Given the optics, you could be forgiven for thinking that my headline refers to leaders banging heads over the vexing issues on the table at this week’s G8 summit in Northern Ireland. But this is not so.
There is, of course, the historic and ironic spectacle of the United States and United Kingdom being on the defensive about spying on China and Russia. Not to mention the daunting challenge leaders are facing over what to do about the sectarian conflict raging in Syria.
Yet the real story coming out of this summit is all about Michelle Obama’s bangs.
The first lady and her fringe headed to Belfast for this year’s G8 summit, where she made a speech that sparked mass Twitter debate. Onlookers weren’t concerned with the language Mrs. O used at the event, but rather the ill-received styling of her bangs…
The hashtag #bangsfail was even used — ouch.
This is how the Huffington Post styled the issue yesterday. But I say this public backlash is long overdue. Because here, in part, is how I lamented her follicle folly months ago:
I’m not feelin’ it. It makes her look too much like a grown woman trying too hard to look young.
(“First Lady Michelle, She Bangs,” The iPINIONS Journal, February 28, 2013)
But I suppose it took a putative style guru like Karl Lagerfeld giving it a thumbs down, which he did in his inimitably catty fashion recently, to elicit the backlash I think her bangs should have elicited even before she left the salon.
Meanwhile, I’m still recovering from the public flogging I got for daring to follow up my January diss of her bangs by asserting a couple of weeks ago that the Chinese first lady is prettier than Michelle.
Therefore, I hope those who pilloried me for dissing her will lick my wounds now that so many of them are vindicating my critique with similar critiques of their own.
Finally, lest you think I’m a twit for trivializing the serious agenda of the G8 by commenting on Michelle’s bangs, consider this still unassailable observation:
Leaders of the world’s richest and most powerful nations are meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany over the next few days for their annual G8 summit. And, true to form, their agenda promises comfort only to fools. After all, their gabfests will produce, as it invariably does, nothing but more CO2 emissions (i.e. hot air).
(“G8 Summit: More Hot Air about Global Warming,” The iPINIONS Journal, June 7, 2007)
Related commentaries:
U.S. first lady bangs…
Chinese first lady prettier…