I've fucking seen it ALL now. Newsweek slams Michelle for not being "the next Jackie O"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Very Little in Common But That ‘O’

http://www.newsweek.com/id/171275

"A new big O is ascending on the fashion scene," wrote Wendy Donahue in her style column for the Chicago Tribune less than a week after voters sent her hometown girl, Michelle Obama, to the White House with her husband. Like many fellow fashionistas, Donahue is rushing to cram Obama's 5-foot-11-inch frame into the mold left by her timeless predecessor, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The trouble, historians say, is that it's a lousy fit.

Obama's bold wardrobe choices have tapped into a yearning among style writers for the bygone days of Jackie's youthful elegance. The New York Post has already christened the Obama White House "Bamelot," playing on the Kennedys' "Camelot" mythology. But aside from youth, beauty and little kids running around—plus that prominent "O"—what exactly do the two have in common? Next to nothing. "There seems to be this moving train that simply insists that Mrs. Obama is the new Mrs. Kennedy," says Carl Anthony, historian for the National First Ladies' Library, who has been fielding calls from reporters eager to connect the dots. But Anthony thinks they're worlds apart.

Start with biography. Michelle Obama grew up working-class. Kennedy was a child of privilege, a skilled equestrian and avid foxhunter. Although both women had first-rate educations, Obama will be only the third First Lady with a master's degree, after Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush. And while Jackie had to give up a promising writing career when she married the then Sen. John F. Kennedy, Michelle met her husband at the law firm where they both worked—and where he was her subordinate. Anthony says it's peculiar that journalists are "going back half a century" to find a comparison for Obama when Clinton seems more apt—and galling that Michelle could be known primarily for her attire, "as if she were a mannequin."

But even the fashion comparison falls short. Kennedy was the epitome of 1960s haute couture. Her style was aspirational, unattainable. Obama is more of a fashion populist. It's hard to imagine Kennedy, in her pillbox hat and leopard-skin coat, dishing about shopping at J.Crew.

[crusoe]

1. Newsweek did a good job during the campaign

Only because of that, I forgive them.

[valerief]

2. A good reason to read read Newsweek, I guess. nt

[JanMichael]

3. and, the dumb fuck author of this piece thinks a JD is a

masters degree.

Ridiculously uneducated.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

23. many do.

Juris Doctor means educated in jurisprudence to the degree that you may practice law. The LLM, usually in a specialty like Taxation or Patents, is the PhD of Law, especially if one equates the JD to a Masters. And because, with a very few experimental exceptions, the JD comes after a bachelors', just like the masters', it is not inaccurate to put the two on a similar level. And to confuse the matter more, some schools combine an MBA-JD program and treat them both as masters.

Not so much of a dumb fuck, actually.

[gristy]

4. I do not agree with your characterization "slam"

I don't see anything particularly offensive in this 5-paragraph blurb.

[pipi_k]

22. I agree with your disagreement

I also did not see anything that smacked of "slam" against Michele Obama...rather, I saw a point being made to the millions of people who are (fairly or unfairly) comparing her to Jackie Kennedy that she is her own person, not a carbon copy of Jackie.

Michele Obama is just as elegant, I think, but in her own way.

:)

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Anything to sell magazines....

[TheDebbieDee]

6. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner...........

[IndyOp]

7. Your take on this article is silly. The author is putting Michelle above Jackie in stature -

pointing out that Michelle is more highly educated and not interested in being a fashion plate. Michelle has style, but that isn't her central focus at all.

A paragraph from the article that you didn't put in your OP -

Obama has pledged to focus on complex social issues, such as support for military families, once she gets to the White House. Still, most of her recent headlines have been about her clothes, such as the mixed reviews she drew for her election-night Narciso Rodriguez number. Historians say they hope it's a passing phase—that the public will eventually focus on Obama's serious contributions to the country instead of the fierce urgency of her fashion.

Edited to add the last paragraph of the article as evidence the author is in no way slamming Michelle by saying she is not Jackie.

[sandnsea]

11. Michelle loves glamour

That's what makes her unique from the "feminist" of the past, who wasn't supposed to be interested in such pettiness or allow herself to be identified as just a pretty face. Michelle is a gorgeous all-female woman - doting mother - and successful lawyer. To diminish any of it is to not understand her as a woman or role model.

[EFerrari]

12. How do you know what she thinks of "glamor"?

Curious.

[sandnsea]

16. Uhm. It's called reading.

:shrug:

Comments from childhood friends, various articles. No I won't dig them up. She's a girly-girl, she loves all of it.

[EFerrari]

17. Well, that settles it then.

[sandnsea]

18. Bored?

Seriously, you're getting pissy because the woman loves glamour and fashion? Seriously??

[EFerrari]

20. No. In fact, down thread I defended fashion.

But you got very "pissy" when I asked for a source. I don't read "Glamour" and have never read a statement by Michelle so I was hoping you could point to one.

That hope was dashed.

lol

[sandnsea]

21. I didn't say anything about "Glamour"

I said glamour. :crazy:

[EFerrari]

24. And? So, you haven't read any articles in Glamour or Cosmo

or anywhere that you can point to? In the tabloids? Anything? Vogue? Seventeen? Self?

:rofl:

[sandnsea]

27. back on ignore you go

You're not funny. It's clear to anybody with more than a pea for a brain what I said. You just look like an idiot trying to twist the word glamour into a list of fashion magazines. It's clearly obvious the woman loves fashion, as you not only said, but then repeated the fact that you said it. Now you're pretending you didn't say what you said because you think it makes me look stupid. Well it doesn't. Go read any article in any newspaper about Michelle's growing up and school friends and they all say it repeatedly, she's a girly-girl who loves make-up and jewelry and fashion and glamour. Stop being an idiot.

[EFerrari]

31. I asked you for a source as someone who pretty much agreed with you.

Sorry if that made you go ballistic.

[atimetocome]

15. You know not your history.

[elocs]

36. This is DU where there is no such thing as a silly take,

no matter how silly it may be.

[SoCalDem]

44. and Jackie was not "Jackie-O" until well after she left the WH..

She was YOUNG, and built to wear the couture fashions of her day..and she was gorgeous..

Michelle is herself..and her fashion choices are of TODAY..not from nearly a half century ago..

I have a sneaky suspicion, that had JFK lived to fill out 2 terms, many would have criticized jackie for her "profligate spending". :evilgrin:

[sandnsea]

8. Glamour AND Brains AND Mothering

Another example that there really is a set of elite journalists who just don't get the rest of America. They must write for each other, that's all I can figure.

[Number23]

9. Where do you get "slam" from??

I read it as a piece saying that comparisons to Jackie O are not plausible simply because the women are absolutely nothing alike, including their fashion sense.

I got the impression that the author is saying that judging Jackie by her appearance was more suitable because there wasn't too much else there to talk about. Michelle, however, is a much more accomplished, complex person and it would appear that a more suitable comparison would be Hillary who was also an accomplished woman of her own means before becoming first lady.

How he refers to a law degree from Harvard as a "Master's" I don't get, but the article seems fairly benign to me. Don't get the hysteria implied in your thread title.

[EFerrari]

14. She. And she doesn't seem to know anything about Jackie at all.

[EFerrari]

10. This isn't a slam. It's a defense of Michelle from someone who can't lighten up enough

to enjoy the art of fashion.

Michelle is a highly accomplished person AND a fashion interest, where fashion = art, something the author of this piece doesn't get, and that's why Katie has taken a defensive posture.

She also doesn't seem to know much about Jackie. She may have been the child of privilege but her mom had to scramble for everything and so did she.

[BeyondGeography]

13. Guess that means she won't end up with a rich fat old guy who treats her like shit either

:thumbsup:

[cali]

28. the article was the opposite of a slam

it praised Michelle. And why the gratuitous slam at Jackie? She was a really lovely person. And I know that from personal experience.

[EFerrari]

32. If anything, the article slammed Jackie. n/t

[polmaven]

29. Oh, God..I HOPE not!

Look what had to happen for Jackie to end up with one.....I hope Michelle has a long and happy life into old age with Barack!

[RollWithIt]

19. I read the article... seemed fine to me... nt

[OKNancy]

25. Newsweek is not slamming Michelle.

That's all I will say, except some people are way too touchy and looking for trouble when there isn't any.

[ClarkUSA]

26. Um, it's called an opinion piece. There's another one in Newsweek that lauds her "Jackie" fashion.

This opinion story, in the Nov. 17 edition, declares Michelle the winner of the Campaign 2008 Fashionstakes.

"Winning the Fashion Race"

But Obama swept the race with her elegant simplicity. Her style evoked Jackie in Camelot (A-line dresses, flipped bobs) while
incorporating modern colors (lime, purple) and accessories like wide belts and big costume pearls. She also got props for her
affordable dresses from H&M and Donna Ricco, appropriate fashion for a year when voters are fretting over the economic
crisis. Obama's style said: traditional yet forward-looking. Sophisticated yet relatable. Feminine yet strong. A 21st-century
woman for a 21st-century White House.

Link: http://www.newsweek.com/id/167747?tid=relatedcl

[LWolf]

30. Is that what the first lady's job is?

To be a clothes horse for the haute couture?

I like to think women's roles have evolved beyond the 60s, myself.

[electron_blue]

33. I don't see this as slamming her, and I didn't when I first read this earlier today

[TahitiNut]

34. Jackie only became Jackie "O" AFTER the White House. Long after.

Speaking of her as Jackie 'O' in the contemporaneous sense of "Camelot" and the White House and her Oleg Cassini fashions is stupid.
:shrug:

[Connie_Corleone]

35. There is no "slam" in that article.

It's actually pretty good.

[FrenchieCat]

37. I agree.

Personally, I wouldn't want the comparisons between the two families to be taken as exactly the same....considering what happens next. :(

[TheDonkey]

38. why must you SLAM reactive hyperbolic descriptors?

hmmmm? ;)

[Waiting For Everyman]

39. Well I don't agree with that at all. I see a lot that they have in common.

Michelle was evoking Jackie for me a LONG time ago, before anybody brought it up. They have the same poise and grace and style, let's say "dignity", even if different personalities. They have the same caring and circumspection and prudence, and intelligence and wit, the same social ease. I could go on. Of course there are differences, they're not clones for Gods sakes.

I see a great deal in common with the Presidencies as well, and I've been saying that since before the election too. But whatever, I feel no need to explain that to people who don't get it.

That said, my opinion and those who share it is worth as much as whoever's. (And I dare say we've probably been right already about more things than those who don't see it. But whatever on that too.)

[and-justice-for-all]

40. Well fuck them...

Michelle is OUR Jackie O.

[Phx_Dem]

41. It's not a hit piece. It's true, Michelle and Jackie have very different

in their upbringing and life experiences. I don't think that's a bad thing -- just a fact.

I can just imagine Michelle vacationing on some billionaire's yacht while her husband is President. That is not a criticism of Jackie, whom I ADORE, just a point about how different these women are. One of the things I loved most about Jackie Kennedy was her attitude of not caring too much what people thought. She did what she wanted and didn't care too much what people thought. Of course, everyone around the world loved and admired her so it wasn't a problem. I think people will feel much the same way about Michelle.

[qwlauren35]

42. It is NOT a SLAM!!!! It's THE TRUTH!

They have next to nothing in common.

It's just that she has a frame that is fun to dress up, and a neat sense of style... and our previous first ladies have been very, very frumpy recently. (Don't hate. I'm thinking of Barbara Bush.)

The contrasts are dead on. The true comparison is between Michelle and Hillary, but it's politically incorrect to draw the comparison because the former First Lady is now a seasoned politician... and because Hillary had no interest in fashion or fashion statements.

I think it is EXTREMELY wise that the comparison is being made between M & J... because Jackie O was as UNTHREATENING as a First Lady could ever be.

I am constantly amused that no one in the media is making the true comparison, i.e. M & H, because I'm sure Michelle has studied it! She is being sooooooo careful to focus on her MOMMY role. And play down her education, legal smarts, executive experience... and wealth. (I think she was the breadwinner.)

Obama has hinted about it countless times, but Michelle refuses to admit that she is going to influence him.

I think that just proves that she's a smart woman, and able to learn from the past.

[Jennicut]

43. Babsy was a total frump and also very dumb. Michelle actually is more like Hillary then any other

first lady.

[fortyfeetunder]

45. Another waste of cyberspace.

I won't waste my cyberspace to comment!