Melania and Michelle: First Ladies in a New Era

In this somewhat shallow survey, communication professor Vigil (Moms in Chief: The Rhetoric of Republican Motherhood and the Spouses of Presidential Nominees, 1992–2016) looks at how the two most recent first ladies have handled their unelected, unpaid, and perhaps unchosen position. From their debuts on the campaign trail, through their times in the White House, Vigil dissects the two women’s fashion choices, social media presences, missteps (such as Trump’s “I Really Don’t Care” jacket and Obama’s perceived overstepping of the role’s bounds with the Let’s Move campaign), and parenting decisions. She pays particular attention to how the press and the current era’s focus on social media has challenged the two in ways not seen by previous first ladies and seeks, somewhat unsuccessfully, to demonstrate commonalities between them: for example, she argues they are similar since both rose from lower-middle-class backgrounds to success as, respectively, an attorney and model. While Vigil does offer some nice historical anecdotes about first ladies as far back as Martha Washington, the overall effect is repetitive, and there’s not much new analysis or insight beyond what’s already been covered in the media. It’s not really clear who the audience is for this study. (Sept.)