Michelle Obama, where are your table manners?
It wasn't her visible disdain for Boehner that shocked a nation. It was her elbows on the table!
Topics: Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, John Boehner, 2013 inauguration, Going Viral, Etiquette, Life News
The time has come once again to discuss Michelle Obama’s arms. Not the fact that, when she danced with her husband Monday evening in a fire-engine red Jason Wu dress, she proved yet again that she’s got the best biceps in the Beltway. There’s no disputing that four years after she made America go crazy for her guns, she’s still got it. The issue is where she’s putting them.
When, during Monday’s inauguration lunch, the First Lady made the eyeroll that went instantly viral, it wasn’t just her Joe Biden–worthy, “Oh, hell no” disdain for John Boehner that made the clip noteworthy. It was the way that she shifted her body at the table when Boehner tapped her famous arm, the way she planted her left elbow on the table. The First Lady’s elbow. On the table. I can’t even.
I have watched that 16-second clip about 8,000 times since it first appeared, and every time, I keep hoping, in that moment before she does it, that Michelle Obama won’t stick her elbow on the table. My beautiful, elegant FLOTUS. How can this be happening? And then I watch it again. My world, people, is utterly rocked. Yesterday, Michelle Obama was one of my heroes. Today, I am genuinely afraid she might salt her food before tasting it. I’m scared she might eat her soup with her spoon aiming toward her instead of away. HOLD ME, AMERICA.
Believe me, if I ever found myself seated next to John Boehner, I too might be tempted to deploy my elbows in service of staking out a little more personal territory. I likewise know conventional table manners can be disputed, and even controversial. Sure, I would no sooner lay my cutlery crosswise on my plate at the end of a meal — instead of parallel — than I would refold a dirty napkin. That’d be ridiculous! Yet I know others feel strongly that crossed is the way to go. I know not everyone dies a little inside when a plate is passed to the left, or someone blows on hot food. I know we live in more relaxed times. And I admit I am no great authority on etiquette. I instead am one who has the unfortunate habit of getting halfway through a meal before realizing I’m eating it with the salad fork. Damn you, salad fork.
Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.






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