The First Lady wore BEIGE.

[rivka]

Beige. Beige. Michelle Obama wore a lovely BEIGE dress to her first state dinner, and she looked gorgeous.

Too bad the Associated Press ran into a little problem with their coverage.

First lady Michelle Obama chose to wear a gleaming silver-sequined, flesh-colored gown Tuesday night to the first state dinner held by her husband's administration. She was tending to her hostess duties in a strapless silhouette with the beads forming an abstract floral pattern that was custom-made by Naeem Khan. [emphasis mine]

And they ran this picture alongside it:



...So it's not like they didn't have a visual aid to help them remember THE COLOR OF MICHELLE OBAMA'S FLESH.

(Via TAPPED.)

Comments

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

This is an excellent illustration of "white privlege" and UTTER CLUELESSNESS.

N.

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

Oh wow.

I wish I had seen this last night, when I was teaching my editing class on finding and editing out bias.

[kateyule.livejournal.com]

Man, I hope I'm never the color of that gown. Beige on a background of greenish silver? Not a good sign.

(Nice dress, though.)

[saffroncisco.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thanks... I'm linking this post. :)

[saoba.livejournal.com]

Some days I know if I start *head-desk*ing and ALLCAPS-ing I will never stop.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I read the AP description before seeing the photo, and thought "whoa, Michell Obama went out in public in a translucent gown?" Then I actually saw the (gorgeous) dress, and wanted to shoot brain-bolts at the AP's editing desk.

(Whatever color you call it, though, our First Lady looks *fabulous* in it. And I love that heels+hair make her taller than her fairly tall husband - and she still stands up straight.

[drelmo.livejournal.com]

I love the way they smile at each other.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I love their whole family and can't decide if I want to marry them, adopt them or ask them to adopt me.

[ailbhe]

"Yes please."

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

[erin-c-1978.livejournal.com]

I literally said "AUUUUGGGGHHHH" when I hit "flesh-colored". Is reflecting on word choice for two seconds really that hard for people who write for a living?

[elgecko.livejournal.com]

That's... ballsy

[ailbhe]

My mouth is opening and closing like a fish here.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

So is mine.

[saoba.livejournal.com]

Aaaaand to make it even better, this quote from a style editor of a magazine at the end of the article-

Of Mrs. Obama, Rubenstein said: "She looks like she's worth her weight in solid gold.

Because discussing an African-American woman in monetary terms is not at all problematic, no no no.

[nixve.livejournal.com]

Or any woman, really. :-/

[anthologie.livejournal.com]

Then I guess the dark brown dress I got today is ALSO "flesh-colored." :)

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I once had a tin of "flesh coloured" sticking plasters (band aids) that were pinkish, dark brownish, light brownish and a weird yellowish colour supposed to be like Asian skin-colour. (Actually, probably about as off as that standard pink...) I bought it because it struck me as cool, but it was designed for schools. Maybe when the kids who used those in schools grow up they'll have more clue.

(These days we have band aids with sushi on, because we are shallow.)

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

I'd rather hoped that she'd wear a sari-- purple, I think.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

The AP article actually has discussion of that, and how it might've seemed costume-y in a way that could be offensive to her Indian guests. Her choice to wear a dress designed by an Indian-American and sort of reminiscent of a sari was inspired.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Mrs. Obama is elegance and taste personified. I love how visibly gaga Mr. Obama is for her.

edit for studip.

[kazoogrrl.livejournal.com]

I noticed in pictures that someone (Katie Couric?) was wearing a purple wrap that resembled silk sari fabric, and it was lovely.

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

Augh.

I guess they dreaded the dread word "beige".

*rolls eyes*

[naomikritzer]

They could've gone with "cream-colored," if the word "beige" is too threatening for them.

Because FLESH COLORED OH MY GOD ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Even when I was a child there were no "flesh colored" Crayola crayons anymore though I certainly used "Peach" and "Apricot" to color in the skin of the white people I drew.

Michelle Obama could make a Land's End Squall Parka look stunningly fashionable. She is gorgeous and has looked good in everything I've ever seen her in. That dress was particularly gorgeous on her, though, and I'm glad I saw the picture this morning, well before I read how the idiots at the AP described it.

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

According to the linked article, someone at AP finally picked up the clue phone and they switched it to "cream". Sheesh, I know that they're cutting back on fact-checking at news organizations, but what the hell reporter describes flesh as a color in the first place? Like you say, Crayola shut that door in 1962!

[lerryn.livejournal.com]

The only flesh color that should be out there is the color you get after peeling off the skin to reach the meaty bits, and I don't think anyone is wearing a dress in that color.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Cream, ecru, ivory, bone...

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

Also, if you don't want to say "beige"? Even Microsoft Word's benighted excuse for a thesaurus can give you "light brown", "fawn", "mushroom", and "taupe" on the first try. A little bit of clicking synonyms can get you "tan", "camel", "buff", "manila", and "off-white". Who knows what you could come up with if you had an actual bound thesaurus on your desk?

Or a cursory google brings up the designer's web page, which has a "contacts" link in the header, which even has a special link for press contacts. If you can't describe it yourself, maybe you could ask the designer what color he'd like to call the gown?

Jesus Haploid Christ on a turbo-powered pogo stick! And I'm not even an amateur at this, let alone a pro!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Today's WashPost had pictures of the Obamas and eight other couples. One of the couples were standing still in the photo, another had the male's hand behind the woman, but the other six had the male towing the female by the hand. Nothing like showing who's in charge.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

The coverage I saw described the color as "nude" - which is just as bad and caused me the same reaction.

[aloha-moira.livejournal.com]

Oh for God's sake. I think I just sprained my eyeballs rolling them so hard. The thoughtlessness, it burns...

[nolly.livejournal.com]

On my monitor, the dress looks like "pale gold", and anyone with skin that color should be getting their liver checked out.

So many good color words, so many bad writers.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

This! Not only is "flesh-colored" incredibly frickin' stupid in this context (i.e., the context of being right next to Michelle Obama's flesh), the color traditionally described as "flesh-colored" by white-o-centric color-namers isn't that color.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

I probably shouldn't admit this here, but I did a similar thing recently. I did think about it beforehand, especially as it was on a model roughly of Mrs Obama's skin colour, but I ended up calling the thing "flesh-coloured" anyway. It struck me as absurd rather than insulting, but I rationalised that that was what the colour was called in my experience. Possibly it's less of an issue here in the UK. I'm pretty sure I bought the occasional "flesh" art crayon back in the nineties.

I should probably go and change the caption before anyone notices. It's more of a light peach, anyway....

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Paints for D&D figures, but "flesh" does fit the intended purpose, and there area lot of variations, both for shading and for Orcs.

(UK too)

[kiya]

Dear AP: Your colour-blindness, let you show me it.

[onyxlynx (from livejournal.com)]

And what's wrong with "beige," anyway?