Animal Science

barackobama:

Michelle Obama answers questions people tweeted at her, is your favorite person again some more.

Good grief, Michelle Obama was educated at Princeton and is the most important adviser to the president and people are asking her questions about getting their  children to eat vegetables.  Ask your parents how to get your kids eat vegetables, ask Michelle what you said to Barrack the night before he signed the NDAA into law or how you would’ve handled the banking crisis if you were president.

I love Michelle and all, but I think this video is a really good example of the way sexism exists in the US today.  Most of the time, we’re smart enough to know not to say “A woman couldn’t be president,” because we recognize that as being bigoted and recognize bigotry as being wrong.  Conversely, we will still ask an incredibly intelligent, ambitious woman who has probably the most profound insight into Barrack Obama’s thought process out of anyone completely banal questions about vegetables and child care that we would never, ever, ever have asked Barrack, or George Bush, or Bill Clinton (and so on).  We know enough not to be explicitly sexist, but there are some very poignant things about gender being said in videos like this- things made all the more poignant when it’s coming out of the highest political office in the United States.

And much as I hate to say it, this is the fault of the Obama administration as well.  They selected the questions they wanted to answer, sat Michelle in front of a camera, and had her answer “Dear Abbey” style questions instead of policy questions.  I understand that the administration has to satisfy a voting population that has certain expectations that the First Lady will act in a particular way and that we’re in campaign season, but the only way that discourses break down is when people break them down.  I’d like to see the Obamas doing more of that.