Iman on Michelle: Just Being Honest or Just Should Have Shut Up?
Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 12:05PM 
Fashion icon Iman has raised a few eyebrows in print and on the web (including my Hot Topics page) with her comments that First Lady Michelle Obama is "no great beauty." But in her full quote about Michelle Obama to Parade Magazine, Iman says:
"Mrs Obama is not a great beauty, but she is so interesting looking and so bright. That will always take you farther. When you're a great beauty, it's always downhill for you. If you're someone like Mrs Obama, you just get better with age," she said. (AFP)
Is that a diss or a compliment? (Or worse, a backhanded compliment?) Because Iman is rather blunt with her words they can easily be interpreted many ways. Is she saying the First Lady is unattractive, or is she just saying that beauty is skin deep and Michelle Obama has way more going for her than looks? (Which is true.) But why does the comment feel wrong? Why is it eliciting responses like this?
More after the jump.
I THINK I understand what Iman was TRYING to say, but as compliments go, this is an EPIC FAIL ... I’m predicting a retraction, clarification, “I was taken out of context,” “you see what I meant was...” any minute now. (Gina, Michelle Obama Watch)
Iman done started some some mess with what sounds like a back-handed compliment, a statement increasingly getting reported around the globe. I see a backtrack in Iman's very near future! (Booker Rising)
We all know that the fashion world’s standard of beauty is not a realistic one. And Iman should be ashamed of herself for applying that same standard of (artificial beauty) to the First Lady, who in my opinion is quite lovely. (Sandra Rose)
And those were the nice ones.
Who the f is Iman to even talk? Cougar-pirates really shouldn’t be talking. Granted, I am sure Iman is dating the sexiest pirate in all on (sic) Somalia. (Shabooty)
So, in Dr. Suess terms – “If you start off fine, you’re sure to decline.” All you ugg-a-muggs out there should be happy that you were born ugly. You can only go up from beneath the bridge you live under....says Iman. (Bossip)
(S)he can go sit her azz down .. carefully don’t want her to tip ova from that huge head of her(s). (comment on Sandra Rose)
Obviously some people have already interpreted this as a bitter diss, but could someone as astute, educated and accomplished as Iman be engaged in petty back-biting? Is she judging Michelle's looks by supermodel standards? Because if that was the journalist's question to her, if Michelle Obama stacked up among the "great beauties" of the world, was this question a trap to being with?
As we all know, the First Lady is a lovely woman, but her attractiveness is relative and constantly up for interpretation because she's a lawyer, she's a professional woman, she's a mom, she's one of us, not a beauty pageant contestant or a fashion model. And Iman is saying she basically shouldn't want to be because that is fleeting.
I was initially taken aback until I read the full quote, then I wondered how long it would take before only the first part of the quote would spread around and people would wonder if Iman was being catty? I don't think Iman is being catty, but I think she picked a clumsy way to make her point about beauty versus brains. We don't know what the reporter asked her specifically, but Iman's choice of words left her intent up for interpretation and she sounded like she was delivering the ultimate backhanded compliment. Iman could have easily just said, the First Lady is a lovely woman, but she has much more going on for her than looks, as it should be, and left it at that. Why the need to quantify whether or not she is a "great beauty?"
As a reporter, I know the trick of asking the same question fifteen ways to wear a person down in hopes of getting an interesting answer. In my Nightline interview with reporter Yunji de Nies, I think I was asked at least five times when-oh-when would Michelle be more of the lawyer and less of the mom-in-chief and I pretty much gave the same answer over and over again: different versions of "When she feels like it" and "eventually." I knew I was giving a dull answer there and of course most of it didn't make the final cut when the story aired, but I had no desire to get into what I thought a grown woman should or shouldn't be doing with one of the most impossible to please jobs in the world.
So maybe Iman fell into that trap, but I don't know. She's been giving interviews for nearly all her adult life. Surely she knows all the tricks of the trade as well as I do, so she had to have meant what she was saying, yet it's hard to ascertain what exactly she meant by it.
What do you think Iman meant? How did you read it?
PS. What's crazy, in the same interview Iman makes this sage observation about being the token black on the runway:
"You suddenly represent a whole race, and that race goes, 'Well, that person does not represent our ideals of beauty.' For lack of a better term, it becomes what it was like during slavery," she said.
"One had the field n...(expletive) and the house n...(expletive). There was this notion that I was chosen by white fashion editors to be better than the rest, which I am not. I did not like being thought of as the house n...(expletive)."
Like I said, Iman's a smart woman. So what IS she saying about Michelle? Is everyone reading too much into it?
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments (79)
I'm trying really hard not to label Iman as a ' hater'. I really am. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt.
But, let's be honest..the reason why it feels wrong, is because it looks like a straight up piece of hateration on The First Lady.
i see no hateration in that comment, she just over complicated it something that could have been said more easily with a "michelle isn't a supermodel, but she is damn fine and classy, and that carries on for life"....or some such 'ish.
OT: Two pics for you, Shay.
The split picture of Sasha and her Daddy.
The picture of the Black family in the Oval Office, with the little boy checking out The President's haircut.
That crack will never get old..LOL
I think it's a compliment. If you watch ANTM, Tyra says the best supermodels are not conventionally attractive, that there is something odd about them, but they work it to their advantage. This makes me think that it's the way they think in the modeling industry, that pretty is not necessarily good, but being unusual is. Iman must know that she isn't a conventional beauty either, but she has interesting features and intelligence that work to her advantage... just like Michelle Obama.
Speaking as someone who always has to "insert-foot-in-mouth", I see what she means in her quote about the First Lady. If asked, I probably would've said something similar in the same stupid way, but at least I know enough not to talk much when microphones are present ;)
From what I can see, Iman is simply being honest. I agree with her: Michelle Obama doesn't have a beautiful face. Who cares? She's the bomb. She's educated; she seems like a mother who's available to her sweet girls physically as well as emotionally; she's a role model and a half. In short, I believe most of us would love to exude the self-confidence and self-possession that she does. No, Iman wasn't hating on anybody, nor should she get any flack for speaking her mind.
Iman may be saying what a lot of people are thinking but are too afraid to admit. What she may have really wanted to say is "The world (we, black people, white people, David Bowie) is shocked by all the attention Michelle Obama is getting because you know damn well if she were not the First Lady no one would give a f*&^ about what she is wearing or her opinions on mothering or her relationship with her husband."
For instance even Essence magazine refuses to put real black women on their cover. I can not remember the last time there was a model or non-celebrity on the cover. It's only been Mary J Blige, Sanaa Lathan, Monique and Nia Long or a combo picture with them and Nancy Wilson and Patti LaBelle to round out the roster. There is no creativity in their representation of our beauty. Oh and I forgot Gabrielle Union and Jennifer Hudson...sorry. So anyway back to the Iman analysis.
By media, video ho, and mainstream standards is Michelle Obama a great beauty no. But she is beautiful and that's what Iman should have said. She should have said how tired she is of black women having to prove their worth and that the news needs to stop interviewing and showing only witnesses in a head rag w/ one tooth. She should have said "Big up to Michelle Obama. I love her and what she represents, real beauty, class and intelligence." But she may not have gotten into print so she took the cowardly way out. She did what she knew what would get people to write about her and get her attention...just like this blog did. Good for her. F#%^ her anyway I don't buy her make up.
I don't think it was an insult. FLOTUS looks scary with her hair pulled back.
I have always respected Iman but she was on ANTM once. She came across as a bit of a snob and made some pretty snarky comments about the models. Granted it's 'reality" TV but it has given me pause in regards to her.
When "traditional" beauties feel like their place of privelege is being challenged by "unconventional" beauties out come the claws. Iman is smart and she meant exactly what she said.
That said Michelle is beautiful and the most powerful man on earth seems to think so. Who cares what anyone else has to say?
Is that a diss or a compliment?
I think it's neither.
I think it's probably a sub-conscious expression of Iman realizing that although beauty is skin deep, you can't fake brains.
Beauty is transitory in people, but once you're smart, you stay smart.
When Michelle Obama is in her 80s, people will still be saying 'That's Michelle Obama!', but when Iman (or any other model for that matter) reaches an advanced age, people will refer to them as what they once were.
Michelle Obama got to where she is because she's smart AND good looking.
Famous models got to where they are because they good looking AND ambitious.
I don't think it was an insult. I got what she was saying, maybe the wording was a bit jumbled but it seemed well-intentioned.
I think - hope - she was trying to pay Ms. O. a compliment about character vs. superficiality; however, I am much more intrigued about her statement that "One had the field n...(expletive) and the house n...(expletive). There was this notion that I was chosen by white fashion editors to be better than the rest, which I am not. I did not like being thought of as the house n...(expletive)." Is Iman calling herself a "field n***a"? I'm having a hard time visualizing Iman in the fields. I keep seeing her asking for Evian and Cristal. I may be doing her a disservice but her closing comment begs further elaboration.
@ urbanpartner
I'm pretty sure Iman is calling herself out as being down with the fields. If not the literal fields, at least the spiritual ones where she sees herself among the fighters and the iconoclasts and not the placators who go along to get along.
More than anything it proves that Iman should just stand there and be pretty and leave the commentary to the non-great beauties with brains.
I admire Iman but I admire Michelle Obama more!
In a perfect world, those comments would have never been made, especially not publicly. Iman is a former supermodel and celebrity and should know better than to criticize someone's appearance. It's really not necessary to judge Mrs. Obama's looks since beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think she's smashing.
i have to say initially the comment comes off being kind of grimy- as an African American woman I find Michelle Obama to be a beautiful brown-skinned woman and not being color struck, if you observe the mainstream media finds a certain category of black women attractive (more mulatto types (ie: Halle Berry, Alicia Keyes). I am elated that a brown-skinned beautiful woman can get in the limelight for a change. To me she's like an everywoman to our community. There are many beautiful and brainy woman of African descent we just don't get to hear about them or see them.
Iman, just because you were a supermodel, doesn't mean you can determine who is a "real beauty" Michelle has alot of things on the ball and I get the impression you are hating, don't hate. You can't clean up what you said now.
You have fallen into the media trap; they always manage to find an person of African descent to come out and say some dumb bullSh*&.
I admit to being taken aback by her statement initially. As I thought more about it I said to myself, if this is what she needs to say to stay relevant, that's her business. It's bad business but hers nonetheless.
I don't feel like dissecting her statement to find the positive in what she said. And I hope Michelle is not worried about what she had to say either.
Man, I've discussed what Iman said so much on other boards, I've become too tired to go on. That said, it was truly a backhanded compliment, but more like a definite insult.
the First Lady is a lovely woman, but she has much more going on for her than looks, as it should be
Exactly. She could have said any version of the above but she did not!
I think Iman is very envious (consciously or not) of Michelle because The First Lady is arguably the (one of the) most popular women in the world right now. To add to that the fashion elite are tripping over themselves to be near her and to dress her....I think this is what really bother Iman.
The sad thing is, beauty is subjective and I am sure that there have been a number of people over the years who have said that Iman is not a great beauty and wonder how she became a supermodel. Is Iman so out of touch or conceited that she thinks that she does not realize that very fact?
Hmmmm. Iman is entitled to her opinion, as I see it. I'm perpetually confused on the concept of these "sacred cows" of blackness, which folks clutch pearls over certain matters. Perhaps I'd be more perturbed if Iman said that Michelle was ugly, but she didn't. "No great beauty" doesn't automatically mean "the fuggiest fug to ever fug."
But you know, as I think on it more, even if she said that Michelle was ugly - AND? So? Does it really mean much in the grand scheme of things?
I don't know, I think Michelle is attractive, and works with what she has to the max. But I'm not gonna jump on someone (via the Internet or in real life) who doesn't share my opinion. People are entitled to believe that Michelle isn't conventionally attractive or whatever, and they're also entitled to verbalize it, if they choose to do so.
As an aside, I think most supermodels, whether white or otherwise, are kinda fug. I think Iman and Michelle are attractive, albeit in different ways.
@Danielle,
I interpreted Iman field/house n*gger comment as her saying that because she was so beautiful/a model that she was/became a house n*gger.
The funny thing about this whole incident is that Michelle is considered beautiful by myself and a whole lot of other people and for a famous black model to say something like that is just plain head-scratching.
For a blog where everyone can't get enough of the Obama's to the point where no one is listening to this song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLJFRgE4Ywk
the blow up is absolute proof this song is so true.
So I am on the record the First Lady dresses ugly and I never want to see a picture of the kids again(they are overexposed. I never want to see someone in the public's eye children. It is too dangerous.
@ All
You all know why she's talking this smack.
Michelle Obama bagged the first African American Chief executive of the most powerful country the world has ever known.
And Iman ended up with a bisexual brit with two different color eyes and a sore ass for the time Mick Jagger was all up in it thirty years ago. And her living, breathing cigarette of a husband ain't had a hit since the Reagan Administration.
If you we're her, you'd be chugging that hater-aid too.
As I said elsewhere
Power To The Fuglies!