Don't get me wrong -- I adore Michelle Obama. She will undoubtedly be one of the smartest and most accomplished first ladies in American history. She survived right-wing attacks to become a force to be reckoned with on the campaign trail this fall.
But tooling around on the transition web site last night, I couldn't help but feel discouraged by the washed-up old gender ideologies reflected there. The president-elect's bio is built around a story of pulling himself up by his bootstraps and forging a public service career. Michelle's bio, on the other hand, leads with the comforting news that she puts her children first -- no Hillary-style meddling in politics for this first lady! It defines Michelle Obama primarily by her personal relationship to others:
When people ask Michelle Obama to describe herself, she doesn't hesitate. First and foremost, she is Malia and Sasha's mom.
But before she was a mother - or a wife, lawyer, or public servant - she was Fraser and Marian Robinson's daughter.
Of course, this tone shouldn't be surprising. The job of the first lady is, essentially, to fulfill arch-traditional wifely expectations. One's career or academic successes are almost wholly irrelevant. It is, as Echidne of the Snakes writes, "the job with no paycheck." And in that way, it provides the perfect opportunity for us to think about the unpaid labor done by every stay-at-home mom and wife:
Thinking about all this yields some heady feminist analysis, you know. Note that the First Lady is viewed as free labor for the country. The presidents are supposed to come with one, as part of their staff. ... What would happen if we got a president with no wife? Would he then be allowed to hire someone for the job and to actually pay the person out of federal funds? Or would we assume that he could do all that and presidenting, without any extra funding?
What all this means for the Obamas is that we view his election as a labor contract between not just Barack Obama and the country but also between Michelle Obama and the country. Yet she is not getting paid, because she is really viewed as part and parcel of him. I'm not sure why everybody feels free to criticize the First Ladies when they are not even paid for the job.
Sad to say, but this demeaning role won't be fully transformed until we have a female president in the White House.
--Dana Goldstein
