First Children
The creepiest, toughest and wildest presidential kids.
by Liza Featherstone
November 3, 2008
Toughest
Teddy Roosevelt Jr.'s dad remains to this day a cultural icon of bygone real-manhood — hunter, military hero, symbol of the can-do Progressive era — that present-day presidents and candidates still pathetically attempt to emulate. A more neurotic boy might have had a breakdown living in such a shadow, but Teddy, Jr. opted instead to surpass Dad with his own military career — winning every possible award and honor that a soldier serving in the ground forces could attain. Dad's image did have some downsides for Junior. Once, while the boy was in boarding school, he took a drubbing in a football game from some young men who said they "wanted to see if he is made of as good stuff as his father." A newspaper headline describing the incident read: "Teddy Jr. Pummelled for Being President's Son."
Biggest Hippies
Though easy to mock, two women in particular seem to have been the most principled political activists of the White House children. Amy Carter, a child during her father's presidency, grew up to attend Brown University, where she lived in a student co-op full of acidheads, and hung out with aging countercultural icon Abby Hoffman. Yet she was also serious about opposing injustice. She was arrested for protesting apartheid and CIA recruitment on campus.
Patti Davis dropped Reagan's last name because she so disagreed with his politics: she was pro-choice, pro-gay rights and opposed to nuclear weapons. (Davis's rebellion did go beyond the political: she also posed as a Playboy model, experimented with drugs, and wrote a book about her dysfunctional family.)
©2008 Liza Featherstone and Babble
About the Author
|
|
Related Articles
|
|
Liza Featherstone is a contributing writer to The Nation. Her work has appeared in Nerve, Salon, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue and NYLON. She's the author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at Wal-Mart (Basic Books, 2004). She lives in New York City with her husband and son. |
|
|
-
by Madeline Holler
We rank the parenting of every single U.S. President, from worst to best.
-
by Sasha Brown-Worsham
Why I won't dress my kid in an Obama onesie.
-
by Anita Doberman
On the campaign, her career, and raising kids in the public eye.
|
