In a fairly obnoxious commentary on HuffPo comparing Michelle and Hillary, British author Dakis Hagen made this comment about Michelle’s reaction to Hillary’s marvelous speech:
One person rarely seemed happy, however: Michelle Obama. More often than not as the camera passed over her, Mrs O's mouth was locked in a rigid non-smile.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dakis-hagen/hillary-not-michelle-is-t_b_121709.html
He is wrong, of course, but I am concerned about where he gets this interpretation from.
Michelle has a lovely smile that lights up her whole face. That is why she is so beautiful when she speaks, because in animation, her face looks very different from the way it looks when she holds it still. But it is true that when she holds her face in a neutral expression, even when her intention is friendly, she often looks displeased. It
isn’t that she is annoyed or angry, but that her features are strong in a way that some people will inevitably interpret as anger or fierceness. I think that is one reason why the “angry black radical” smear against her was so easy for the Republicans to promote.
It is completely unfair, of course, for people to read such things into purely innocent facial expressions. But it is what some people will do--witness that fool's "locked in a rigid non-smile" interpretation of an innocent expression.
When I was a freshman in college (back when the Apaplachian Moutnains were still pointy), I was sitting in the cafeteria with some friends when we noticed a group of girls sitting a couple of tables away. One of my friends commented that a pretty girl with short dark hair looked like a real bitch. It wasn’t that she didn’t smile while we were watching—though she didn’t—but that something about her features made it seem that she was generally pissed off.
I later came to know the girl well as a friend, and she was sweet, funny, and genuinely kind and friendly. But her face often made her seem otherwise.
In the Beatles' first movie,
A Hard Day’s Night, Ringo hs a line where he responds to the "grandfather’s” comment about his angry look by saying, “
I’m not angry. It’s just me face!” He referred, of course, to the apparent sneer that was his trademark expression.
I wonder whether Michelle is aware of this effect her features can have. She shouldn’t have to constantly fake smiles just so people won’t assume she is pissed off, but it might be that she
will have to do that, no matter how unfair such a burden is.
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