A famous op-ed writer revealed this sentiment about Michelle’s biceps: “Sometimes I think half the reason Obama ran for president is so Michelle would have a platform to show off her biceps.” Please.
The CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association Walt Baker wrote emails that created a “silly, sick, demeaning depiction of first lady Michelle Obama as a chimp,” according to a Grio report. This photo is often seen online, which reiterates this vitriol.
Michelle Obama has been compared to the profligate queen Marie Antoinette too many times to count, despite the fact that she pays for her own clothing and the costs that she incurs while travelling are within the norm.
In another Grio report, it was revealed that, “conservative Colorado radio host Jimmy Lakey said that when he said the name ‘Chewbacca’ at his cigar club, the people around him automatically assumed he was speaking of Michelle Obama.” Really?
This snarky snap at Michelle Obama was created in response to her initiatives to end childhood obesity in one generation. The nerve of her.
Rush Limbaugh frequently refers to the first lady as “Michelle, My Butt” — a slur it would have been unheard of to hurl at any previous woman who has held this position.
Lies were circulated stating that Michelle Obama’s college thesis insisted “whites in America were ‘ineradicably racist.’” In actuality, the paper focuses on the relationship of black Princeton Alumnae to the larger black community.
GOP Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner had to apologize for saying that First Lady Michelle Obama has “big butt.” As a larger man himself, he is one to talk.
Not to much later, Kansas house speaker Mike O’Neal had to apologize for calling the first lady “Mrs. YoMama” and comparing her to the Grinch.
Michelle Obama is making national headlines for decrying a new book that she claims depicts her as “some kind of angry black woman.”
In an appearance on CBS This Morning the first lady told show co-host Gayle King that The Obamas, by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, does not accurately represent her relationship with President Obama’s political aides. Mrs. Obama explained that her East Wing staff communicates with her husband’s staff in the White House West Wing if their projects conflict. The first lady’s ire was raised at the implication that she intervenes directly in government affairs.
Critics argue that The Obamas paints an overwhelmingly positive portrait of the first lady, but this hasn’t stopped the mainstream press from latching onto the juiciest allegations in the book, which largely portray Michelle Obama in the angry black woman mold. Headlines that give Mrs. Obama “sharp elbows” to go with her supposedly bulging biceps have proliferated on blogs and in newspapers, which have repeated stories from the book suggesting that she had tense relationships with key White House figures such as former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
Reporters are salivating, eager to promote the idea that Michelle Obama must be “angry” and hyper-masculine behind the scenes as a complement to her feminine public persona. In response, First Lady Michelle Obama has been on what some outlets, such at The Atlantic, believe is an overly aggressive campaign to shoot down accusations contained in a book she admits she hasn’t read.
How ironic. On top of being depicted as overly aggressive in a critical work for which she was not interviewed, the first lady is now being accused of using too much might in defending herself from what she described as “other people’s impressions of people.”
Under normal circumstances it would be acceptable to defend oneself from slander based on hearsay; given the level of unmitigated attacks the first lady has calmly endured since her husband hit the presidential campaign trail, Michelle’s desire to counter her inaccurate depiction in a highly-publicized book by a respected journalist is just an exercise in intelligent image management — not aggression.
It would appear that yet again, the mainstream media wants to portray a successful black woman who knows how to operate smoothly to get what she wants in a negative light. But if one reviews just a handful of the most offensive statements that have been made about Michelle (which we have collected below), it is more than understandable that the volleys thrown in The Obamas might have provided the proverbial straws that broke the first lady’s patience with unsubstantiated critique.
