The Right to Bare Arms
I don't yet know how to embed video at blogger.com, but check out Sarah Haskins at the link above its either there or HERE (if that video doesn't work out). She's talking about all the coverage of Michelle Obama's "bare" arms--and thankfully she points out that 49% of Americans don't care whether she "bares" arms or not.
I think that its fairly clear that I'm a big Michelle Obama fan, but this obsession with Michelle Obama's arms is really disturbing and it serves to fetishize the 1st Lady in a way that I think, quite frankly, is racist and as with Hillary, anti-professional woman. She's being reduced to her body parts in a creepy and back-handed compliment/insult kind of way.
If people don't get it yet, remember, she went to Princeton and then Harvard for Law School, then she was Barack's BOSS, an exec at a major Hospital, etc. Now, she's doing many traditional 1st Lady type activities and only slightly challenging that role, yet in a clever way that allows her to keep advocating for things she care about (like school nutrition, gardening, literacy, girls of color and self-esteem...did you not see her visit that all girl school in England? It was so beautiful. Etc. ). Hillary, who I love, tried to do policy and stated as much and she got taken down by the right-wing media (think Hillary Care, which if it had passed would have prevented 50% of all bankruptcy in American households since 1994 to the present--after all 50% of all bankruptcy cases are CAUSED BY MEDICAL BILLS). Anyway, not to slam Hillary, because I'm not, I just think that Michelle is benefitting from the lessons Hillary had to learn as the 1st progressive and professional woman first lady (yes, Elenor Roosevelt was fabulous, but she was a Socialite, not a professional woman, who did good work, but didn't have to work; same for Jackie).
Anyway, reducing Michelle down to her parts, which at first they tried to talk about her posterior, but luckily that didn't last long; then her height, its still around, but not so remarkable; but the Bare Arms thing seems to have staying power (ugh).
Anyway, I guess that this is a lesson in how inane the media can be, but did we really need to learn that lesson again?
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Back to Hillary. There was a huge issue with Hillary's hair. To headband or not the headband.
ReplyDeleteSo Hillary was broken down to a body part.
Good memory, I forgot about the head bands she used to wear! (And the scrutiny...we were kids after all).
ReplyDeleteNotice, though that next to nothing was said about Laura Bush...despite the obvious valium addiction (that was a joke).
Hillary and Michelle still represent the first professional women (though I do know Laura was a librarian, she did not work once she married George). And of course, Democrats are always targeted by the media (because the "liberal media" is only as liberal as the CONSERVATIVE CORPORATIONS that own them).