Women in Politics

     Today, I'm going to go a little off topic, and bring up something new: the portrayal of women in political news.

     As most of you probably already know, Barack Obama is currently starting on his campaign trail. According to this article,  Michelle Obama will play a key role in trying to push her husband's approval ratings back up before the election. This article states that Michelle will have a sizeable influence on her husband's chances of reelection. It brought up themes such as family and empathy and the large role those two will play in Michelle's speeches. In fact, this article said that Michelle Obama has become more personal in her approach to the American public. She has started mentioning her home life and her and Barack's struggles and fears, hoping to reach out to a more and more disapproving audience. These tactics, the article points out, have been used by former first ladies, too, Laura Bush being one of the biggest users.

     Let me just say that I think it's interesting that in order to be more powerful, to have influence over an election, women have to talk about what's going on at home. Women have been the rulers of domestic life for thousands of years now, so really it should be no big surprise. However, a part of me wonders if this whole "lifting my husband up and being such a good wife" thing might be detrimental to the role that women play in the long term. Obviously, Michelle just wants to get her  husband reelected, and does not care one way or another if she lifts up women in the process. But one of these days, I'd like to see the role that a "First Man" would play in a situation like this. Would he talk about life at home and lift his wife up? Or would he for the most part stay out of the picture? It's an interesting thought...