Media Representations of Michelle Obama

UCLA CSW Update Newsletter Title Media Representations of Michelle Obama Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1kg651b3 Author Brannon, Taquesha Publication Date 2011 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California BY TaQUESHA BRANNON CSW u p d atJANUARY e2011 MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF MICHELLE OBAMA From the Angry/Strong Black Woman to the New American Icon s shown by [Michelle Obama] is at the center of a multimedia charm Athis excerpt offensive that may be the most closely managed spousal from an article by Jodi Kan- rollout in presidential campaign history. On Monday tor in the New night, Mrs. Obama delivered a prime-time speech at the York Times, the Democratic National Convention, preceded by an intricately management and construc- made biographical video, a touch usually afforded to tion of Michelle candidates, not their wives. Obama’s image – Jodi Kantor, New York Times during the 2008 presidential campaign was elaborately or- chestrated and meticulously calculated. It was important to create a ‘charm offensive’ that rivaled the efforts to conjure support for presidential candidates, ‘not 22 csw update: january 2011 and postulates that the observed increase gry’ and ‘strong’ reinforce the association in her favorability is related to a change in- between blackness, masculinity, and bad- earlier media representations that empha- ness by presenting images of black wom- sized her black, racial identity to later media en that are masculinized and stigmatized representations that highlighted her female, (Madison 2009; West 1995; Collins 2005). gender identity. Building on research in sev- In the current study, I ask how these ste- eral disciplines that demonstrates that femi- reotypical representations of black woman- ninity and womanhood are constructs that hood mapped on to Michelle Obama’s iden- are highly associated with whiteness (Hull tity in the media over time. I postulate that et al. 1982; Goff et al. 2008; Palmer 1983), media constructions of her identity which I investigate how media representations of are consistent with these stereotypical rep- Michelle Obama have changed over time. resentations of black womanhood occurred Further, I examine how such changes might early in the campaignand coincided with an relate to U.S. understandings of gender that unfavorable public attitude toward her.. have historically been predicated on partic- By contrast, I propose that media con- ular representations that have excluded and structions of Michelle Obama’s identity vilified African American women. These which are consistent with white womanhood their wives’, was a motivated response to questions are informed by the work of Hunt occured later in the campaign, when the negative portrayals of Mrs. Obama that (2005) and Hall (1996) which conceptu- public’s attitude toward her became more served to threaten Barack Obama’s histor- alizes race in the U.S. through chains of favorable. I examine ‘ideal mother’, ‘fashion ic campaign. As evidenced by favorability equivalence, a representation of the black- icon’, and the ‘first lady role’ as representa- ratings (shown above) that nearly doubled white binary that links blackness with bad- tions of white womanhood that are feminized in one year from 32% (3/10/08) to 63% ness and whiteness with goodness. and endorsed in the media (Roberts 1993; (3/1/2009) in the NBC News/Wall Street Merging these insights on race and gen- Burns 2008). Over time, representations of Journal Polls, these elaborate and carefully der, it follows that whiteness is a construct American womanhood have been mapped crafted attempts to manage Mrs. Obama’s that is linked to femininity and goodness; on to Mrs. Obama’s identity in the media. image successfully transformed her from a whereas, blackness is a construct that is The change in construction over time has potential threat to an astonishing asset to linked to masculinity and badness. The coincided with (and I argue, significantly the campaign. popular media which often contains repre- influenced), the increasingly favorable per- This essay examines the shift in the con- sentations of black females that invoke ste- ception of her by the public, as 2009 NBC struction of Mrs. Obama’s image over time, reotypes that emphasize traits such as ‘an- News/Wall Street Journal Polls have shown. 23 csw update: january 2011 For this study, I used content analysis to measure the frequency of representations that have mapped on to Mrs. Obama’s Given that as the first African American First Lady, Michelle racial (i.e., ‘angry’ and ‘strong’) or gender Obama is uniquely positioned to shatter black female (i.e., ‘ideal mother’, ‘fashion icon’, and the stereotypes, media representations that reinforce the black- ‘first lady role’) identity in both the Wash- ington Post and the New York Times. In white binary dampen this potential. order to assess changes in Mrs. Obama’s image, the time frame from February 10th, 2007 to December 31st, 2009 was split into four distinct periods. The first time period is when Barack Obama declared his candi- First Lady, Michelle Obama is uniquely po- port my hypothesis because these earlier dacy for president up until he was elected sitioned to shatter black female stereotypes, media representations of Mrs. Obama as an as the presumptive nominee for president media representations that reinforce the angry/strong black woman focused on her (February 10th, 2007 to June 3rd, 2008). black-white binary dampen this potential. black, racial identity; her favorability ratings The second time period is after Mr. Obama Such that constructions of Mrs. Obama’s were low during these periods. is declared presumptive nominee for presi- identity that uphold the black-white binary During the third time period, ideal mother dent up until the election (June 4th, 2008 to by likening blackness to negative associa- and fashion icon were the dominant frames November 4th, 2008). The third time period tions and whiteness to positive associations for both newspapers. Additionally during is after the election up until Mr. Obama’s serve to sustain the notion that blackness the fourth time period, the dominant frame first six months in office (November 5, 2008 is bad/inferior, whereas whiteness is good/ for both newspapers was the first lady role/ to June 30, 2009). The fourth time period superior. performance. These findings support my is the last six months of Mr. Obama’s first The data revealed that the way Michelle hypothesis that because these later media year in office (July 1st, 2009 to December Obama was portrayed has changed over representations of Mrs. Obama as an ideal 31st, 2009). Additionally, articles from both time in the Washington Post and the New mother, a fashion icon, and a favorable first newspapers were analyzed in order to ob- York Times. For both newspapers in this lady focusedon to her gender identity in- serve the presence of the following four pos- study, angry/strong black woman was the stead of her black, racial identity; her favor- sible frames: 1) angry/strong black woman; dominant frame during the first and second ability ratings were increasing during these 2) ideal mother; 3) fashion icon; and 4) first time periods; however, angry/strong black periods. lady role/performance. woman was not prevalent within the third This study showcases how race and gen- Given that as the first African American and fourth time periods. These findings sup- der are conceptualized through binaries in 24 csw update: january 2011 The press is highly influential in shaping In order to make Mrs. Obama more appealing to the public’s opinions and the dominance of these representations in the press played a mainstream Americans, campaign managers accentuated role in the public’s low acceptance of her her female identity rather than her racial identity. This was and campaign managers’ urgent need to re- achieved by creating an intervention that would disconnect shape her image in the media. The push to revamp Mrs. Obama’s image her from mapping on to blackness. as an angry/strong black woman bolsters the belief that stigmatized behavior associated with blackness should be controlled and policed in society. Looking back at the chains of equivalence, which links negative the United States, and how these binaries tually exclusive. Earlier media represen- characteristics associated with blackness, affect the ways in which black women are tations of Michelle Obama were linked to Mrs. Obama was seen as “African, sav- treated in this country. The racial binary black female stereotypes, which empha- age, emotional, inferior, and slave” (Hunt equates whiteness with being good/supe- sized her racialized gender identity. These 2005:3) when she was portrayed as an an- rior and blackness with being bad/inferior, representations of Mrs. Obama as an angry/strong black woman. In order to make whereas the gender binary associates male- gry/strong black woman excluded her from Mrs. Obama more appealing to mainstream ness with masculinity and femaleness with the traditional ideals of white womanhood Americans, campaign managers accentuat- femininity. It is important to note that these and these images also mapped on to her ed her female identity rather than her racial binaries are not mutually exclusive because black identity because she was viewed as identity. This was achieved by creating an there are different social meanings attached masculine and deviant in the media. Thus, intervention that would disconnect her from to what it means to be a white male ver- the consequences of these images resulted mapping on to blackness. This intervention sus a black male or a white woman versus a in Mrs. Obama receiving negative press and involved reshaping Mrs. Obama’s image so black woman in society. Specifically in the low favorability ratings. For example, the that she would map on to white womanhood.

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