Dear Internet:
I get it. The Obamas are hot. Unbelievably, unspeakably, irretrievably hot. So hot they make you wonder about your own marriage. So hot they must be having the sexytime constantly in the White House because, as we all know, sexytime? Hot. The hotness. Even Paris Hilton agrees. And thank God such a hot guy with such a hot wife has his finger on the button, ’cause God knows, if he ain’t getting the BJs or the PIV, he’s gonna be antsy, ladies, AMIRITE???
During the primaries Obama fanatics supporters were known to take great offense when Clintonistas Hillary supporters would suggest that at times, their support for Obama appeared to have sexual overtones. I, of course, can’t imagine how anyone could have that impression, especially now that we’ve swept those deluded old white women aside in favour of our serious policy-based admiration of the man. Or that we’ve made apologies for the relentlessly frattish nature of most of Obama’s white-dude supporters – including his speechwriter - in the name of harmless frat-boy fun! And games! Did I mention the close correlation between fun and hot and also the sexytime, recently?
We over here at the No-Fun-According-to-Feminism committee, however, wish to point out that we think nothing further need be said on this subject. White America need not continue to sexualize its (frankly creepy!) attraction to Obama. It need not continue to discuss Michelle as either a potential National Brood Mare or National Grateful Recipient of Peen Joy *wink wink*. For starters, it is a completely and utterly vapid way of talking about the person who actually leads this country and with actually have to make actual tough decisions about actual matters. It is ridiculous to assume that virility has any bearing on anyone’s character, male or female, and even more so on his or her policy positions. It is sexist talk because it defines people by how much (presumably PIV) sex one is having. And it is, over and above all these things, pretty damn racist to natter on and on about the sexuality of a black man in a culture that has always had way too prurient of an interest in, well, the myth of the hyper-sexuality of black people.
To paraphrase James Wolcott, if you must, you can continue to cut out heart-shaped valentines to Obama and paste them in your locker. But kindly stop kidding yourself that your individual sexual attraction to the man has or should have any place whatsoever in the national conversation. And no, it’s not appropriate, Nerve, even in the context of sex education, to backwash your article on sex education with random observations about the Obamas’ sex life. Your awareness of the issues attendant to sexual health has ZERO CORRELATION to how much sex you and your partner are or are not having. Having a ton of sex does not mean you will consistently use condoms; having no sex doesn’t mean you will either.
So please, for the love of all that is good and holy, people. Cut that shit out.
Thanks to Samhita at Feministing for directing me to the Nerve article that inspired me to anger.
Well, having no sex does mean I consistently WON’T use condoms. It does not prevent me from looking longingly at them on my nighttable, though.
I admit, I have discussed on many occasions that Barack is, in fact, smokin’ hot and that, in case of emergency, I might throw Joe Biden a roll as well. Yes, it’s shallow. Guilty as charged.
But! I do not mingle that lust with my lust for policy. If Obama’s willing to support pay equity, national health, an end to torture, etc., he can look like Shrek for all I care. He didn’t get my vote–or campaign donations–b/c he’s good-looking.
Haha, Becky. I mostly don’t object to interfriend talk. I object to it being somehow journalistically legitimate to remark on such things.
Now let’s all just get back to what’s important, which is clearly the First Lady’s ass in her new Vogue shoot.
*is so relieved she doesn’t have to throw out her Obamentines*
How about Biden’s sons? Beau’s kind of a fox…
Kidding aside, I totally agree. Appreciating an attractive person is one thing, salivating and getting sexually specific (let alone explicit) seems so far and away inappropriate. Some day Sasha and Malia are going to get online and stumble across some of this stuff and then ewwww.
Didn’t this kinda start when the nation wanted to bone Clinton and he wanted to bone us right back? Or was it JFK?
@ mkp-hearts-nyc: More to the point, by the end of his term Malia will be well into the age where little American girls are expected to be available for sexual consumption. Do we really want to hear people’s opinions on her hottness? Become the change you wish to see and all that.
Macloserboy, most people chart it back to when JFK won the election based on the first televised debates. I have tried to whitewash from my mind the brief period when some Republican ladies were trying to act like Donald Rumsfeld was a hot piece of man.
yvanehtnioj, i am so not looking forward to the countdown to Malia’s 18th birthday…
On the historical roots of this phenomenon, click here.
This may be hypocritical from someone who has a Hot Pictures of Rahm Emanuel folder on her hard drive, but recently I’ve found the endless refrain of THE OBAMAS ARE HOOOOOOT kind of off-putting. Perhaps its because I don’t find the president all that insanely attractive, but I’m more interested in, you know, policy. Especially policy that may assist me going back to working five days a week instead of four, makes going to the doctor less of a pain in the ass, gives me a firmer grip on my reproductive rights, and gives me a chance of actually getting paid the same as my male colleagues. I’d much rather read articles about that than Barack Obama’s abs.
Glad to see its not just me.
Ratinski, like PS said, the disgust is aimed at “journalists” who think their wank fantasies = news stories. It was crazy when Palin was in the race too (BARF).
Privately I don’t think it’s an issue.
@jdregent, re: Rumsfeld – And now I need to have my brain wiped. AUGH.
@JDRegent: Ah yes, Rummy the Foxy Grandpa. Gag. Unfortunately the Republicans don’t have much going for them in the hotness department, so he somehow qualified.
@Mkp: ZOMG, Beau Biden is so hot! Married, but still–totally delish (and hair-plug free, unlike his old man).
Two items discovered when googling “is donald rumsfeld hot?”
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/449811http://www.esquire.com/women/ESQ1006ESQ100_216R_1
My problem with this phenomenon is that the gushing over his sexiness comes often from the same people who are aggressively uncritical of Obama, politics-wise, and give him a pass on sexism. The giggling enthusiasm for Jon Favreau on Jez turned my stomach, too. The flip side is the criticism of Clinton’s outfits, voice, haircuts, and figure by Obama supporters that I heard throughout the primaries and on since then. It didn’t all come from fratty white dudes, though. It came from all sorts of self-described feminists and liberals. It’s the reason I stopped reading and commenting on Racialicious.
P.Soul, that link without an explanation was like being goatsed. Now I have to get the picture of GWB in his flight bondage suit out of my brain. Please, a little warning next time!
Quite a sweeping opening sentence, HanaMaru.
Let me take a moment to gush over President Obama’s sex appeal because honestly, I’m confident in my being equal to if not better than any man as far as my eye can see and at the same time, that walking away from the bed in board shorts picture in Hawaii STILL worries what hormones I have left into a knot, Bad MF that I find him to be. Yet, I know Bad MFism includes wits, all of which are about him, imho. I can appreciate both.
But I take your point, Pilgrim Soul. It’s not exactly appropriate. I think it’s more a collective sigh of relief that one can no longer imagine the president in some skeezy bar smirking at you, chewing gum with his front teeth, with his hand on your ass. The sexual glorification will pass. Not with me, but everywhere else. It’ll pass.
I thought I already commented to this effect, but I guess not: I love you and this post, PS.