On Eyebrows

One can safely assert without false modesty that the Societal Criticism Series created a small vocabulary of contemporary hair style when it had the opportunity. Other observations about the current configuration and use of beards were previously acknowledged in this column.

Yet, one hairy accessory that significantly affects its owner’s charisma — maybe in some cases even more than the beard — has, until now, not been honored with any thoughts from Societal Criticism. That’s right: It’s a matter of eyebrows.

Since former Minister of German Finance Theo Waigel withdrew from the public, it seems that eyebrows have been forgotten. They still have enormous expressive potential: astonishment, pride, disapproval, determination, concentration — all emotions that can be excellently communicated via eyebrows. But they can also express appeasement, as Michelle Obama now impressively demonstrates. Up to now, the U.S. president’s wife previously had not only used her much-noticed, well-toned upper arms to signal willpower, initiative, dynamism and also a type of hardness. Whoever looked closely could also read all of these traits on her keen, curved eyebrows. Like two eagle’s wings perched high above her eyes, they seemed to indicate she was always ready to attack. Now, after half of her husband’s second term, the first lady suddenly presented us with more than just straight bold brows—they also wider now.

Now you might think that Michelle, renowned everywhere for her command of style, is simply up-to-date and has adopted the new brow for purely fashionable considerations, saying goodbye to the long-outdated narrow brows in favor of the modern so-called boyish — natural, quasi-unrefined — eyebrows.

It’s possible that fashion has played a role, but is that likely the main reason for the massive interference in facial architecture? Michelle Obama’s brows now appear so much calmer and slower — so much less aggressive than before.

With her new eyebrows — after Snowden; in the middle of the Crimea crisis — is the first lady subtly telling us: Relax, be peaceful, we are too?