In a piece for TIME Magazine last month, President Obama sat down with Misty Copeland and discussed the importance of young girls, like his daughters, having positive examples of body image in the black community.
“The fact that they’ve got a tall, gorgeous mom who has some curves, and that their father appreciates, I think is helpful,” President Obama said. “I do think that culture’s changing for the younger generation a little bit more. You see Beyoncé or you see some of these pop stars, and what both white, Latino, black children are seeing as representative of beauty is much broader than it was when I was a kid. You just didn’t see that much representation. And that’s healthy and that’s encouraging. But it’s still a challenge.”
Misty Copeland shared POTUS sentiments, “I think that having a platform and having a voice to be seen by people beyond the classical ballet world has really been powerful,” Copeland said. “It’s allowed me to say, ‘It’s OK to have a healthy, athletic body.’ We are fully capable of doing everything that the person who doesn’t have an extremely athletic body — that is more thin — we’re fully capable of doing exactly the same thing. And I think that being in this position and showing that I can execute and do all of these things, that it’s possible to have any skin complexion — to have a healthy body image for the ballerina body — I think it’s given me more of a voice. And it’s, I think, forcing a lot of these top tier companies to address the lack of diversity and diversifying the bodies that we’re seeing in classical ballet. It’s really forcing that conversation.”
President Obama also brought up stereotypical body images in males, referencing Steph Curry as an example.
“The fact that he’s about my size and he’s doing what he’s doing” is remarkable, Obama said. “I am having more fun watching him than anybody since Michael Jordan.”
Before get it twisted, POTUS isn’t putting Steph over MJ. “He’s not,” Obama said. “Even Steph wouldn’t necessarily say he’s better than Jordan.”
