men generally seem to have strong reactions to women who are opinionated, smart women. they shy away from such venus like creatures and rather settle for the ones who suppose can stay at home and bak cookies. stay in the background and you are a bore; speak up, and you're a liability. Carla Bruni made an atonishing impact as first lady with new husband, French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. she enchanted everyone through her own demonstration of bravura brand and Je t'aime politics. watching carla twirl in the media spotlight, demure in Dior - i cannot help but wonder, what does it take to be the first lady?
on one hand, you're the wife of a prime minister or president on international stage, with all the eyes of the world wacthing you, you are living a life under a microscope. well, power and glamour follows your status. you only have to look at the world's first lady history to see what misery it can be to suddenly be rebranded as the arm candy of the world's most powerful men. from Imelda Marcos and her shoes, to Betty Ford and her alcoholism, through to Nancy Reagan and those oft-ridiculed 'adoring' gazes she used to bestow upon Ronnie, it appears that the first job of any First Lady is to divest oneself of any kind of human complexity and instead, become a cartoon for the public to love or loathe, as they see fit.
Sometimes, it only takes a couple of misquotes in the press and chummy fist-bump to be denounced as the horrible and bitter half. no amount of ivy leagues degress can help you. you have to be just right to the public taste. a clean slate of history, nothing and i mean, zilch nonsense from the past for them to pick up and throw at you. Carla Bruni nude photograph of her from her supermodel days were fantastic but they were printed in the press in an obvious attempt to belittle her, to put la jolie femme in her place. the public is interested in first ladies who smiles, pose by her husband like a chic little doll.
when interviewed about something your husband is doing, say, "it's his job, not mine". when your husband starts an affair and it goes public, never never say, "in the Bible, it says they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive, and he said 70 times seven. Well, i want youa ll to know that i'm keeping a chart'. and if you, unfortunately marry a president that nobody likes, say, "of course i'm passionate about my husband. I mean, that's why I'm here - because i married him", so just to prove that at least someone loves him.
proving yourself that you are not just another pretty face, you do need a balanced of brains and stepford wife points. you will be force to perform well in the whopping, jeering crowd. coping with criticism is another issue altogether. you just got to learn to shrug elegantly with the odd jug or two of Martini. I do not know yet what I can do as First lady, but I do know how i want to do it - seriously. always be my husband's number one fan will and might probably win me favour with the public. well..save the embarassing moments the press might dig out from my years and time in university that will most likely then propel me to become the public's premier whipping girl. till then, i am going to say it will style - i want a man with nuclear power.
