"You're Not Fit to be First Lady!" Black Women and the Burden of Representation

Last year, I posted a question as to whether or not America would be ready for a black First Lady. I mean, if we go by our fictional accounts, as I had already referenced season one of Fox's 24 in which the TV show imagined that we could have a black president - but only if he first divorced his conniving wife since, as he put it, "You're not fit to be first lady" - Obama may have a real chance. But, his "baby mama" (to shamefully quote Fox News) Michelle Obama? Not so much.

That's right: today, I learned from Brownfemipower (didn't know she's back up!) - via Professor Black Woman - and Gina from What About Our Daughters - that Fox News referred to Michelle Obama as a "baby mama."

This, after I had to intervene today on an online summer course about women and the media that I'm currently teaching since my mostly white female students - who don't have a black female professor standing in front of the classroom because she is only existing behind a computer screen - have made some bigoted comments about black women's representations in the media. There is absolutely no filter in their comments, which would have been in place if we were in a face-to-face classroom, and so, because they were responding this week to a scholarly article on the legacy of the "Hottentot Venus," many of these misguided souls have taken the opportunity to vent - yes, VENT!! - about how they are so sick of those "video hos" (I kid you not! They were careful to put those words in quotation marks, as if that excuses their derogatory remarks) all over the media, who just "love to flaunt their big butts all over the place." Yes, that's a direct quote!

Sigh. Why do they sound like those white girls from Sir Mixalot's music video?

"Oh my God, Becky! Just look at her butt...She is just sooooo...BIG!!"

If their gender were different, how would the dialogue change? Would they simply be white guys disapproving of the size of black men's penises? What is the source of their discomfort over black bodies? Is there a level of homoeroticism taking place? Is there some kind of racial insecurity about sexuality being expressed here?

More importantly, why is it that, last week, when the articles they read and the videos they watched that addressed white women's representations in the media (the same sexualized images, mind you), no one complained that they were so sick of these women "flaunting" themselves "all over the place"? Hello! One of the articles referenced the infamous moment when Britney Spears appeared panty-less in public. Where was the same outrage? They weren't outraged; they just thought this was indicative of the way "patriarchy" conspired to keep women in their place through ubiquitous pornographic images.

But, as soon as we address black women's representations, the problem is not patriarchy. Oh no! The problem is those shameless "video hos" who "flaunt their big butts all over the place!"

So, how do these online students relate to the Fox News "Obama's Baby Mama" report? Obviously, there seems to be a certain kind of cognitive dissonance that takes place in which black women, regardless of who we are, cannot be separated from the main stereotypes that abound about our bodies. That has been our "burden of representation." Michelle Obama, an Ivy League graduate, professional lawyer, respectable wife and mother, and potential First Lady, is somehow reduced to the "baby mama"/"video ho" that is currently in heavy rotation and circulation. This image is so thoroughly ingrained in our culture as the antithesis of the "All-American Girl/Woman/Lady" that it really could undermine Obama's chances at winning the presidency - yes, more undermining than any scary black man image that has been in circulation.

The original Hottentot Venus image was created at a time when England was colonizing Africa, when the transatlantic slave trade was abolished, and when there was a crucial need to crush the revolutionary spirit among slaves in the Americas (in the wake of the Haitian slave revolt). It was absolutely essential to create an image that suggested that Africans - by the very nature of their bodily existence - were sexual savages with debased morals and animalistic urges, who were therefore deserving of slavery and colonization. African women, in particular, were viewed as deserving to be raped and to be bred to support the slave labor economy.

When we survey the media landscape and take note of the ubiquitous "baby mamas" and "video hos" of our contemporary moment, what economies, policies, and cultures do these images support? And if these images support certain beliefs and systems, how does someone like Michelle Obama serve as a threat?

It is only the power of such images that can even support dialogue that existed in a show like Fox's 24 - "You're not fit to be First Lady." It will be useful for all of us to start paying attention to how race and gender intersect to influence these views during this year's election. And, yes, it's a point I will be reinforcing for all my "Beckys" enrolled in my summer course.

Please visit Gina's Michelle Obama Watch.