Michelle Obama’s Anger

We can easily understand Michelle Obama expressing her frustration in the face of unflattering comments made by conservative critics, first in line being Rush Limbaugh.

“I’m trying to say that our first lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the ‘Sports Illustrated’ swimsuit issue, or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you,” the influential radio personality declared in February 2011.

We have to understand that, according to Limbaugh, Michelle Obama has no business managing a campaign against childhood obesity because she doesn’t have the figure of a 20-year-old model. A Republican representative from Wisconsin also defended this ridiculous idea recently.

“She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself,” declared Jim Sensenbrenner.

Michelle Obama, who works out religiously and who, at nearly 48, maintains a great figure, could quite easily have publicly made fun of these two ridiculous remarks. But she chose to ignore them, the way she’s always done with similar remarks ever since arriving on the national scene.

Also, we’re a bit surprised by her negative reaction to the release of a new book about the presidential couple, “The Obamas,” which is far from unflattering.

“That’s been an image that people have tried to paint of me since the day Barack announced [his intention to run for president in 2008]. That I’m some angry black woman,” Michelle Obama deplored during an interview broadcast on CBS last week, specifying that she hadn’t read the book penned by “New York Times” journalist Jodi Kantor.

“I’m just trying to be me,” she added.

The notion of the “angry black woman” is a stereotype driven onto women in the African American community. It is undeniable that conservative commentators, including Bill O’Reilly, tried to apply it to Michelle Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

“Now, I have a lot of people who call me on the radio and say she looks angry. And I have to say there’s some validity to that. She looks like an angry woman,” declared the Fox News radio host in September 2008.

An Influential First Lady

But Jodi Kantor’s book, which draws from interviews with dozens of collaborators with the president and friends of the Obama couple, isn’t cut from the same cloth. The portrait that the journalist is trying to paint of Michelle Obama is that of a strong woman who fights to defend the ideals of the 2008 campaign. She denounces “unworthy” compromises and is even willing to defend her husband’s healthcare reform, a proposition that Rahm Emanuel — the White House Chief of Staff, with whom she has a contentious relationship — refused.

According to the journalist, the First Lady nonetheless played a key role in personnel changes at the White House following the Democrats’ humiliating defeat during the special election in Massachusetts to fill Edward Kennedy’s senate seat in January 2010.

“She thinks that our government isn’t going in the right direction,” Obama is said to have declared to his advisers.

In her CBS interview, the First Lady rejected “this notion that I sit in meetings … I guess it’s just more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here.” But the reason for her statement against Jodi Kantor’s book is perhaps found elsewhere. The Obamas have let it be known that [Michelle] didn’t truly understand the historic dimension of her role. She even considered not moving into the White House with her daughters until after the first six months, which would’ve caused a scandal.

“Humiliated”

And even if, according to Kantor, Michelle Obama has adjusted well to her role as First Lady, she is apparently profoundly “unsatisfied, frustrated and even humiliated” by the restrictions on her life and the limits of her influence during these first two years in the White House.

Going from there to saying that the author of “The Obamas” has reused stereotypes about “the angry black woman,” is a step that the First Lady should obviously never have taken. Her critics couldn’t have asked for any better, as the comments of Rush Limbaugh show:

“[Michelle Obama] is tired of the angry black woman image that she’s got. She’s mad at the ‘New York Times’ reporter for stereotyping her as an angry black woman. Imagine that. She’s mad at somebody for portraying her as mad.”