In my last post on this site, I wrote:
No matter how much education and professional accomplishment she has, she is supposed to be willing to abandon her dreams of a future and slot herself conveniently into his life should he fall for her and wish to marry her. In the US, this goes to our highest office where the wife of the President is expected to play hostess at the White House like a glorified homemaker no matter what her career accomplishments to date.
I saw a Reddit discussion recently where foreigners were saying things like "Americans have a weird interest in the wife of their president. I think the wife of our president ...maybe has black hair?" And that was surprising and interesting to me.
According to Wikipedia -- which I understand is not always accurate -- it's not actually some kind of legal requirement that the wife of the president serve as the first lady:
It seems to me that we outlawed slavery a long time ago in the US and treating a man's wife like she has agreed to take this unpaid position because he got elected does not fit with a goal of promoting equal rights for women and according to those remarks I saw on Reddit, it seems like it is not consistent with how other nations run their own governments.
It also seems to me that there is something wrong with a democracy giving this much influence and official power -- after all, the first lady of the US has White House staff -- to a woman merely because of whom she is married to without so much as some kind of confirmation process. Having some kind of official power because you married a person in power is more like a traditional monarchy.
I don't see how the US can be a world leader on the issue of women's rights when this is our example from the top. If the White House can't stop doing this, well, it's no wonder the rest of the US can't stop treating women as second class citizens.
It seems to me that first lady is a kind of title and should be capitalized but I long ago realized I write Germish because I grew up in a bilingual household where both German and English are spoken, so I tend to capitalize a lot of things that we don't actually capitalize in English.
No disrespect intended to the position of first lady or to any women who have served in that role. I'm just trying my hardest to write proper English and sometimes that's a challenge for me.
No matter how much education and professional accomplishment she has, she is supposed to be willing to abandon her dreams of a future and slot herself conveniently into his life should he fall for her and wish to marry her. In the US, this goes to our highest office where the wife of the President is expected to play hostess at the White House like a glorified homemaker no matter what her career accomplishments to date.
I saw a Reddit discussion recently where foreigners were saying things like "Americans have a weird interest in the wife of their president. I think the wife of our president ...maybe has black hair?" And that was surprising and interesting to me.
According to Wikipedia -- which I understand is not always accurate -- it's not actually some kind of legal requirement that the wife of the president serve as the first lady:
The first lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is the title held by the hostess of the White House, usually the wife of the president of the United States, concurrent with the president's term in office.If we are ever going to achieve a post heteronormative world, maybe someday the White House of the US needs to set the example and say "This is now a paid position and the wife of the president is no longer expected by default to assume this role in an unpaid capacity. In order to assure people that this is not some attempt to double dip, my wife is stepping down from the role immediately and we are searching for a paid hostess to fill this role."
It seems to me that we outlawed slavery a long time ago in the US and treating a man's wife like she has agreed to take this unpaid position because he got elected does not fit with a goal of promoting equal rights for women and according to those remarks I saw on Reddit, it seems like it is not consistent with how other nations run their own governments.
It also seems to me that there is something wrong with a democracy giving this much influence and official power -- after all, the first lady of the US has White House staff -- to a woman merely because of whom she is married to without so much as some kind of confirmation process. Having some kind of official power because you married a person in power is more like a traditional monarchy.
I don't see how the US can be a world leader on the issue of women's rights when this is our example from the top. If the White House can't stop doing this, well, it's no wonder the rest of the US can't stop treating women as second class citizens.
Footnote
I did not capitalize first lady in this piece because the Wikipedia article did not capitalize it. That feels weird and wrong to me. It seems disrespectful.It seems to me that first lady is a kind of title and should be capitalized but I long ago realized I write Germish because I grew up in a bilingual household where both German and English are spoken, so I tend to capitalize a lot of things that we don't actually capitalize in English.
No disrespect intended to the position of first lady or to any women who have served in that role. I'm just trying my hardest to write proper English and sometimes that's a challenge for me.