Wisconsin Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner. Photo credit: Republican Conference, http://www.flickr.com/photos/republicanconference/3551468909/
Sure, we all know that Michelle Obama has great arms – but according to Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, the First Lady has got a little more than a little junk in the trunk.
Sensenbrenner made headlines this week when he was overheard talking on his phone at Reagan International Airport, apparently complaining about the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign against childhood obesity. According to Beltway blog Fishbowl, Sensenbrenner was recounting a recent visit he paid to a Wisconsin Episcopal church, where he criticized Obama for her “big butt”, saying something to the effect of “she lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself.”
The 17-term House Republican, whose jowly countenance is hardly the fittest face in Congress, actually admitted, through a spokesperson, making the comments. He added that he didn’t think “the government should be telling Americans how to eat”, though he said he would be apologising to the First Lady; he has since written a note of apology to Obama. Obama, for her part, has not commented.
Michell Obama. Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson
Sensenbrenner isn’t the only conservative to take issue with Obama’s body shape: Earlier this year, shock jock and all-around stellar human being Rush Limbaugh said on air that Obama “doesn’t look like” she eats healthily. “I’m trying to say that our First Lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you.” Because being a woman Alex Rodriguez might date is, of course, a measure of physical health.
The whole episode has been a fun distraction from America’s real frustrations with Congress – the payroll tax cut extension – and more than a few commentators out there are annoyed with Sensenbrenner. Will anyone defend him?
“Really, Jim Sensenbrenner? Really?!” Sensenbrenner’s initial comments about Obama’s backside were made at a church auction, to a group of elderly constituents – one of who had just mentioned how much she admired Michelle Obama. “Really? Going after the First Lady of the United States for her body shape? You know that’s Rush Limbaugh territory, right? Have some dignity, congressman,” crowed Amy Sullivan at TIME’s Swampland blog. “And, really? Commenting on a woman’s weight? Did your wife slap you upside the head when you got home? Did you miss that part of Being a Sentient Male 101?”
“Unbelievable.” “There have been a lot of juvenile, racist, sexist, ignorant, stupid, and hateful remarks made by Wisconsin politicians this year, but this beats them all,” declared Shawn Doherty at Madison, Wisc.’s The Cap Times. Not only is Sensenbrenner wrong – Obama is incredibly fit and toned – but these kinds of comments, made by overweight white guys of all people, simply add to an unhealthy climate of negativity around women’s bodies, black women’s bodies in particular. “And what I’d like to say to Sensenbrenner, Limbaugh and their like is please keep your thoughts and prejudices about our butts to yourselves.”
Actually, Sensenbrenner is right. Blogger The Las Vegas Badger, however, defended Sensenbrenner: “Well, he is right. Michelle Obama has a large ass and she lectures us about eating right when she goes out and pigs out at different restaurants and state dinners. Obama epitomizes the nanny state with lectures on what we should eat and how we should run our lives. But yet, she turns around and does the opposite.”
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