Thought for Food

Jun 10, 2008

The Webby Awards last night brought the viral video celebrities out in droves. Of course, Obama Girl was there happy that her crush will be the Democratic nominee. I am posting the Obama Girl video in case you missed it.

I am very uncomfortable with the “Obama Girl.” I find her incredibly disrespectful (and not surprisingly, so do the Obamas). If genders were reversed, if a man was writhing around nearly naked next to images of a woman senator on a beach vacation (with her young family just out of the shot) — well, I don’t need to tell you what the public’s reaction would be.

But it’s more than a gender issue. It’s difficult to articulate this, but I think that the fact Obama is a man of color has a lot to do with why Amber Lee Ettinger has gotten away with such an undignified “tribute.” Since the days of slavery, black men have been subjected to cultural assumptions about and societal demands on their sexuality (the “big prick” stereotype is an example). Kara Walker explores these issues in her artwork far better than I can express here, but suffice to say, I don’t appreciate the attention that Ms. Ettinger has garnered for herself by exploiting not only her own sexuality, but Obama’s.