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While politicians and candidates for public office are fair game for ridicule, their children are off-limits, as are their spouses—unless those spouses push themselves into the political thicket. Michelle Obama did that earlier and became a proper target for satire. Lately she seems to have taken a vow of silence, so it is appropriate to lay off her (well, except the “bitter half” moniker in reminiscence of her earlier persona).
I was quite willing to lay off future comments about her. Until, that is, I came across this paean to Michelle Obama’s, get ready now, “butt.” That’s right. Booty, bum, behind, bottom, derriere, fundament, rear end, tush, rump, or the good old a**. The Salon.com article waxes rhapsodic about the aesthetics of her hindquarters, the political significance of the Black American female posterior, and the sociological indicators of the progress of Black women incorporated in the public emergence of Michelle Obama’s glorious gluteus. It is the article’s seriousness as it talks the faddish language of “intellectual” progressives that makes it so hilarious. It is really asking too much not to respond to the article’s pretensions. Its “insights” would probably get the author tenure at any number of identity-group “studies” departments around the country.
For a musical styling of the article, here’s Sir Mix-A-Lot:
“The facts of life are conservative.” - Margaret Thatcher
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