Did Obama Ogle the Booty or Not?

When I saw this photo yesterday of Obama checking out this fine, shimmering booty, I felt—dare I admit this—a weird kind of pride. Obama has always portrayed himself as master of his own impulses. He exercises every day, doesn’t eat the cupcakes, dines every night with his kids, makes regular date nights with his wife. Once in Dreams of My Father he let himself wax on about the high he gets from playing basketball. But then mid-riff he stopped himself. “My wife will roll her eyes right about now,” he wrote. Nothing wrong with this self-control. It’s impressive, in fact. Except that it makes one long for some glimmer of the old male appetite. Sandra Tsing Loh got at the problem in her recent marriage essay when she wrote that men these days no longer buy mid-life crisis roadsters because they’d be worried about the safety of the seat belts.

Now finally, here was a tiny glimpse of Obama’s id. Despite his gentleman self, he seems to be sneaking a glimpse at this young lady’s gorgeous behind and fabulous hair when she can’t catch him doing it. And how can we fault him? I would have stared, too.

But, alas, if you watch the video, the old Obama returns. If he is indeed looking, its in a millisecond the photographer happens to catch. What he’s really doing is being his old gentleman self and helping another lady down the stairs. Nicolas Sarkozy, on the other hand, is openly ogling.

Tags: obama booty, obama ogling

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Hanna Rosin Double X co- editor, reporter, prefer my friends live.

Comments

The 35th G8 Summit has drawn

By: JackO | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 00:03

The 35th G8 Summit has drawn to a close in the city of L’Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy. This annual meeting of world leaders is intended to address important issues that impact the international community. A camera caught Barack Obama at a glancing direction? He was looking at a girl named Mayara Tavares. Are we going to say he was applying for a payday loan because his motorcade passed a payday loan store? I don't think so. It's time to report on the G8 summit and not on the ridiculous topics that are passing as news these days. I would personally get that payday loan if it would mean the G8 Summit would be reported on and not have to see another ridiculous report of Obama looking at a girl's derrière.

To starling

By: jerseygirl | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 13:21

I didn't actually think you were "flaming" anyone. And I'm sure we pretty much agree on just about all of this. I also can get incensed when women are objectified just because they are women (and don't we all have that annoying male colleague who, no matter what, talks to your chest?).

Sorry!

By: P Starling | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 12:50

Oof, hey, sorry. Any flaming was completely inadvertent. I just have a chip on my shoulder.


Jerseygirl, I agree wholeheartedly that lots of women wear outfits designed to attract sexual attention in situations when they really ought not. I have no objection in the world to critiquing them, and you should hear me on the subject of dresses at the Oscars. (Bai Ling--yeesh.) I do think, though, that you can dress in pretty clothes for a night out and still have a legitimate gripe when the guy you're with talks to your breasts, and this situation seems similar.

Attention

By: Aperture | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 12:11

We've got going to extremes here to prove a point and disprove a point. And suddenly we're fighting. Jerseygirl goes off on a riff about something that is upsetting and unsettling her. Starling is flaming us as misogynists and burqa apologists. I am saying you can work 'hard for social change in your country','get to be a G8 junior delegate' and still dress to kill. As most people are commenting, it's all so human, and humanizing. And we don't know where the line of wanted and unwanted attention is drawn.

It's her fault?

By: P Starling | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 11:35

I'm sorry, but no. Watch the clip. There's no woman on earth (and no dress on earth) that could climb up those risers without a little more cling than one would prefer. The dress itself has no unseemly display of back or breast, it fits properly, it's a little over knee length, and it's perfectly appropriate for meeting foreign heads of state. Laura Bush could wear it, for heaven's sake. She's not pulling a Jessica Rabbit here.

More to the point, look at her face. She's a kid. What lesson would she take from this? That dressing up makes unwanted attention her fault? I hoped like hell we'd buried that old misogyny, at least in places where women don't have to wear burqas for the sake of men's inflammatory libidos. Yeah, there are inappropriate outfits. But the fact it's attracted male attention doesn't render an outfit inappropriate.

choice of clothes

By: jerseygirl | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 08:50

If you wear a tight-fitting shiny red dress, men will ogle your butt. That's just a fact. I'm not supporting it, I'm not condoning it.

I don't mean to pile onto the young lady in this now infamous photo -- I can't really see what she was wearing, nor do I know who she is or what she was doing there. And to be sure there are men for whom objectifying women is so much part of their character that they would be ogling if she were wearing a full suit of armor.

But I teach at a university, and I'm just shocked by what our women students consider appropriate attire for attending classes, meetings with professors, etc. I'm a heterosexual woman, and even I sometimes get distracted when I'm teaching, wondering whether this young woman's shirt is really going to pop open, or whether the young woman in the front row forgot her pants this morning,or is just wearing REALLY short shorts under her blouse.

If a male student showed up in a Speedo I'd have the same reaction.

the outfit

By: P Starling | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 07:58

Wearing your cutest dress doesn't mean you want everyone in America assessing your butt. It means you want to look good for the major international meeting you're fortunate enough to attend. It's not as if the girl was wearing, say, a thong bikini.

I would hate to be the woman in the photo. And Mayah, you're right. I didn't even think about it. Millions of people are having an animated discussion about whether or not Obama is checking out some booty--and we don't even stop to think that the booty is attached to a woman who, presumably, was attending the G8 conference with some ambition other than to be the object of Sarkozy's ogling.

dressed to be ignored

By: Aperture | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 05:56

Maya, you seem to imply that the girl slipped on the nearest set of clothes in the morning and earnestly hoped nobody would look at her all day. As the site that tells us what women really think, could I hear a little more about what women really think.

Misleading Photo

By: willigula | Sun, 07/12/2009 - 15:37

Video clearly shows Obama turning to help a woman behind him walk down the stairs; his eyes were not on the young lady at all. This entire article is completely silly.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-296175

He's no Jack Kennedy...

By: you know it is | Sun, 07/12/2009 - 14:58

He's no Jack Kennedy...