06 March 2009

Bare Naked (First) Ladies

Michelle Obama


Jackie Kennedy



Dolly Madison

Helen Taft

Bess Truman

Nancy Reagan

Mary Lincoln

Mamie Eisenhower









With all the uproar over Michelle Obama's bare arms and shoulders, I decided to google the images of other First Ladies. My, My Mame and Hello Dolly! It wasn't difficult to find pictures of bare shoulders, arms, and breast mounds. Oh there were a few well covered from top to toe, but they were actually in the minority or only existed because there was only one known portrait or picture.

After the rather prim images presented by the Bush women and the well covered Hillary Clinton, it was easy to forget that Mamie and Jackie often treated the world to some first lady skin. Then there was the uproar over Dolly Madison's fashionable but see through 1812 period number or the fact that Mary Lincoln's breasts were among her better features. Lady bird's day time apparel may have been southern perfect, but she loved to swirl in her evening gowns. How soon everyone forgot Nancy Reagan's one shoulder number, and it has even been mentioned that around the residence floors, Helen Taft preferred her soft asian robes to her buttoned down American prudery.

You could almost call the display, "Bare Naked First Ladies".

6 comments:

Linda said...

I love the play on words here!

Why is it that people always forget to check back a little bit in history before they go shooting off their big mouths about things? Yeesh. And to tell you the truth, I don't give a rat's hindquarters WHAT Michelle Obama is or is not wearing. Though I must say I am rather surprised by Mary Todd Lincoln, she always struck me as the covered-from-head-to-toe type!

Anonymous said...

This post definitely qualifies as an Only the Good Fridays Post!
Just look at all those lovlies! Great post and pics! have a good weekend.

Anonymous said...

I'm linking this as an OTGF post! Those pics are great (love how racy Mary Lincoln is!). And, the best thing about this post, my friend, is that the title is going to get you a lot of hits from the search engines...bwahaha! Can the blogger server handle it?

maryt/theteach said...

This is a great post, Jamie! Hope it shuts up all those media types that were complaining about Michelle's arms. Can you imagine her ARMS?! :)

Travis Cody said...

Geeez! I didn't know people were complaining about this.

These are women! Women have curves. And most women like to show those curves off. And why shouldn't they?

Michelle Obama is a vibrant and beautiful woman. And she is in the position to remind young ladies that they can be intelligent and desirable.

More power to the First Lady!

Mo and The Purries said...

People have nothing better to do than complain that a beautiful and vivacious woman would show off her arms!?!
I am glad that you have set the record straight, and hope that our lovely First Lady continues to be a sensible contemporary fashion plate, and that some people find better things to talk about - like the economy!