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Michelle Obama no 'beauty' but 'bright': Iman

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Cash_thatswhatiwant Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 02:48 PM
Original message
Michelle Obama no 'beauty' but 'bright': Iman
NEW YORK (AFP) – US First Lady Michelle Obama is not a "great beauty," but will "just get better with age," Iman, one of the first black supermodels, says in a magazine interview.

"Mrs Obama is not a great beauty," the Somali-born model and wife of rocker David Bowie tells Parade magazine's Sunday issue, reflecting on the first black US first lady, who is a lawyer by training and a former executive.

"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.

Iman, 53, also told Parade that her rise to catwalk superstardom did not free her from racism.

"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)."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090515/en_afp/entertainmentuspoliticspeopleimanracism;_ylt=AlcJgwJ67EzIJUiHIr70HJBxFb8C
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lamp_shade Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 02:51 PM
Response to Original message
1. Well how 'bout that.
That's all I dare say. That's all I dare say.
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alsame Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 02:51 PM
Response to Original message
2. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Iman. n/t
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Thrill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 02:52 PM
Response to Original message
3. She is beautiful. She looks much much better than Iman.
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Lorien Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:06 PM
Response to Reply #3
10. That's your opinion. I've always considered Iman one of the greatest beauties
of all time:



and we're talking physical beauty here. Even as a 53 year old woman her facial symmetry has held up exceedingly well, and that's a rare thing indeed.

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Beaverhausen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:11 PM
Response to Reply #10
15. She is beautiful but there has to be some photoshopping in use there
Edited on Fri May-15-09 03:13 PM by Beaverhausen
no one is that perfect.

edit
see...
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d_b Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #3
21. qftranny
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tabatha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 02:56 PM
Response to Original message
4. There is feature-perfect beauty, and overall beauty.
Michelle has the latter.
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ObamaKerryDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:05 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. Exactly. "Beauty" is pretty much a subjective thing anyway.
Though I appreciate the sentiment behind what Iman was (I think?) trying to say. FWIW, I think Michelle is lovely though. And clearly the President thinks so too. :P
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incapsulated Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 02:59 PM
Response to Original message
5. She isn't a great beauty
Come on, is this really an argument that she is some great beauty?

She is a very attractive woman but she is not a supermodel, is that an insult? Who the hell is.
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lamp_shade Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:02 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. There's a big wide margin, however, between "great beauty" and "interesting looking and bright".
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incapsulated Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:06 PM
Response to Reply #7
11. Honestly, Iman was a supermodel
Who spent most of her working life around other models.

Most of us probably look like trolls to her, lol.

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lamp_shade Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:51 PM
Response to Reply #11
24. Oh goodness. I'm laughing so hard now that I'm not making any noise.. and my stomach hurts.


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secondwind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:01 PM
Response to Original message
6. Beauty? Beauty??? Michelle beats Iman in looks and brains hands down! What a nerve....
to say that Michelle is "BRIGHT"? A graduate of Princeton? BRIGHT?

Iman is nothing but an empty suit.......no brains at all.
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Lorien Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:09 PM
Response to Reply #6
13. I seriously doubt that a man like David Bowie would be attracted to
"an empty suit". Iman has worked for UNICEF and spoken out for the people of Somalia for decades now (she lived out part of her life in a refugee camp, after all). She was giving Michelle Obama a compliment, yet she still gets attacked for it? This place has completely lost perspective.
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Political Tiger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:02 PM
Response to Original message
8. True beauty comes from within.
Just look at Miss Bigot California. Sure, she's physically beautiful but her ignorance and hatefulness makes her one of the ugliest people I seen in quite some time.
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bigwillq Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:06 PM
Response to Original message
12. I think Michelle is attractive.
Iman seems to have lost her mind.
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marimour Donating Member (696 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:10 PM
Response to Original message
14. shes not a great beauty. Most of us arent either...
But she is beautiful because she is the total package (attractive and a caring, and intelligent woman) and I agree with Iman that she will just get better with age.
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madmom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:12 PM
Response to Original message
16. Isn't that like saying of a blind date...well she has a nice personality...Michelle Obama is
real, that makes her more beautiful than a rubber stamp super model. IMO
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:14 PM
Response to Original message
17. I would appreciate Iman not telling us about what Michelle is NOT.....
in the looks department, because to most of us, it hardly matters.

The fact is that Michelle IS, and that is more than good enough for me!
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azmouse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:17 PM
Response to Original message
18. Michelle is natural. She hasn't had all the plastic surgery Iman has had.
...and thank gawd for that.

Michelle is perfect the way she is.
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Phx_Dem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:34 PM
Response to Original message
19. Wow, sounds like a hasbeen who's a little bitter about her
Edited on Fri May-15-09 03:35 PM by Phx_Dem
fading looks and popularity.

Edited: And that's a backhanded compliment if ever I heard one.
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redqueen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:39 PM
Response to Original message
20. I love the chopped up quotes.
Perfect for people to get all outragey on one side or the other...

No context! :woohoo:
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HopeOverFear Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:43 PM
Response to Original message
22. To be clear, this wasn't a diss of Michelle
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960 Donating Member (676 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:49 PM
Response to Original message
23. If you read the whole piece in context, you see that Iman is complementing Michelle.
Michelle is NOT a supermodel - duh.
She is an attractive, accomplished, caring, smart woman - and as Iman says she will get better with age, whereas a supermodel only fades away.

Judging people on their looks goes both ways. There has been too much oogling of Michelle from our side -- she is far more than her looks or fashion.
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lamp_shade Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 03:56 PM
Response to Reply #23
25. She could have done better than "interesting looking". Ron Christie is "interesting looking".
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CakeGrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-15-09 05:20 PM
Response to Original message
26. I don't see this as a huge insult. I thought Iman's comments were complimentary.
I think the immediate impulse to dismiss her remark as a catty attack on Michelle says something about the artificially high value that's placed on being labeled as "beautiful".

Lost in the reaction is Iman's wise observation that Michelle's combination of her image and more importantly her intelligence will carry her further than the women who make the cover of Vogue and such.

I mean realistically - do people think Michelle would have been selected as a cover girl? I doubt it; whatever facial construct they look for is something I don't think she has. But that's not to say she isn't attractive, and as was said earlier, obviously she suits the President just fine.

Most people aren't going to meet the standards to appear on a magazine cover. I don't think it's a great offense to make this observation.

There are a lot of movie and TV personalities whom I wouldn't personally consider beautiful, but I like to watch them do what they do because it's not just about facial symmetry and placement of features. Your personal charisma, personality and attitude factor in to the overall "package" that is the total of a person's presence.
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