Abstract
In this chapter Lugo-Lugo and Bloodsworth-Lugo analyze racialized constructions of First Lady Michelle Obama as part of their feminist inquiry. They examine ways in which popular discourse in the United States has constructed a threatening public image of Michelle Obama in which her race, mediated by her gender, has been a centerpiece. The authors show how traditional perceptions of black women’s bodies are inflected with new meaning in a 9/11 era, and use reactions to Michelle Obama’s body (that is, her tall stature and toned biceps), as a black female body occupying the White House, along with responses to her initiatives as First Lady, to discuss new interpretations of black women in particular, and race and gender more generally, as challenges to (White) normalcy.
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Bloodsworth-Lugo, M.K., Lugo-Lugo, C.R. (2017). The Gendered and Racialized Threat of First Lady Michelle Obama. In: Feminism after 9/11. Breaking Feminist Waves. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54582-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54582-4_2
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