Those letter writers who defend Salon writers are also Salon writers and employees.

What the F**K!

Can't you please talk about the lenght of Obama's penis compared to FDR's -- oh wait that wouldn't be sexist crap!

Salon is becoming the MOST sexist site out in the web. For some serious issue based journo here's a couple of links:

Obama silent on reversing the Global Gag Rule

http://www.femisex.com/content/obama-silent-reversing-global-gag-rule

or When will Obama give up the Hunt?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1859354,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

And, in case anyone hadn't noticed, Barack is pretty damn hot too. It's called attitude. And intelligence. And self-assurance. And those eyes. All of which matter so much more than biceps and abs, unless you're simply looking at pictures and never plan to have a conversation.

They promised change, and one thing they're changing is what we'll think of as sexy. That's a good thing.

As a white woman whose weight tends to migrate to the butt, I have to say that black women aren't the only ones with this issue. I'd say right on if Michelle makes the protruding derierre a fashion statement, so I don't have to hide mine under tunic sweaters and long jackets anymore. Not that I'm fat, mind you, just a little bottom heavy. But I did want you to know it isn't just a racial issue.

BTW, Cindy McCain looks to me like someone who may be suffering form anorexia. Did you see her in the last weeks of the campaign? She looked like a walking stick. Most unattractive, and she always looked like a scared deer. I really wonder how she's being treated at home.

Grace?

Have you seen Michelle Obama walk? She moves like a tank.

Beauty?

She has a massive underbite and no bone structure. In what culture are those traits attributed to beauty?

Brains?

Her senior thesis was riddled with grammatical errors. The fact that she even made it through college is shocking.

Yes, and my uterus is a facsimile. I get it.

God forbid a writer should take license in celebrating physicality as a metaphor (I said it again!) for massive, world-changing accomplishment. Next presidency, for the sake of everyone blowing a collective gasket here, I hope our leader is merely a disembodied head...or better yet, a brain in a jar.

What a bog and labyrinth the human essence is... We are all overbrained and overemotioned.

--Captain Howard, "Dragged Fighting from His Tomb," Airships

Okay, troll.

So, "Her senior thesis was riddled with grammatical errors."

So, those alleged grammatical errors were fixed? You employed the past tense, "was."

The thesis still exists. If the alleged errors are still there, it's "is".

Now, quick like a bunny, bake that casserole for tonight's Klan meeting!

I haven't gotten through many of the letters, but, after reading the first page, I could see where this was headed. I laughed and smiled while reading this delightful piece because it is meant to celebrate Michelle's big black booty--something not often done in while regarding the big black woman's booty.

In case you guys didn't catch it, the black woman's booty has been a powerful negative stereotype for hundreds of year--come on, some of you have heard of the Venus Hottentot, Saartjie Baartman, haven't you? The woman kept in a cage and paraded around in museums and sideshows cause of her big black booty?

Black women have been sexualized in ways that other women have not--I think it's important that we talk about the symbolism of Michelle's big booty and what it means in terms of exploring this particular stereotype. I think it's about time the mystery of the big black booty was unlocked!

I'm down with Salon and all, but this article is a little silly, immature, and unnecessary. Last I checked, Michelle's booty is not that big. I will put mine up against hers any day! Why must we resort to reducing black women? Did anyone ever write such an article about Laura Bush?

Let's show some respect here. Aubry Kaplan seems to have quite the preoccupation with the glutious maximus!

Pretty sure they have, but I'd need to delve, and I've got to finish my study guide before 2. I'll work on finding it later, and hopefully the letters won't be closed yet :) good to see ya- please come write on Open Salon, I really miss reading you, Asephe and AkaSmith. It would be nice to have a specific place to be able to go and read you.

The idea is not that having a black first lady will narrow the scope of what we talk about. I think the idea is that devoting an entire article to an intelligent, educated female public figure's ass is simply beyond the scope of discussion to begin with. I was much more offended by Gary Kamiya's piece, for example, which reduced Sarah Palin into a piece of meat (many, many letter writers were and I'm frankly surprised to see he's still writing after that one). Ok, Sarah Palin is hot, ok, lots of people like to comment about it. But if you're going to attack her, by all means do it on the issues, a place in which she is exceedingly weak in the first place.

Same with Michelle Obama. If you're going to venerate her (the way Kamiya villified Palin), don't do it based on something which sexualizes her and dehumanizes her as much as her ass. There are plenty of reasons to respect and admire Michelle Obama without stooping to the level of publicly analyzing her body. A ghetto booty may be a symbol of power among black women, but it's no more real a power than the power that pageant looks gives Sarah Palin: It just makes her an object for men's desires and fantasties, and subsequently, of women's jealousy or admiration over that power. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that booty power is anything more glorious than that.

I'm a bit disappointed, Salon. Your article on lolcats was much more worthwhile and entertaining than this one.