By: Dayo Olopade
Michelle Obama’s arms have been getting an inordinate amount of attention lately. It’s not unsolicited; the most modern first lady has appeared sleeveless on the covers of Vogue and People, at 10 inaugural balls, at a party for Stevie Wonder, at her husband’s address to Congress, and most recently, in her official White House portrait, unveiled at the end of last month.
The media saturation has prompted many questions: Is Michelle Obama too sexy? Is her celebrity diluting her image as the distinguished “mom in chief”? Sleevegate, to hear some tell it, has become an issue of sexuality—but it’s always more complicated than that. Obama, the first black FLOTUS, has become the unwitting bystander in an ageless drama of defining the black female form.
Mrs. Obama, writes Erin Aubry Kaplan, is “cruising the coattails of history to present us with a brand-new beauty norm.” True enough. But this new paradigm is particularly complicated in Obama’s case. Her commanding presence, disciplined fitness regimen and rock-hard bod make her seem out of step with the traditional sidekick role of the first lady. And she is also ill-suited to the traditional cultural archetypes circumscribed for black women. She is neither Jezebel, the soft-witted, oversexed temptress, nor Mammy, the asexual nurturer.
What’s a pundit to do?
Armed and Not Dangerous....
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