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Structured Controversy

Michelle Obama: The Most Influential Person

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama was born on 17 January 1964. She is an American lawyer, a writer, and a university administrator who is the first African-American lady of the United States. She is the wife of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States. A large number of people in the world admire her, as she was a role model for the women in the world. She served as an advocated for education, nutrition, poverty, healthy eating, and physical activity. She was also considered as a fashion icon as she supported the designers of America.

The best of all her contributions to the state and society is her campaign “Let’s Move” for ending childhood obesity. She carefully planned strategies and implemented them to get the best results. She made partnerships with the business and food chains and asked them to cut down fats, salt, and sugar from the foods. She even took steps for the betterment of public health policies in the United States. A healthful-eating mission was started that resulted in the decrease of child obesity largely. Rather than focusing on her YouTube traffic and fashion choices, Michelle Obama worked for the betterment and development of society. During her Let’s Move campaign, she implemented effective strategies to emphasize exercise and fight obesity. Obama worked with many law-workers, researchers, school heads, heads of government departments, and food giants to observe and change the eating habits of the Americans ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"LsIu8IeQ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Thompson and Carman)","plainCitation":"(Thompson and Carman)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":186,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/zQiT8c1c/items/4XHSVYJW"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/zQiT8c1c/items/4XHSVYJW"],"itemData":{"id":186,"type":"article-newspaper","title":"A healthful legacy: Michelle Obama looks to the future of ‘Let’s Move’","container-title":"Washington Post","section":"Food","source":"www.washingtonpost.com","abstract":"She hopes the results of her push to end childhood obesity will last beyond her husband’s presidency.","URL":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/a-healthful-legacy-michelle-obama-looks-to-the-future-of-lets-move/2015/05/03/19feb42c-b3cc-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html","ISSN":"0190-8286","shortTitle":"A healthful legacy","language":"en-US","author":[{"family":"Thompson","given":"Krissah"},{"family":"Carman","given":"Tim"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015",5,3]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",10,17]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Thompson and Carman).

The lunch provided to kids in schools was calories-rich and poor-nutritious meals such as chicken nuggets, hot dogs, French fries, pizza, donuts, etc. these foods increase the obesity rates in children rather than avoid their weight gain. Michelle Obama carefully planned to work on the issue and achieve success in solving the school lunch problems through consultation with the top obesity experts of the country. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act 2010 also came up from there, which focused on cleaning up the food provided by schools. There are five goals of this campaign that aim to create a healthy eating lifestyle in kids. These goals are improving access to affordable and healthy foods, increase in physical activities, creating healthy eating habits for children, empowering the caretakers and parents, and providing healthy food in schools. A song “Move Your Body” was also released to promote this campaign and encourage the people to participate in this campaign enthusiastically. The song was filmed in the cafeteria of a school where the singer Beyoncé was dancing with the school kids ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"U1HAJ6BN","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Holzman David C.)","plainCitation":"(Holzman David C.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":188,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/zQiT8c1c/items/XTADAUPP"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/zQiT8c1c/items/XTADAUPP"],"itemData":{"id":188,"type":"article-journal","title":"DIET AND NUTRITION: White House Proposes Healthy Food Financing Initiative","container-title":"Environmental Health Perspectives","volume":"118","issue":"4","source":"ehp.niehs.nih.gov (Atypon)","URL":"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.118-a156","DOI":"10.1289/ehp.118-a156","shortTitle":"DIET AND NUTRITION","journalAbbreviation":"Environmental Health Perspectives","author":[{"literal":"Holzman David C."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2010",4,1]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",10,17]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Holzman David C.).

Another part of the “Let’s Move” campaign by Michelle Obama was “Chefs Move to Schools,” which was a nationwide program. It aimed at teaching culinary skills to the children in schools to encourage them to try new healthful eating options. In the year 2012, almost 3500 schools had partnerships with several chefs to start a healthier diet in an appealing and entertaining way.

Increasing the physical activity of kids was one of the major goals of the campaign in which Michelle Obama participated herself to promote her programs. She participated at a football clinic in Washington DC for highlighting the importance of physical activities in everyday routines of children. During a campaign in New Orleans, Michelle Obama ran a 40-yard sprint to promote her Let's Move program. At an event in a school, she jumped a skipping rope to highlight the importance of fitness and a good body image. She also played table tennis with kids during an event at the National Tennis Centre in New York. She participated and promoted her campaign and its programs in many other events, as well.

The Let’s Move campaign by Michelle Obama progressed amazingly and produced wonderful results in the nation. Around 1.6 million kids are attending daycare centers that are providing a healthy diet such as foods and vegetables replaced by juices and cookies. Healthier breakfasts and lunch are being provided to almost 30 million children in the nation. A large number of chained restaurants have made healthy menus for kids, and many foods and beverage companies have cut millions of calories from their food and drinking products. Nearly 80 million families have made their kids join the Let’s Move plan in which they join the local athlete programs and participate in the summer meal programs and events. Many families are receiving religious teachings about healthy eating habits by different religious leaders ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"2el7DHR9","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Badas and Stauffer)","plainCitation":"(Badas and Stauffer)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":192,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/zQiT8c1c/items/DYBANL2L"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/zQiT8c1c/items/DYBANL2L"],"itemData":{"id":192,"type":"article-journal","title":"Michelle Obama as a Political Symbol: Race, Gender, and Public Opinion toward the First Lady","container-title":"Politics & Gender","page":"431-459","volume":"15","issue":"03","source":"Crossref","abstract":"Popular commentary surrounding Michelle Obama focuses on the symbolic importance of her tenure as the nation’s first African American first lady. Despite these assertions, relatively few studies have examined public opinion toward Michelle Obama and the extent to which race and gender influenced public evaluations of her. Even fewer studies have examined how the intersection of race and gender influenced political attitudes toward Michelle Obama and her ability to serve as a meaningful political symbol. Using public opinion polls from 2008 to 2017 and data from the Black Women in America survey, we examine public opinion toward Michelle Obama as a function of respondents’ race, gender, and the intersection between the two. We find that African Americans were generally more favorable toward Michelle Obama than white Americans, with minimal differences between men and women. Although white women were no more likely than white men to view Michelle Obama favorably, we find that they were more likely to have information on Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative. Most importantly, we find that Michelle Obama served as a unique political symbol for African American women and that her presence in politics significantly increased black women’s evaluation of their race-gender group.","DOI":"10.1017/S1743923X18000922","ISSN":"1743-923X, 1743-9248","shortTitle":"Michelle Obama as a Political Symbol","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Badas","given":"Alex"},{"family":"Stauffer","given":"Katelyn E."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019",9]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Badas and Stauffer).

The approach of Obama towards the removal of obesity from the United States is associated with the socioeconomic and racial status of people in society. During an event, she promoted her campaign and said,

We're all here because we believe in you. It is as simple as that. We believe in you so deeply. We believe that you all have something really special to offer, and because we all see a little bit of ourselves in you. That's why I do this because when I look at you, I see me. I was the same kid you all were.

She utilized the word “we” to offer group identification to people and encourage them to make healthier eating decisions.

Michelle Obama is the most influential person in the world, and it can be seen in the strategies planned by her to bring change in the society. She focused on solving the issues faced by society rather than focusing on herself. She focused on working for the families of the United States and their problems and emphasized substance over style.

Works Cited

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Badas, Alex, and Katelyn E. Stauffer. “Michelle Obama as a Political Symbol: Race, Gender, and Public Opinion toward the First Lady.” Politics & Gender, vol. 15, no. 03, Sept. 2019, pp. 431–59. Crossref, doi:10.1017/S1743923X18000922.

Holzman David C. “DIET AND NUTRITION: White House Proposes Healthy Food Financing Initiative.” Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 118, no. 4, Apr. 2010. ehp.niehs.nih.gov (Atypon), doi:10.1289/ehp.118-a156.

Thompson, Krissah, and Tim Carman. “A Healthful Legacy: Michelle Obama Looks to the Future of ‘Let’s Move.’” Washington Post, 3 May 2015. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/a-healthful-legacy-michelle-obama-looks-to-the-future-of-lets-move/2015/05/03/19feb42c-b3cc-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html.