Arms-Gate: The First Lady Exercises A Fundamental Right

by Damozel | Meanwhile, Michelle Obama continues to scandalize people who really don't get out enough with the sight of her bare arms.

The Washington Post reports that it has received hundreds of reader complaints on the subject. A Chicago Tribune reader wrote of her outfit during the president's congressional address: "Does the lady not understand that these Big Speech Events are serious and important? Not a cocktail party?"...

The first lady's view, according to social secretary Desiree Rogers, is simple: "If I want to wear no sleeves to hear my husband speak, that’s what I’m going to do." (Salon)

Sing it, Sister. 

To hear the timorous twits of the Beltway blather on, you'd think the Sixties never happened and that the combination of the sleeveless-sheath-with-matching-jacket hadn't been the height of Jackie-esque and Princess-Grace-of-Monaco ladylike grace and propriety.  And don't get me started on Nancy Reagan.

Speaking of timorous twits, Maureen Dowd writes about a recent conversation with David Brooks:

David Brooks and I were sharing a cab...  [W]hen I asked David Brooks about her amazing arms, he indicated it was time for her to cover up. “She’s made her point,” he said. “Now she should put away Thunder and Lightning.”...

Washington is a place where people have always been suspect of style and overt sexuality. Too much preening signals that you’re not up late studying cap-and-trade agreements.

David was not smitten by the V-neck, sleeveless eggplant dress Michelle wore at her husband’s address to Congress — the one that caused one Republican congressman to whisper to another, “Babe.”

He said the policy crowd here would consider the dress ostentatious. “Washington is sensually avoidant. The wonks here like brains. She should not be known for her physical presence, for one body part.”

MoDo -- right for once -- begs to differ.

At Salon, Clark-Flory muses, "I suspect that for most, that's the issue right there. Behind all of this criticism is the same finger-wagging attitude: Just who does she think she is?"

Of course, there's also what Dowd says here:

The only bracing symbol of American strength right now is the image of Michelle Obama’s sculpted biceps. Her husband urges bold action, but it is Michelle who looks as though she could easily wind up and punch out Rush Limbaugh, Bernie Madoff and all the corporate creeps who ripped off America. (NYT)

You can sort of see see why David Brooks might be made a touch uneasy.

I'd like to say that I can't believe people are still going on about this...but I believe it all too easily.  Remember Hillary Clinton's Cleavagegate and all the atavistic shock and fear stirred up by a modest V-neck?

At Balloon Juice, DougJ asks plangently:  "When will our national nightmare of a sleeveless First Lady end?"

Memeorandum's done a round-up of commentary on the Dowd piece.  Highly recommended: Jon Swift, theheretik.us, No More Mister Nice Blog, Taylor Marsh, Washington Monthly and AMERICAblog News

RELATED BUCK NAKED POLITICS POSTINGS

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Cleavagegate Part 2: Let's Just Get All of This Out of Our Systems Now

Cleavagegate: Hillary Clinton Rocks the Internets (and her V-Neck).

The President (W), Crocs, and Socks.

Comments

[Mary Contrary]

Let's pass a law.

The First Lady get to bitch-slap the next person who complains about her arms.