Michelle Obama has candidly discussed the profound sense of confinement she experienced during her eight years as First Lady of the United States. The 61-year-old author made these revealing comments during her appearance on the new limited series, IMO: The Look.
The Weight of Representation
Mrs Obama explained that her time in the White House from 2009 to 2017 felt restrictive because her role extended far beyond personal expression. "That little eight-year stint as First Lady tends to be a bit confining because the job was not just to represent me, but to represent the nation," she shared with guests Jane Fonda, Bethann Hardison, and moderator Jenna Lyons.
She elaborated on the unique pressure faced as the first Black family in the White House, stating that Black people in pioneering positions often feel they are "carrying the torch" and "lighting the way." There was an immense burden to perform exceptionally well to ensure that future minorities would have opportunities in leadership roles. "Women, people of color, people of different ethnicities, of different genders and sexual orientation - we all feel that," she affirmed.
Fashion as a Strategic Tool
This pressure directly influenced her sartorial choices, which she described as a calculated "role" she played. Her recently released coffee table book, The Look, which debuted on November 4, documents this very style evolution.
"A lot of my fashion choices, as we talked about in The Look, were about using the language as a way to send a message about beauty, about culture, about the American spirit, about inclusion," she mused. Now, freed from the constraints of that official position, she says fashion is "selfishly completely about what I like and what I want to do."
While she assured listeners that her clothing has always reflected her personal taste, even in the White House, she reiterated that her choices were decidedly more "confined." "Now I feel like, whatever I do, I don't have to explain it or it doesn't have a consequence in that way," Obama stated, clarifying, "It wasn't that I resented that, but I was representing [the White House] and now I'm just representing me."
Broader Conversations on Beauty Standards
This revelation follows a recent conversation where Mrs Obama tackled the restrictive beauty standards imposed on Black women. In a live discussion with Tracee Ellis Ross about her new book, she argued that Black women are often "trapped" by the pressure to straighten their hair to conform to "white people's beauty standards."
"Let me explain something to white people. Our hair comes out of our head naturally in a curly pattern," she began. "When we straighten it to follow your beauty standards, we are trapped by the straightness." She highlighted the real-world consequences of this, noting that many Black women avoid swimming or going to the gym to maintain their straightened hair, calling the process "exhausting, expensive and takes up so much time."
On her own podcast, she had previously explained the delicate balancing act she and her team performed after her husband, Barack Obama, was elected president in 2009. "I knew the importance of making broader statements about hair as the first Black First Lady," she explained. "But what I will tell you is that I consciously understood that - at least until people knew me, which took eight years - I needed to not make hair part of the conversation." She now feels it is the right time to speak openly about this integral part of a Black woman's journey.
