Michelle Obama's arms, we determined, were transformational. Her arms are representative of a new kind of woman: young, strong, vigorous, intelligent, accomplished, sexual, powerful, embracing and, most of all, loving.
Today is Mother's Day. Today we should celebrate Michelle Obama's arms as the arms of a mother.
....She has come under attack for exposing her arms. They are toned and muscular, burnished and beautiful. That has to be threatening to some. For some men, often, a strong woman makes them feel diminished. For some feminists, the idea of an educated woman not taking on a full-time serious job is a frightening throwback.
They are wrong. Nothing could be more empowering than to see a woman with all of the attributes of Michelle Obama embrace her children the way she does. She loves those girls, and she is giving them a role model for the kind of strong woman that she wants them to be.
The whole essay is a bubble bath. Of course, at the article's end, Quinn revealed that she had lunch with Mrs. Obama, and to lunch with her is to love her:
Recently, Teresa Heinz Kerry had a very small ladies' lunch for Michelle Obama and her mother. The first lady was open, friendly, funny, accessible and totally authentic. She talked easily and answered personal questions without hesitation, even joked about all of the commotion about her arms. She was the first first lady I have ever met who did not seem at all wary. She had such a sense of confidence that you were going to like her, and especially that she was going to like you, that it was disarming (if you'll pardon the pun). Her mother was equally friendly, open, cozy and dear, the grandmother to die for. They left in time for Mrs. Robinson to pick up the girls at school.
As one of the guests pointed out toward the end of the lunch, when the first lady arrived she gave everyone a hug. With those arms. Michelle Obama, whatever her legacy, will certainly always be known as the first lady who made it acceptable for women, in so many ways, to exercise their "right to bare arms."
