Who Wears Short Shorts?

October 2, 2009  
Filed under Opinion

Throughout history, people all over the world with high ranking positions have had a greater expectancy placed upon them for many different things. Others want many things out of them. They are expected to act a certain way, talk a certain way and even dress a certain way. But how far do these expectations go?

There has been a big fuss in the past couple of weeks because Michelle Obama wore shorts. Yes, our First Lady has worn shorts before doing things around the White House, playing with her children and walking the dog. But right when she stepped off Air Force One, the media did not fail to react to her leg-barring shorts. Stories, pictures and videos spread onto the Internet and into the homes of millions of people. In fact, in one search for the First Lady wearing shorts on Google, you could find over 40 million results, mostly for Michelle Obama.

Of course she is expected to dress conservatively; she is the First Lady of the United States. But should we honestly expect her to dress up like she is going to some big event, when in reality she was on vacation with her family in Arizona? Maybe I should also mention it was in the middle of August in 106- degree weather. The media made such a big deal about this; one might think she had stepped out of Air Force One in the nude.

I understand that Michelle Obama is expected to act and even dress as professionally as she can. However, I do not agree that she is doing any wrong by wearing knee length shorts. The Obama family has been credited with bringing modern qualities to the White House, especially the First Lady, making fashion statements and even being elevated to fashion-icon status starting November of last year. Michelle Obama made a statement wearing these shorts: she is just like anyone else.

After all of the fuss was made about her apparel, more fuss was made about the original commotion. Many people felt like there were more important things happening in the world to talk about, which is so true. She was not trying to cause issues; she was simply dressing comfortably to vacation with her family.

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Angela Geist

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