Germaine Greer in The Guardian’s World News section: “If Michelle Obama’s such a great dresser, what was she doing in this red butcher’s apron?”
The one sour note to resound through the jubilation at the election of Barack Obama was an undercurrent of fear and loathing of the dress Michelle Obama wore on election night. […]
[Her daughters’ dresses] Any colour is better than pink, but these robust choices hardly strike one as girly. […]
[Michelle Obama’s dress:] The effect of the strong contrast was to turn a mere frock into a poster in the most disturbing colours known to man, the colours of chaos. The juxtaposition of a rectangle of red on a black field is what we might expect to find on a flag or a shield. Coral snakes and venomous spiders signal their destructive potential by the display of similarly violent contrasts. […]
The Obama organisation used to be proud to tell us that Michelle doesn’t have a stylist. I bet she does now.
Fashion bellyaching combined with a Scary Black Woman dog-whistle? Come ON.
The comments are full of people asking who switched the byline, or whether this is some sort of twisted Guardian joke. I was also waiting for the punchline that never came. If this was supposed to be satire – she’s doing it wrong. And she’s well and truly literate enough to know that.
I can’t decide whether to just be disgusted, or whether to give in to the embarrassment squick that’s taking hold. I might go to sleep instead.
[No fashion critiques in comments, please. SRSLY.]
Categories: gender & feminism, Politics
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Wow.
Just…. wow.
I can’t decide whether to just be disgusted, or whether to give in to the embarrassment squick that’s taking hold.
I am finding it quite easy to do both.
W!T!F!
I decline to read the comments.
Anger levels rising . . .
Wow. Berating parents for not making their girls appropriately ‘girly’? Berating a woman for daring to dress in striking colours? Insisting that those colours have one set of meanings and they’re negative – danger, chaos, domination? (Could Michelle Obama, not for instance have chosen these colours for their daring? For their contrast? For many reasons, such as feeling that oh, black is a great colour and it’s about time people dealt with that? And red is always meant to mean a woman is ‘too bold’ so to hell with that shit, cos I’ll dress how I want?)
And oh, good to insinuate that black is a colour of chaos while your discussing the ACCEPTANCE SPEECH of the first black American President!!! And charming segueway into wild and dangerous animals.
fuckpoliteness’s last blog post..Christ on a bike
I really can’t decide whether she is erratic or just a controversialist shit-stirrer. WTF, either way.
WTF?!
Still, though, I read the first page of comments and – in a first for The Guardian – I wasn’t angry with any of them!
Pretty much everyone has said the same thing we have, only longer 🙂
Geez, Germaine, get over it. Signed, Disgusted downunder.
I took it as a sign that Michelle Obama isn’t going to be a pastel wife, dressing in safe boring suits. I cheered.
Tig, I think maybe a bit of both?
I get the impression from hearing/seeing several interviews that sometimes she says things just to “put them out there” and get a reaction, and sometimes she’s honestly bemused by the way most people react to her.
I’m a bit flabbergasted she managed to write an entire column on a dress and failed to note that it encompassed the signature colour of the opposite party, or go into even a basic analysis of this (too simplistic?)
Though I had always known the name, my first exposure to Greer was her article about Shilpa Shetty – another WTF moment.
I have read of one possibility, which is that red is a mourning colour in Kenya, and black, of course, a mourning colour in the USA.
Or, gods forbid, she liked the dress and it went well with the red dresses her girls wore.
Not to mention I thought she looked fine. Clearly I’d make a bad First Lady.
I read this as more PUMA sour grapes, tbh.
What she wears/wore shouldn’t even be an issue.
err, irony and spoof bypass much?
Sheesh.
Some people are born old and not too familiar with classic literature either it seems.
Feel free to explain the irony. And no…I wasn’t born familiar with classic literature, nor did I realise it was a prerequisite to reading a newspaper article that one have a classic Western education in literature. I’m more than happy to be shown the error of my ways though. Show me how a white woman critiquing the dress sense of a black woman on a historic day is ironic.
I assumed Bub was “talking” to Greer.
Explaining irony or jokes or spoofs is beyond dull.
And how to summarise a lifetime of literary study and references that informed Germs piece. The very thought of doing so exhausts an dfrankly, I couldn’t be bothered.
Apologies if this is the case, Bub.
I just feel like I’ve had a week of men telling women that they’re reading too much into things, and their feminist views are stupid/irrelevant/ignorant, that the ads they’re offended by are just warm fuzzy fun, and that we’re all a bit foolish to focus on violence against girls/women since *it happens to the boys too*. So I think I may be a little on edge over that.
I did try to see it that way (that it was to Greer) and could not quite make sense of it that way. It appeared to be a *humourless feminist* jibe. If my tiredness and grumpiness led to an uncharitable assesment, my apologies.
WTF, yes indeed… Germaine Greer.. and Helen Mirren too, shut up while I can still manage to like you a little bit.
Shorter Bub: “I am only deigning to post here to let you know in no uncertain terms that I am ignoring you.”
Here ya go.
Hahaha! I win! I *thought* you were just another arrogantly dismissive dude bagging the humourless feminists! Hehehe…and you know. I’m not at all cut up about offering a conditional apology, I felt I had been on the right track, and there’s no harm in being able to admit you’re wrong or don’t know something.
I always find that if someone looks down their nose and tells you that you just have your attitude because you’re not familiar with *classic literature* [or whatever other piece of White Western Male Valued snootery that wasn’t a part of the initial discussion] then declines to tell you what literature/references or follow through with an explanation…that they know JACK! Prove me wrong Bub, put me in my place with your canonical references and the highbrow irony that falls flat to the plebs, but not to your educated and sophisticated ears. Always eager to learn! Meanwhile SMH editors clearly not well read in the classics (hehe SHOCK) as they have it on the front page with no suggestion of canonical references or arch humour.
And even if Germaine *were* attempting irony and literature references…on the day when Obama gave his acceptance speech, on an historic occassion, given the concurrent issues of lack of resources and access to education that black Americans face…do you not think it was in poor taste to prance around with something that only wealthy white westerners with a comprehensive classical education (or those with enough resources and oodles of time in which to reading *the classics* in their spare time) could recognise? Is it staggeringly offensive idiocy or is it…staggering snobbery in extremely poor taste that backfired since it came off as racism and idiocy anyway?
I could see it as irony, until The Obama organisation used to be proud to tell us that Michelle doesn’t have a stylist. I bet she does now.
Right, that’s real ironical, that.
Good pick , fuckpoliteness, and fab riposte. You’re right, I was pissing in the wind. I love Germs, I trust her, and always leap to her defence. Whatever it takes.
But, either she is going senile ( like some say of Gore Vidal, though he is a decade and more older, if similarly contrarian, cutting, etc.,) or there was something else going on here. I prefer to think the latter.
Firstly, the piece was most likely commissioned. Secondly, it was for a certain readership, the Guardian is leftish, last I looked. Now if you were GG, in the same situation, what angles could you use to address the evidently fascinating cultural question of her choice of frock on election night.
Secondly, on reflection, Germaine, who as far as I know has shown zero personal interest in fashion, evidenced by the nondescript way she herself has always dressed, is I reckon highly irritated at the way media interest in Ms Obama has focussed on her dress habits, along with her personal qualities as a good and loving wife and mother. I suspect Germaine is mightily exasperated at this and irritated with the way she has seemingly played along with and encouraged this.
Greer refers in her piece to a series of deliberate and widely reported comments by Michelle Obama about her dress choices and observes that she obviously gave a lot of attention to how she and her children would look on the night of the elaction. Perhaps she was being mischievious in speculating that Ms Obama dressed herself and her children for defeat. Whatever was going on. I am convinced it was a riff, and shouldn’t be read literally.
What happened to my comment?
s ths sm srt f rtr xmpl f fmnn npttd, r wht?
[Disemvowelled for gendered snark and gratuitous rudeness to the Hoydens. ~L]
I disagree that these are the only two alternatives. It’s entirely possible for intelligent, witty people to fall into ruts of reactionary, bigoted thinking, without having a brain disorder. The prejudice in this piece is consistent with some of Greer’s other exhibitions of blinkered ignorance over the past decade.
I’d like to believe that this piece was somehow ironic, too. If it was intended that way, it failed comprehensively – possible from a less competent writer, but highly improbable coming from Greer’s pen.
“The prejudice in this piece is consistent with some of Greer’s other exhibitions of blinkered ignorance over the past decade.”
These being? Details please.
I’d like to believe that this piece was somehow ironic, too. If it was intended that way, it failed comprehensively – possible from a less competent writer, but highly improbable coming from Greer’s pen.
I don’t understand this sentence. What are you saying?
Bub, you’re continuing to violate our Comments Policy, despite my emailed reminder. This is why I deleted your other message in this quick-fire hat-trick. Please stop.
When women stop commenting on what other women are wearing we will have gotten somewhere. Then we can leave it the men, who will quickly realise the irrelevance of such commentary.
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“When women stop commenting on what other women are wearing we will have gotten somewhere. Then we can leave it the men, who will quickly realise the irrelevance of such commentary.”
I hope so.
Infighting really sucks.
Oh GREAT. Now Fairfax has published a bitchy article turning the microscope on Germaines’ hottness (or not). This link
http://www.theage.com.au/national/dressing-down-for-sloppy-greer-20081120-6cu8.html
doesn’t feature the “badly dressed Greer” photos I saw in the dead tree version, but had a bonus “Frumpy Grump” link.
HAPPY NOW GERMAINE? Thanks a heap for encouraging this shit.
Once again I’m reminded of while I’ll never be acceptable enough to be in the public eye.
*sigh*
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