Of course since you're presumably a white male, you are after all an Evil Upholder of the Fascist Patriarchy. So no more sexist and racist arguing against the right of a Strong Black Female Writer to crassly sexualize the First Lady.

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If you're going do something, don't half-ass it.

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Exactly. If you're going to be a provocatrice, own it.

To all the people who are complaining that this isn't appropriate, all I can say is this is how many cultural discussion gets raised in America: with famous, very visible people.

It's interesting that although the author claims to have accepted her own butt, there are no shots of it among the many photos of herself posted on her website:

[www.erinaubrykaplan.net]

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I eat girls like you for breakfast. Keep your ew or ewww for Jezebel, please.

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I know I'm wasting my time, and I'm not sure who let you in here, but I'm thinking even Jezebel would reject your, what can I call this, perhaps comedy on sheer principal.

Peace out.

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I really can't overestimate the impact of seeing someone who looks like me in a very visible and prominent position. Having said that, apparently I'm the only one on earth who:

1) Doesn't think she has the greatest fashion sense;

2) Doesn't think she's a great beauty. She's an attractive woman professional. I've met hundreds.

3) Doesn't think that points 1) and 2) are very important.

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@Seeräuber Jenny: I agree with you on number one. She's definitely had some hits and misses. And her penchant for fussy, craft-like, adornments can be a bit much, but you know, I haven't seen as many in awhile. So maybe her stylist has learned.

Also, do I think she's the most beautiful woman out there? No. But I think she's attractive, has sex appeal, (which is a great thing) and is a real down-to-earth person, which I hope she holds onto. But all of that can be also what makes a person attractive, not all the "what's on the outside" stuff. My point is that she's an attractive person inside and out. And so far from Barbara Bush it's like they exist on two different planets.

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I actually like some of her writing a great deal (and her husband's classes - he was one of those standout high school teachers who really engages students in politics and history) and I even see some value in her "ass" piece, especially along the identity politics line. It htink it's difficult for mainstream America to understand white privilege and identity politics and the powerfulness of having a real role model without concrete images and salient examples. It was certainly a flippant example, but nontheless true. I alos wonder if whe just put in writing what women have been saying with their girlfriends for the last few weeks...

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I have written frequently about the female body in public space (gag, sorry everyone) and I like her writing. But I still think Michelle Obama is more interesting than her body parts, or even a sum of them.

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[www.imdb.com]

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I mean, white penises do get lots and lots of attention already. *cough* Washington Monument *cough*

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Once you go 44 you never want more.

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With that said, couching something within the context of someone's butt it pretty funny.

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There going to be a prolific period of rich gender theory coming out of this era, which I probably won't read because I can just watch t.v. instead and that's the way I roll these days.

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*Making a sweeping generalization based on one observation here. It's okay because I'm footnoting it.
**I'm asking this earnestly.

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Once you go long, you never go wrong.

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I vividly remember little black girls in the schoolyard of my elementary school lining up to take turns to comb the long hair of the prettiest girls in the class -- they were invariably white or Puerto Rican.

The hair was just the start.

The self-hatred starts early. And it doesn't take genius to know what you're supposed to look like in this society. Now maybe I'd be inclined to dismiss this as whining if I weren't familiar with the numerous negative images of black women in American culture or the fact that black women have the lowest marriage rate of any group in the United States and that 70% of black professional women are single. [www.washingtonpost.com]

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The article was better than buttkis.*

*I know how it's spelled.

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Brava!

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Yet you "waste your time" berating my comments on the very subject you consider to be beneath you. Quite the ironic quagmire, aren't you? All the energy you've placed into trying to downplay my comments would have been better expended doing something like feeding those starving children or attending to the needs of those raped women. Only a complete jackass would think that these issues don't deserve our immediate attention and supercede the current topic at hand. However, we come to this site to discuss things like, politics, Miley Cyrus, race, identity politics etc. You know? Those minute idiosyncracies of life that distract us from things that are too enormous to deal with every-fucking-minute of our lives. Even revolutionaries talk about the weather.

I'm not bringing water to the thirsty, addressing the genocide in Darfur or trying to find remedies to the rise in global hunger and poverty. We are not talking about starving children or raped women. We're talking about Michelle's ass...trivial though it may be to a mind such as yours, which is obviously operating on a more existential and meaningful plane.

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So, I'm not stereotyping or perpetuating a stereotype. I'm discussing the inherent inaccuracy and socially-debilitating affects of stereotyping.

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You mean like Christianity?

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And a stereotype forced on any group of people does not serve them and is very problematic. Particularly for the person that does not fit into that steretypical framework.

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Then why are you engaging in it?

But I am entitled to my opinion, and my opinion is that discussions of beauty and racial identity politics are irreleveant

Cool beans, chief...then stop discussing it...your mind is clearly too expansive to deal with such frivolity. Yet, you still do...peculiar. Still, as I stated in my previous comments, there are issues that definitely supercede topics such as this. However, this is what's being discussed on this thread. I would not go to a starving child and start bitching about the how beauty and race are inextricably linked and how people of color suffer under the weight of prejudices. Dude, I'm gonna give that kid a sandwich, 'cause their current plight is obviously more pressing and worthy of attention.

And there are many people who are obsessed with their appearance

Indeed there are. I'm not one of them. I'm just discussing beauty, race and politics as in pertains to this thread.

And I ascertain, Conde Rice never had these issues

You cannot "ass"certain anything about Conde Rice, unless you've spoken to her directly about the issues she may or may not have experienced as a woman of color in a position of power; but you can "ass"ume.

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