What's the fascination with Michelle Obama's butt?

Michelle Obama is often praised for her fashion sense and her drives to get America to ’eat right’. However she is often the subject of unflattering and insulting comments about her posterior in particular. And the Washington Post has recorded yet another attack on the first ladies physique: “Fat butt Michelle Obama,” said Bob Grisham , a high school football coach who was surreptitiously recorded by one of his students. “Look at her. She looks like she weighs 185 or 190. She’s overweight.” Grisham, who was suspended Monday, is neither the first nor the most high-profile person to feel moved to comment on the first lady’s physique. Conservative radio host  Rush Limbaugh  has repeatedly called her Michelle “My Butt” Obama. And Rep.  F. James Sensenbrenner , the Wisconsin Republican, issued an apology after he was caught commenting on her “large posterior.” (Grisham has also said he misspoke.) The Post article attempts to examine what it is about first ladies in general and Michelle Obama in particular that makes people believe that they have the right to subject them to such personal and unflattering attention. Is it because Obama is African-American? Is it a general unhealthy obsession with the image of women and what they are supposed to look like?