We’ve reached the end of another long week. But before we clock out for the weekend, we’re giving props where they’re due. Here’s to our winners of the week.
Michelle Obama built the wall. Between herself and President-elect Donald Trump, that is. She hasn’t confirmed (or denied) the speculation that she is avoiding events where a potential run-in with Trump is possible, but after missing former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral and announcing through her and former President Barack Obama’s joint office that she would not be attending Trump’s second inauguration, it certainly seems like the former first lady is simply unwilling to be in the same space as the convicted felon.
If that’s the case, good for her.
When Trump first took office in 2017, Michelle attended his inauguration alongside her husband as the outgoing first lady and president. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had just lost the election to Trump, attended as well. Both women fulfilled their expected roles with quiet stoicism. Clinton has since gone on to work in academia, drawing on her decades of experience as a public servant.
But Michelle never ran for office, and she was never appointed to a position. During her husband’s years in office, she had a role in public life as his spouse…but he’s been out of the White House for eight years. And it seems like she’s ready to move on from that role.
“She’s not one to plaster on a pleasant face and pretend for protocol’s sake,” an “insider” told People of her decision not to attend. “She served in the public eye and did all the public good that she could for eight years as first lady. You’ll see her when she has a project or cause to promote, but she doesn’t feel the need to be a public figure anymore.”
The thing is, she is a public figure still, just not a political one. She published a best-selling memoir, then a self-help book, and now a workbook. She and the former president founded the Obama Foundation, yes, but also Higher Ground media, which produced, among other projects, the Netflix show Waffles + Mochi and a podcast about Stevie Wonder. Here she is advocating to end child marriage alongside Melinda French Gates and Amal Clooney.
Every year 12 million girls around the world are wed before the age of 18. In this special report, Glamour’s editor in chief, Samatha Barry, traveled to Africa with Clooney, Gates, and Obama to meet the schoolgirls and organizations carving out a different path—and witness the power of female friendship in action.
The potential good of any of these ventures, from improving the world to just providing entertainment, would only be hurt by her having any association with Trump, whether that association were to be too close or too antagonistic. Her not attending the same events as him does speak volumes, but only generates about a day’s worth of press. It’s hard to make hay of someone not going someplace.
There’s an argument to be made that as a high-profile person with a huge platform who is closely associated with her husband’s politics, she really ought to be part of the conversation. But in stumping for Vice President Kamala Harris, she did that as best she could. She didn’t abandon the Democratic Party, but let’s face it, they’ll clearly need something other, or something more, than her assistance to get things done.
Of course, it’s possible that she’s absent from these events for other reasons. But we know better than to speculate. This time last year the internet was buzzing with theories about the “disappearance” of Kate Middleton, none of which turned out to be correct. (The princess is, thankfully, now in remission from the cancer that kept her away from public life.)
We also have to consider her not just as a person in the political world but as a celebrity, with all that entails. Specifically, being scrutinized when in public. Remember the time she briefly hugged George W. Bush? What’s the upside, for anyone, to getting a picture of her and Trump at this juncture?
At Carter’s funeral, her husband and Trump shared a brief, friendly exchange, and soon enough their were lip readers translating what they said and criticism of President Obama—then Trump himself shared a doctored version of the footage in which the two men trash talk Vice President Harris. (Please don’t get me started on “body language experts.” Body language analysis is not an exact science. In fact, it’s not science at all.)
I can imagine that Michelle Obama wants no part of that circus, so she simply didn’t buy a ticket. These are the boundaries we’re setting in 2025, this is the dignified refusal we model when we are asked to share space with a man who has bragged about assaulting women and so much more. Close the addictive app, step away from the ill-advised drunk dial, shut the door on what doesn’t serve you, and don’t give your time to what doesn’t deserve it.
When they go low, we don’t have to go high anymore. We can stay home.
The post Michelle Obama and Her Personal Boundaries Win This Week appeared first on Glamour.
