(Untitled)

[miraielle]

Overheard at work, re: Obama:

"The problem is, I just dislike his wife so much..."

...wait, what? I mean, I knew people disliked Obama (though I don't quite understand why - my office is full of Hillary supporters, some of whom are pissed, but many of whom are in fact coming around), but, returning from my tangent, I didn't realize it was

Comments

[darthrami]

Was that who I assume it was? Or somebody else?

Actually, there are a LOT of people who dislike Michelle Obama. It baffles me, too.

[neenie]

I don't have much of an opinion about Mrs. Obama.

Certainly the news media I've seen of her manages to paint her as pompous.

[wmute]

Also, why does it matter what you think of the First Lady? Is she really that important, politically? Other than Nancy Reagan forcing her husband only to meet with the Russians on days when Mercury was rising in Venus, or some shit, has the First lady ever really been a political force?

I think some people are just looking for an excuse not to vote for Obama. And others are doing the same thing with Clinton; and in neither case do I really understand the point in getting hung up on trivialities...

[strange_selkie]

How is Major Hillary Campaigner in Your Practice Group taking things?

[nescio17]

I can't even write it. All the Michelle Obama haters make me very, very angry. The argument basically boils down to Michelle Obama isn't patriotic enough because she's...you know...she doesn't love everything about our country's history and also she's not very white. It fills me with a lot of rage.

[miraielle]

Along with a nice dash of "She isn't deferential enoguh to her husband and she's *gasp* not ashamed of how intelligent she is!"

I want to be BFF with Michelle Obama.

[nescio17]

I really, really like her. I don't think the criticism of her is as sexist as it is racist. Clinton talks about inequality and relating to others' struggles and she's a fighter. Michelle says the same thing and somehow she's an unpatriotic whiner.

[miraielle]

One of the most intelligent things I've seen said during all the campaign insanity - I can't point to any one place, as I've seen it in several - is that it's really useless to try to decide whether racism or sexism has been a bigger factor - they are definitely both in play, and the prejudices have some surface similarities, but in the end, they're very different things. You can't say "Oh, this proves that people are more sexist than they are racist." The only thing you can say (or have ever been able to say) is that people are sexist in a different way than they are racist.

All of this to say, basically, that I've definitely seen plenty of both racism and sexism against Michelle, and the fact that there's one doesn't discount the other.