First lady Michelle Obama hasn’t decided to write a White House memoir yet, but that hasn’t stopped her admirers from readying their own appreciations.
According to publishing insiders, several biographers are looking to cash in on the popularity of the first black first lady, and one written by Obama herself could fetch close to the $8 million Hillary Clinton received for Living History.
In time for the Jan. 20 inauguration, Obama’s last time on the presidential stage, the first of the many books debuts with an unusual collection of tributes to her brain, achievements and even her “big booty.”
St. Martin’s Press is publishing The Meaning of Michelle, in which 16 authors take a shot at how her life influenced theirs and America’s. Also timed for African-American History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March, the publisher said it “stands as a parting gift to a landmark moment in American history.”
All of the 16 are fans and many are obsessed with her looks.
“The first time I saw a picture of Michelle post-2008 inauguration I literally cried. She was featured in the Style section of the Sunday New York Times, dressed in that fabulous, custom-made purple dress,” wrote author Benilde Little.
The Washington Post magazine featured first lady Michelle Obama, the fashion icon, on its Sunday cover.
“When Michelle dresses, the world watches,” wrote Tanisha C. Ford, an assistant professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts.
“Fashion critics and insiders in particular have embraced Michelle as a fashion maven-in-chief. But they were merely confirming something black women already knew: Michelle Obama is bawse!” she added.
One contributor, VerySmartBrothas.com editor and Ebony contributor Damon Young, takes it even further, maybe a bit too far, when he gives Obama the “best compliment,” that of being a “regular black.”
Young wrote, “The appeal of the first lady’s ‘regular blackness’ cannot be overstated. She wasn’t from Turks and Caicos, she was from Chicago.”
Then he added, “The lean and athletic Michelle was also blessed with a curvy behind that I’d totally call a ‘bubble,’ a ‘big booty’ or even a ‘fat ass’ if I wasn’t attempting to be respectful of the first lady. She wasn’t the type of beautiful we’d usually see on the covers of Vogue and Cosmopolitan.
“But she possessed the beauty shared by the women in our families and the girls in high school and the women at Urban League Young Professionals general body meetings we crushed on.”
Rebecca Carroll, of New York’s WNYC, wrote something that many observers would say of Obama, whose popularity has always topped her husband’s. “I would argue that she represents at least 60 percent of what America will miss most about the Obama presidency.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
