A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman

In this commentary, I promise to write about politics and to explicate the biggest political controversy of the week. But first let me get some personal disclosures out of the way. I have some years on First Lady Michelle Obama and on the president, but I identify with them both, and not just due to my politics. It's because I play basketball, and I work out at a gym.

There, I've said it. Not only do I admire Michelle Obama's toned triceps and biceps and strong, long legs, I envy her them. In terms of the sleeveless thing, but also in terms of my basketball game, I am both a Michelle and a Barack wannabe. While nowhere near achieving the First Couple's fitness or skill levels, not to mention height, this middle-aged, average-sized suburban woman, who spends too many hours in a desk chair in front of a computer screen, can still dream. And set a screen or box out. And I have the basketball tournaments written into my calendar to back up my hoop dreams.

But the buttoned-down, old-at-heart, fuddy-duddies of the conservative persuasion have decided to come out against Michelle Obama, and by extension, against my dreams. David Brooks, I was just starting to listen to you after an election season of intense annoyance, but now you have set back that cautious détente, perhaps irrevocably. 

Of course, what I'm referring to is that conservative commentator David Brooks has criticized the First Lady's bare arms, displayed in the hallowed halls of the U.S. Congress -- and a chorus of conservatives has chimed in with disapprobation of their own. It was Brooks' New York Times colleague, Maureen Dowd, who fired up the controversy by quoting Brooks as saying, “[Michelle]’s made her point. Now she should put away Thunder and Lightning.”

^{Photo by Alex Wong/Getty}

Dowd, taking a different view, wrote that she herself found the First Lady to be "the only bracing symbol of American strength right now ... 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." However, the First Lady has not been caught on mic threatening to punch out anyone.

Jack Cafferty at CNN came out publicly this week as another fan of the First Lady and her personal style: "Mrs. Obama has blown away the stale air in a White House musty from eight years of the Bushes. It's like the sun came out and a fresh spring breeze began wafting through the open windows. ... Her arms are becoming the stuff of legend."

Over at Huffington Post, in a quite hilarious column, Bonnie Fuller made it personal, calling Brooks and "all those big-mouth Republicans ... major Mr. Softies: Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich. Between the bunch of them, they probably wouldn't last five minutes on a treadmill. They are afraid ... Like the oversized Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the film Ghostbusters, they're all huff and puff with no sturdy center." 

Despite all the journalistic brouhaha, and the cheerful celebrity-watching side of this sleeveless arms-controlling story, the simple truth is that America's First Lady embodies personal traits and values that have long troubled our conservative friends. She is just not the old-fashioned girl that father married. Au contraire. She is comfortable in her own skin. She listens to her own voice. She is not stand-offish, shy, icy, shrill, or a potency-sapping vamp -- all sexist stereotypes. Most significantly, she is entirely unapologetic about who she is. Finally, there's the physical thing -- she is black-skinned and taller than the average man.

By being strong, beautiful, principled, intelligent, loving, loved, and happy, the First Lady upsets the conservative apple cart. In short, she is an empowered woman living the dream of a post-sexist era. No wonder conservatives feel threatened. That's not their prescription for modern womanhood. To one degree or another, the conservatives still believe in a different kind of womanhood.

I've written before about Michelle Obama, and about her mother, because I feel they both are inspiring role models. Just as the slogan and insignia at my local YMCA gym reminds me while I knock out my paltry crunches and try to stave off osteoporosis, a healthy "spirit/mind/body" blend is a goal worth striving for. That blend is exactly what people see when they consider America's First Lady.

Clearly the Obamas believe in hitting the books and valuing one's mind. Maintaining good physical health and strength in one's forties is another YMCA, and dare we say, feminist, value that they exhibit. Serving at soup kitchens and serving one's country are surely reflections of spiritual good health.

Like the inspiring feminists who achieved enfranchisement for American women some generations back, Michelle Obama serves her family and her larger community. Like them, she believes in doing, not just appearing lovely. That earlier wave of women leaders cast off their corsets, donned bloomers, rode bicycles, and lifted "Indian clubs" for their health, while also founding women's colleges and hitting the streets to fight for the right to vote.

^{Source: Riverside Magazine for Young People Vol. 3, 1869
http://ejmas.com/pt/ptart_treat_0501.htm}

I ask our conservative friends: Is it really too brazen of our 21st century American First Lady to go sleeveless whenever she chooses to? Tell me, what would you have a modern woman wear -- or be?

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS