the Bitch in the house

Since 1997 M.Obama has been working out. At least this is what has been confirmed thus far in an upcoming article in Women’s Health Magazine (so the AFP says). The press has nicknames her muscular arms “Thunder and Lightning.” I gotta wonder, is the left Lightning and the right hook Thunder? Which leads me to ponder the nature of nicknaming her body parts. I have some misgivings (as I’ve stated here before) about the sexualization of M.Obama.

Even though it is a thin quivering line, I also thing Joe Wilson of South Carolina calling B.Obama a liar in front of the whole congress at a televised speech in front of the world, the slippery slope that makes a connection. There has been some pretty outrageous and egregious commentary to – and about – the Obamas. Obviously Clinton didn’t have a “hot wife” (or hot girlfriends for that matter), so having a good looking couple in the White House has been missing from American politics since JFK and his wife Jackie graced the halls there. And that’s where I think this all goes yucky for me. No one would’ve dared to call out that former first couple for anything but their elegance and grace. Jackie was a no more a trendsetter than is M.Obama. But no one brought into the fray Jackie O’s sexuality. Since this is a different era with sexual mores splashed all over the place, I guess it should not be too surprising that our attractive first lady has become the target of sexualized scrutiny, but I am reluctant to consider this admirable conduct on the part of the press core.

The connection between disrespecting M.Obama (by naming her body parts), and the bad ole senator from South Carolina disrupting the President during his speech to the world on health care reform is found in this very kernel of the public moorings. Here to fore it was considered gauche to gaze upon another man’s wife and name her body. Yet in the climate of politicking today, no one has made the connection that such actions serve to disrespect M.Obama and by extension her husband. Wilson’s actions were an outright pronouncement of his ill-will toward the President, for which he was immediately bound to apologize by members of his own party who did not want the “Office of the President” to be demeaned in such fashion (even if they were not so concerned about the person of Barack Obama being maligned in the public setting). Yet I have not heard a similar outcry about the dis’ing M.Obama is experiencing in the sinister part-ilizing and sexualizing press coverage she receives.

While the Obama’s have not shied away from the commentary, they are working to utilize the attention to positive good. M.Obama as being featured in the afore mentioned articled and B.Obama having past mentions in Men’s Health Magazine. The Obama’s seem to be connecting their attractive qualities to eating well, working out, and general good healthy living choices (if only one could forget that B.Obama is a smoker!). And M.Obama’s carrying the torch for the US bid to host the 2016 Olympics in Chicago at the Denmark vote is a I think this is a brilliant strategy, but the necessity of the efforts is what I find to be disappointing.