Trivializing Greatness

Nothing has irritated me more today than an article I read in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that chose to concentrate on Michelle Obama's DRESS, rather than the woman's remarkable poise and self-possession.

Wanna read hogwash, just click here. What an utter waste of space, when the emphasis is on a dynamic woman's fashion sense-- but even moreso, the suggestion that the woman might be....."sexy"? Upstaging her husband? Too forceful in her chosen look? Haven't we gotten beyond this?

I've been a big fan of the Post-Gazette and its fine articles, but this rocked me back on my heels: what unfortunate choice of focus, and a woman as confident and comfortable in her own skin as Mrs. Obama deserves better than mentioning how the line of the dress 'followed the curve of her buttocks'-- that's impossibly gauche.


That's not what I expect of a newspaper.

If something like that had been written in an issue of "Elle" or "Cosmopolitan", I could understand-- I would consider the source and simply wonder why people have nothing better to do-- but in no way should this ever appear as true reporting on the dynamic personal presentation that Michelle Obama achieved on Monday night.

Unacceptable, Post-Gazette. Way below your normal incisive, well-targeted news articles.

More to the point, it just really pisses me off that in this day and age we're still ogling females like cuts in a butcher shop. In a Playboy magazine or in any stupid product-pushing advertisement...well...that's never going away because it sells; there's the buck behind that, and what appeals visually and viscerally will always ride front and center.

However, I do expect more when I'm reading about history in the making-- I expect intelligence, not gossip or silliness of emphasis. I want to read a story that reveals the person IN the dress...................and not what the damn dress reveals.