The bare arms of Michelle Obama

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Apparently there has been some controversy over Michelle Obama wearing sleeveless dresses. I just lost the link I had, but there’s been some discussion in The Chicago Tribune, as well as on Good Morning America.

I have no problem with her wearing a sleeveless dress…except…it’s winter! It’s cold out! If she can wear a sleeveless dress at this time of the year, I want to be able to turn my heat up enough to do that, too! I’m sitting here shivering in layers…I’m breaking out the wool socks and the long johns to wear under my work clothes! We’ve turned down the thermostat to conserve money and energy, but it kinda looks like they don’t have to do that at the White House!

Now I know that Washington DC is south of me, but still…it snowed there there other day! I get the same reaction when I watch a show like, say, the View, and all the women are wearing long sleeves except maybe Elizabeth, who shows up in something sleeveless. Yes, I know they are sitting under hot lights…but while I’m freezing my butt off and using a hot water bottle to stay warm, I don’t want to see bare arms! You are making me shiver!

In fact, the news reporter doing the piece on Good Morning America was is some slinky sleeveless top, while Diane Sawyer was wearing a March-appropriate jacket over a blouse.

I have no problem with Mrs. Obama wearing a sleeveless dress for her portrait, or to a formal ball…but when they show her in the kitchen of her house , sleeveless, while I’m wearing three layers and have a kerosene heater going down there, i just have a cognitive disconnect.

I was kind of surprised to find that other people were as bothered by her arms as I was, though apparently for different reasons! I know it’s a petty little thing, but it’s been bothering me about the View all winter…and when, pray tell, are we going to get wedding dresses with sleeves again? Now, I wore sleeveless at my wedding (almost July, no airconditioning) but a friend got married recently and had a hard time finding a dress even with spaghetti straps, much less sleeves…and she is a very conservative, religious girl with great arms! She just did not feel comfortable in church, strapless. But she showed me a bridal magazine, and darned if every single dress in there was either strapless or spaghetti straps. Where is the creativity, the options? My daughter wants me to make her dress for this very reason…she wants sleeves…pretty, long, elegant sleeves.

2

Well, here we go with Obama vs. the right to bare arms…

3

I know that 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is an old house, but it never occurred to me that it would be difficult to keep it heated to a comfortable 20° (or 72°, in the land of perversely archaic scales of measure.)

(And, It’s Not Rocket Surgery! wins.)

4

Ooh, excellent, It’s Not Rocket Surgery! But the thing is, Larry Mudd, we are all told that to be good little humans and Americans we should keep our thermostats set much, much lower!

5

She is “of the age” where is is possible that her own internal thermostat is making her choose sleeveless dresses and layers and she needs all the help of a drafty old house AND layers to stay comfortable.

6

And Dangerosa has pointed out the most likely reason. It’s the Hot Flash vs. the Arctic Chill. My mom started buying sleeveless shirts & sweaters for all seasons when she hit her mid-40s in Michigan.

7

If I had Michelle’s biceps, I’d be wearing sleeveless clothing too.

8

I hadn’t thought of that, since I’ve got a good ten years on her and haven’t started any menopause symptoms yet. But even my boss, who has hot flashes all the time, wears sleeves in the winter. She just flaps a lot…

9

Thanks for that : I laughed and snorted: coffee is not a good nose irrigator.

10

Bare arms! Imagine! This is worse than when President Kennedy started appearing in public…HATLESS! The scandal!

11

Michelle Obama wears sleeveless dresses because she has *killer *arms, which as an added bonus, distract from her wide-ish hips. In other words, she knows what works, and she’s smart enough to work it.

12

As a Floridian, may I say that I wish everyone who wore sleeveless (which down here is pretty much everyone, most of the year) had arms as nice as Michelle Obama (including myself)and looked like she does wearing sleevless ('cause we don’t, and it’s not a pretty sight.)

(That’s a lot of parenthetical statements for one sentence.)

13

Bare arms in winter is no big deal, aftr a while you get used to the chill. Here kids are showing up to school in shorts and it was single digits this morning. Besides it gets hot in front of those lights.

14

Actually, it has been reported that the Obamas like to keep their rooms warm:

OK, that’s about Barack, not Michelle, but it’s reasonable to suspect that Michell has gotten used to the thermostat set high too.

15

Nitpick: 20°C is 68°F. 72°F is 22°C. Perverse indeed.

16

I wear short sleeve and sleeveless shirts to work all throughout the winter. The HVAC in my building means half the building is too cold and the other is too hot. I work in the latter.

I say we have enough problems in this country without worrying about Michelle Obama’s bare arms.

17

Ditto! She looks fantastic. Plus, she’s from Chicago, where it’s freaking cold, so DC might feel pretty comfy to her, when it’s only 20 degrees instead of -10 with gale force winds.

18

I do wish Elvis and JFK hadn’t killed hats for men. It was one of the most stylish flourishes we had going.

19

I find dresses with sleeves to be offensive! Dresses with sleeves seems so… out of style. Like, something you would see at a Duggar family celebration.

It’s probably against the law to wear a dress with sleeves and /not/ have a bad perm and “comfortable” shoes.

What Would Tim Gunn Do?

20

Then wear a hat; you can be stylish and rebelious at the same time. Maybe you’ll start a trend.