First Ladies’ Right To Bare Arms

I don’t want to blog all Obama, all the time. I go looking for other topics, I swear! But good grief, the Obama worship never seems to end. The same press that classifies the likes of me as “easy to command” for going to church, a small group, and engaging in daily devotions is itself a pied piper to twits like these.

First lady Michelle Obama has a fashion following, with blogs tracking her daily garment choices.
Michelle Obama’s appearances in sleeveless outfits have inspired some women to start toning their arms.

… Those toned arms are becoming a trademark. And a source of inspiration for some women.

… “The Obama effect has been that women of all ages have been inspired to take responsibility for their health and their body,” said Duggan. “As the first lady of the United States, at 44 years old, and with two young children, Mrs. Obama has shown the world that you are never too busy to take care of yourself and look good doing it too,” he said.

… But others were amazed, like 25-year-old Jessie Rosen. After seeing Obama at the speech Tuesday, she went to the Adidas store in New York and bought two five-pound dumbbells. “It was her arms being so toned in spite of her life,” she said.

“This woman is redecorating White House, trying to raise two children and backseat driving the nation,” Rosen said. “She seems to have time to keep her arms toned, so why can’t I?”

First of all, women all over the country are holding down full time jobs, maintaining their homes, and raising two or more children, along with participating in all kinds of extracurricular activities like the PTA, volunteer work of various kinds, hobbies, and who knows what else. I’m not sure I know any women getting more than six hours of sleep a night.

And let’s not condone the concept that an unelected person – one who received even less of a vetting than her uncritically accepted husband did or these sort of shenanigans would have kept them living in Chicago – is “backseat driving” the nation. Good Lord. I remember when half the country went nuts because Roslyn Carter got an office in the East Wing of the White House. We pretty sternly disapproved of the Clinton “co-presidency” concept as well, as I recall, though Hillary! managed to encroach into the West Wing for her office. Obviously, the First Lady has a great deal of influence on her husband. But wherever her office happens to be, she’s unelected, and as bad as it is that Barack Obama is running the place, he at least received the stamp of approval from voters to do so. Michelle’s name has never been on a ballot.

But as to the ridiculous media coverage of her uncovered arms, here’s a newsflash: Michelle Obama is not the first First Lady to have perfectly lovely arms and a willingness to show them off.  It took me less than ten minutes to find all these photos of Jackie Kennedy in sleeveless outfits:

By all means, ladies, tone your arms and dress up like the First Lady. What do I care? To me, the real reason to have strong, toned arms is that I might want to hit someone, and if I do, I want it to hurt. But it takes all kinds to make a world, as they say. Do as you please. But for pity’s sake, can we get just a short break from the press from all this ecstatic media coverage? “The Obama effect?” Please!