Kathleen Parker / Michelle Obama sports bangs -- and wings - pressofAtlanticCity.com: Commentary

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Kathleen Parker / Michelle Obama sports bangs -- and wings

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Posted: Thursday, February 28, 2013 12:01 am

Kathleen Parker / Michelle Obama sports bangs -- and wings

If second-term presidents feel liberated by re-election to pursue bolder agendas, first ladies often become more comfortable to be their own person.

Witness Laura Bush, who in her husband's second term discovered that she, too, had a voice and a bully pulpit. Overnight, she transformed herself from librarian to liberator, becoming a voice for oppressed women - from advocating for Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratic leader then under house arrest, to spearheading a women's health movement in the Middle East.

Likewise, it appears that Michelle Obama has begun to break out. Though she long ago established herself as a health-and-fitness mom in chief, she had until recently been careful to stay well within the lines of traditional first lady. Obviously accomplished in her own right, she spent the past four years fashioning an image of good wife and mother to counter early impressions of her as politically ambitious and, to certain of her critics, angry.

In her husband's second term, Michelle Obama has come out with, well, a bang! She isn't just breaking the mold; she's shattering the good china. The Madonna of first ladies, she is emerging as an iconoclastic, self-reinventing woman who clearly doesn't mind shaking the firmament.

"She always looks good" was Barack Obama's wise response when asked how he liked his wife's new bangs. Studies confirm what all successfully married men know: The correct answer is usually "Yes, dear."

The bangs were a clue that Michelle was leaving the cocoon. Analyzing her bangs may seem silly - but only if you know nothing about women. When a woman changes her hair, something is up.

Those aren't bangs covering Michelle's eyebrows. Those are butterfly wings.

The first lady completely changed her appearance on the eve of her husband's second inauguration. She jokingly has said that her bangs were her midlife crisis. Cute answer, but it's clearly more than that. Hair is the frame we choose for the portrait we project to the world. Hair conveys messages we don't even consciously recognize.

Who knew that Michelle Obama harbored an inner Gidget? Cute, fun-loving, perky were not adjectives that sprang to mind four years ago. She obviously has decided to have some fun.

Thus, recently, she joined Jimmy Fallon in a viral pas de deux titled, "The Evolution of Mom Dancing." Sunday night she crashed the biggest party on television - the Academy Awards - to announce the best picture winner. Reactions have been mixed from the moment Jack Nicholson introduced her: Should she have done it? Is it too frivolous in these dire times for the first lady, bedecked in sequined splendor, to be participating in such self-congratulatory frivolity? As usual, the responses tend to break down along party lines.

We have such conflicting feelings about first wives in an era when women do it all, including, eventually, becoming president. We want our first lady to be first a lady - a delicate balance between enjoying one's attractiveness without being too sexy. Michelle's sleeveless toned arms have kept us riveted for four years.

We want first ladies to be intelligent but not aggressively so. Supportive but not fawning. Politic but not political. We mostly want them to not embarrass us - this will be the same for the first husband when he arrives.

To most of the country, Michelle has passed muster thus far. Her youthful health and fitness are inspiring - and she can grab and hold an audience as few others can. She and the camera adore each other.

The answer may be as simple as sometimes a first lady just wants to have fun. For certain, Michelle Obama is the star of her own movie.

Kathleen Parker's email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.

Posted in on Thursday, February 28, 2013 12:01 am.

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