So I don't necessarily see a Superman implication there. You know, it is possible to recognize Obama's feminist creds without simultaneously having any comment whatsoever on Hillary Clinton. I'm delighted to have both on our side, and I see them both as strong feminists. People seem determined to find outrage in anything these days, but I find the cover rather fun.

In a fair-minded individual it matters not whether the "savior" for the moment is a man or a woman.

It's okay for a feminist mag to portray a man as a superhero, too.

Hello,

this reminds me of an old postcard I used to have with an angry woman behind the bookstore counter screamin; "humor section!!!! This is a feminist bookstore!" I proudly call myself a feminist and try to teach students the pride and history of this term. I think we need to lighten up and appreciate all who fight for women's rights and needs.

thanks,

For me, the message on the t-shirt undercuts the superman imagery. The overarching theme is inclusivity. If all potential feminists must go through vetting procedure to weed out the superheroes and their patriarchal cultural baggage...how sad.

...you clearly aren't oppressed in any way.

If anything, you're overprivileged.

Obama cannot satisfy everyone and he is going to have to make trade-offs that anger some of his supporters. Whenever an issue comes down to feminists versus any other group, most likely any other group will win. And why not? Feminists aren't going to vote Republican in 2010 or 2012 so who cares if they're pissed off. If you're wondering who those special interest groups the media is warning Obama to ignore it's the blacks and the feminists.

maybe if I were a better and more commited feminist, I would have a visceral reaction.

When I see this cover I think that someone at Ms. thought, "Oh, yeah, inauguration coming up. Better get something with Obama on the cover. And doing something... um...demonstrating his putative feminist thinking." Looks at the clock. "Damn, have to have something in in the next half hour!" Opens up Photoshop. "Ok, let's see ... here's an Obama photo. Oooh, and a stock pic with that 'This is what a feminist looks like' T shirt. That'll work! Great!"

I'm not trying to demean the cover editors at Ms., I just don't think that too much social analysis goes into magazine covers.

It reminds me of an interview with Robert Frost. The interviewer was taken by the imagery of ravens and hemlocks in one of his poems, and kept questioning Frost about his obsession with death imagery. Frost replied, "No, I just have a lot of ravens and hemlocks around my house, is all."

The entry of HRC into the political arena was always more of a distraction from than a contributor to the feminist conversation. If anything, the notion that we still entertain spousal succession to power says more about class than gender.

Thus, in an age when just about every role model that pre-teen girls are given is creepily pornified (the popular 'Bratz' toy line, for example) we are worried about... the depiction of Obama on a magazine cover and (you guessed it) what this secretly says about our nation's inexplicably designated walking pop-feminism metatext, HRC.

Fortunately, genuine feminism is alive and well, if not among it's self-proclaimed media representatives.

However, if they don't keep their eye on the ball and look out for issues of consequence to women OTHER than Clinton every once in a while, they may find themselves as irrelevant as they are lost.

"Do you know the women's movement has no sense of humor?"

"Yes."

C'mon, sisters, the cover is FUNNY! Lighten up already!

Or...do you need to have the above two-liner EXPLAINED to you? If so, make a note to watch the upcoming PBS series on the history of American humor. We ALL can use a good laugh now, right?

P.S. The Prez is featured in the new "Spider Man" comic book.

First you do NOT have to be a woman to be a feminist, and many woman who claim they are feminists are far from it. I never saw Hillary as a great crusader for feminists. The majority of women I met volunteering for Obama were women like me, over 60. We didn't depend on someone to save us. We fought for it ourselves.

Ever think the cover was a Satire? Frnkly I have always seen Obama as a feminist.

So right on. the design department had a deadline to meet.

That's not funny.

your comment

"If you're even worrying about this...

...you clearly aren't oppressed in any way.

If anything, you're over privileged."

would have been a good response to the previous article on breast pumping.

With a powerful wife

and two daughters

raised by a single mom

with help from grandmother

he's tight with his Indonesian sister

and his father's Kenyan mother, too

that's not what a pro-female

male looks like to you?

Or perhaps when it comes to

standing up for women

those without

labia

should just go screw

Since when? I watched carefully during the primaries, and never noticed any particular interest on his part for women's rights. Au contraire, he seemed to be happy enough profitting from the misogyny in the media and his supporters. "You're likable enough Hillary" is probably his most benign gaffe in that direction. His support for reproductive rights/autonomy for women seems dubious at best.

There has been a lot of wishful thinking on the part of many "progressive" organizations, groups, etc. expecting Obama to be the great progressive leader that so many seem to need. So far he's managed to disappoint so many by revealing his real centrist self.

I fear that Ms. mag is continuing to project their hopes (perhaps there is a secret feminist hiding under that shirt) rather than standing up to reality. Sigh. Or else they are just trying to find a way to profit from the moment. btw, they are also offering a commemorative poster. Hahaha.

Satire, wymen. Mr. Obama made a similar joke about his "superman" image at the Al Smith Catholic Charity Dinner just before the election:

“I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the planet Earth.”

Lighten the heck up.