Barack Obama (a dude who has been president for all of 8 days) is featured on the cover of Ms. Magazine's Winter 2009 issue. The feminist rag's publisher, Elanor Smeal, defends the choice in the issue's preface: "When the chair of the Feminist Majority Foundation board, Peg Yorkin, and I met Barack Obama, he immediately offered 'I am a feminist.' And better yet, he ran on the strongest platform for women’s rights of any major party in American history."
This is all true and awesome, but something about the cover just doesn't feel right…
The 44th *male* American President posed in a visual allusion to Superman is just about the most sexist image I can imagine. If even our most staunch and ardent feminists are indulging in and perpetuating the fantasy that Barack Obama is the savior of the world, we're in some serious trouble, girls.
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2009.