ignorance around feminism.

Can we establish that?

I just posted the article for discussion.

snip//

The internet — including the feminist media — responded with a resounding "Shut up, Michelle Cottle," but no argument has been quite as complete and succinct as the one delivered by true feminist hero Melissa Harris-Perry during the "Open Letters" segment of her MSNBC show this Sunday.

"Dear Michelle Cottle, are you serious?" Began the incredulous Harris-Perry. "You and your handful of 'feminist sources' claim that First Lady Obama is not a feminist because she says her most important job is being mom-in-chief to her two daughters...Given how simplistic your piece is, let me make this very simple: you are wrong."

snip//

"She is saying that her daughters — her vulnerable, brilliant, beautiful black daughters — are the most important thing to her."

What a mess Michelle Cottle made for herself.

Thanks for the OP, malaise

But I'm a stay-at-home-mom to two daughters so maybe I am a feminist nightmare as well. (a bit of light sarcasm in case that isn't clear. )

As far as "leaning in" and "leaning back," I think it's a good idea for those of the privileged group (whatever that is in any given case) to "lean back" more in most circumstances and most discussions.

Thanks

There's always some ideological group attacking people in power for whatever reason.

Learn that everyone has a different looking glass than you and lighten the fuck up.

Michelle & Jill

shows an astounding lack of understanding of what feminism is.

Michelle Obama has chosen to chart her own course as first lady, and she's made it work for her. Why do these so-called "feminists" have a problem with that?

To claim that Michelle Obama is anything resembling a feminist nightmare, one would have to be under the delusional impression that racism is dead. Who remembers the cartoons depicting her as a terrorist during the 2008 campaign? Who has forgotten the claim that she was an angry hippie, unsuited to the position of first lady? By being a perfect example of the traditional, elegant, soft-spoken first lady, Michelle Obama is doing more to fight racist stereotypes than she could ever hope to achieve fighting sexist stereotypes according to the second-wave white feminist model. We must all choose our battles.

For many many years African American women raised the children of white families. Much of what white women claimed as liberation was nothing new to women who had to work outside the home due to economic pressures.

Once daycare emerged as a solution for white working women, many African American women were thrilled to be able to be parents exclusively to their own children.

Race is a factor and I agree that too many white women are reluctant to consider that reality.