Okay, so it's certainly not surprising that the right-wing media attacked First Lady Michelle Obama's appearance at the Oscars. It doesn't really matter that she was not the first First Lady to do so, or that other Presidents have also made some appearances. (No, not just Reagan.) That some of the right conveniently forget the facts is not even worth discussing. Let's face it, if Michelle Obama announced she'd found the cure for cancer, Rush et al would accuse her of grandstanding.
Here's what I think is kind of sad about the First Lady's appearance.
This is a woman who has made young people's health her bailiwick as First Lady. Sh'es fighting to promote programs to solve childhood obesity, programs that include more exercise and healthier food choices. Much has been made, as we know, of her own strong figure, especially her arms. (I don't remember any First Lady's arms being the subject of discussion. Legs, perhaps, but not arms.) And here she is participating at a ceremony that for the most part paraded impossibly thin young women in evening gowns. There were constant comments and crass jokes on the show (and of course on Twitter) about how thin all the best actress nominees were. Only Adele, who won for Best Song, has anything remotely like a solid, "realistic" figure. I wonder what 9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, Best Actress nominee for Beasts of the Southern Wild, thought when she saw women twice her size and probably the same weigh as she walking along the red carpet.
Should the First Lady have continued with the wisecracks about the 80-pound stars? No. It would have been kind of cool, though, had she used that moment to make a pointed observation about what kind of image young girls are receiving when they watch a show like Sunday's Oscars. I'm kind of glad I didn't let my daughters watch them. And I kind of wish the First Lady didn't take part. Except that I am amused that the right hated her appearance so much.
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