“Everyone is just very, very excited — and relieved,” Constance White, editor-in-cheif of Essence magazine said about the prospect of having four more years of Michelle Obama as America’s first lady. There was elation in the offices of the black women’s style bible and among its readers online after President Obama secured the White House for a second term. This solidified the hope that Mrs. Obama would continue to positively represent black women, while inspiring all women.
Yet, in her self-described role as “Mom-in-Chief,” first lady Michelle Obama has spawned as much rapturous admiration as scathing criticism. After the success of her husband’s 2008 presidential campaign, the former executive chose to focus on quality of life issues like nutrition, which led detractors to decry her attempt at improving American’s eating habits as invasive.
Despite such barbs, Mrs. Obama has seen her popularity rating soar beyond the president’s. A style leader, role model, and powerful Democratic fundraiser, her social potency is indisputable. Yet, until now, she has refrained from interacting too directly in politics, expressing herself instead through subtle means.
Will Mrs. Obama cultivate a more direct leadership style during her second four years in the White House? What’s next for the first lady?
“I doubt she would do anything that shocked the public,” Jodi Kantor, author of The Obamas, told theGrio. “We are talking about a first lady that has played it very safe and seems to have very little interest in pushing any kind of envelope. Merely being Michelle Obama was pushing the envelope. Being the first black first lady, the first descendent of slaves to be an occupant of the White House — that’s a radical shift for the nation unto itself.”
Yet, Kantor, who has followed the Obamas since the president first hit the national campaign trail, believes there is an opportunity for Mrs. Obama to take her projects into deeper territory. “The first thing I would watch is the direction she takes her Let’s Move and Joining Forces initiatives. The thing about those initiatives is that they can each be done in a more muted, sedate, vanilla, non-controversial way or they can be done in a more aggressive way.”
The New York Times reporter believes that Joining Forces may provide the first lady with an opportunity to spotlight the issue of mental illness among veterans.
“With the military families initiative, one of the things she’s talked about maybe addressing, but has never really gotten into, is the very serious mental health issues among veterans, particularly the [high] suicide rates you see[.] That’s not something you see spoken up a ton about yet,” Kantor said. “I know it’s a real interest of hers, her aides have said. It’s not so much that it would be controversial. It’s tough. It’s dark. It’s difficult. It’s in the area of mental illness and psychological problems, which is not usually where we see first ladies go.”
Mrs. Obama may also intensify her campaign against childhood obesity.
“Another question is about Let’s Move,” the author related. “Was it going to be more of a feel-good initiative that said, ‘Gee, we all really need to eat better and exercise more’? Or was Michelle Obama really going to take on some of the corporate interests that make up the structure of the food industry?”
Discerning new latitude for the first lady to press such matters, Kantor questioned: “How tough will she be? How far will she try to push these initiatives in a substantive way?”
As White peered into Michelle Obama’s future, she saw her remaining a pillar of inspiration.
“I think that African-American women — our audience especially — are really inspired by her professional accomplishment, her story,” the head of Essence told theGrio. “She’s a wife, she’s a daughter, she’s a mother. She is a black woman who has overcome everything that our readers can relate to. I think the idea that you can be optimistic, you can accomplish, is really what she means to black women… They are so inspired by her.”
Her reign as a fashion force has impacted women worldwide. White expects the first lady’s example of graceful living to continue to uplift women in their daily lives.
“I believe that we will continue to see what we have seen in the past,” White explained, “which is her being very individual in her style, and in doing so she really encourages other women to be that way, too — to really express your personality, not be a slave to trends or fashion, [and] work with your body and your personality.”
And of course, Michelle Obama will keep boosting the fashion industry’s bottom line. “[W]e will continue to see her supporting American design,” White elaborated. “She’s really been a boon to the American fashion industry, and I don’t think that’s going to change.
“I think what’s wonderful about the way she dresses is how empowering it is for all women,” White continued. “She’s not a size two. She really seems to enjoy wearing her clothes and dresses high and low, and all those things have really made her a style icon[.]”
Maintaining the tactics that made her first four years a success is Michelle Obama’s likely formula, as these processes have endeared her to black women and beyond.
“She is very aware of herself as someone who represents African-American women,” White said. “Someone who we really as black women feel embodies the truth about who we fully are. So I don’t know that she is really necessarily going to step out on a totally different path. My sense is that she will continue to be this person who is a leader and who dedicates herself to uplifting women and children, making sure that we understand that we can have better lives.”
While the public often admires her for her life of service, Michelle Obama is still a woman of great power, however indirectly wielded. Might the Obamas, as the Clintons did, use the first lady’s perfect positioning to launch her political career after her husband leaves office, further solidifying her influence? Cultural observers say no.
“I don’t see them as the same type of couple as the Clintons,” said Dr. Anthea Butler, associate professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The frequent contributor to national discussions of race and politics doubts that the first lady will ever seek public office, citing her tendency to put family first.
“I think that she is… committed to seeing Sasha and Malia move forward,” Butler told theGrio. “If you think about it, in four years Sasha will be sixteen or seventeen, and Malia will be on her way to college. So, I’m thinking that’s probably not going to happen in the near future.
“Does that mean that it won’t happen? I don’t see her as necessarily being that person,” Butler said. “Especially when you live in that hot house of the White House, you have to make the firm commitment that that’s what you want to do. I think with the kinds of things that she’s been interested in, I see her not so much in the political aspect, but working in the public policy aspect. That’s a different kind of trajectory altogether.”
Indeed, Butler believes that Michelle Obama’s life — public or otherwise — after President Obama leaves office will be more compelling than any initiatives she pursues in the near future.
“Let’s assume that [the first lady] continues to be one of the most prominent and admired women of the century — what does she do afterwards? She will have so much freedom and so many choices,” the social critic observed. “She’ll do some of the typical first lady things. You can almost guarantee that she will write a memoir. But beyond that there are open questions. Sometimes I think that will be the more dramatic point[.]”
But, don’t count on the first lady making the next few years a retread of the past. Butler hopes Mrs. Obama will tackle issues deemed controversial concerning women’s health and black women.
“If she does go after women’s health that’s one way she can talk about African-American women, through the health issues that face us,” the professor continued. “If she would just talk about fibroids, that would be a really good thing. That especially affects African-American women. Just a conversation like that being brought up in public, that would be a great thing.”
Yet, the first lady’s greatest contribution may be altering the public’s perception of black womanhood. Her next four years will cement that evolution.
“[I]t will do this historic thing,” Butler said of Mrs. Obama’s continuing public presence, “which is to indelibly put into the nation’s consciousness — whether one is a black person or not — that a black woman can be first lady of the United States. Period. End of story. And that’s one more image that we have of an African-American woman besides some of the negative stereotypes that are out there.”
Battling stereotypes and detractors may have been Michelle Obama’s concern during President Obama’s first term, yet those types of stressors may cease to impact her as she focuses on her future.
“Look — this is it. They only have this next four years,” Butler said of the Obamas. “Haters gonna hate. I’ll just put it like that! Haters are going to hate. The first four years were about walking on eggshells, perhaps. I think the second four years will be about creating a legacy. I think she’s smart enough to be her own person at the end of the day. She doesn’t need to please anybody.”
What will the legacy of first lady Michelle Obama be? Will she be remembered for her health initiatives? For her focus on motherhood?
“It’s really too early to tell,” Butler surmised. “She can do whatever she wants to do.”
Follow Alexis Garrett Stodghill on Twitter at @lexisb.