People Sure Are Being Weird About Michelle Obama’s Body
Remember in 2009 when everyone freaked out because Michelle Obama wore a sleeveless dress in her official White House portrait? In an overwhelming wave of news articles, op-eds, and blog posts, people argued whether or not her display of arms was unbecoming of a First Lady, while others sought to learn the secrets behind her toned biceps. The whole thing was very weird, and in a better world that would have been the last time everyone got really obsessed with talking about Michelle’s body. Unfortunately, 16 years later, we’re back in the same spot.
Obama recently posted a photo of herself shot by Annie Leibovitz for the photographer’s upcoming reissue of her Women photobook. In the picture, she’s wearing a pair of jeans, a snug, lightly cropped T-shirt, and boots. The former First Lady also shared some behind-the-scenes footage in which she struck several different poses for the legendary photographer.
“[Leibovitz] has always known that a photo can do more than preserve a moment — it can say something,” Obama wrote, adding, “It was an honor to be photographed by Annie for the new edition, capturing the many ways women are showing up today.”
This is basically a really normal celebrity Instagram post, but for some reason it convinced a lot of people that Obama has undergone dramatic weight loss that is definitely the result of Ozempic. What is their proof for this? Well, they just know. Much of the discussion is coming from a viral post on X (red flag) from an account called “Mambo Italiano” (red flag) that purports to share “Hidden gems from the most beautiful country in the world: Italy.” (Chiamo la polizia!)
The account reshared Obama’s behind-the-scenes video and added, “Do any of you have any idea how Michelle Obama suddenly lost all this weight at 61, which is also a difficult age for a woman to slim down?” This reads like bot-written slop designed to get as much engagement as possible, which it quickly succeeded in doing. The video has been viewed over 3 million times, with thousands of comments confidently insisting that Obama is taking GLP-1s.
“It’s one of the GLP-1 meds,” one person wrote. “It’s interesting people are ‘showing off’ the results without crediting the method.” “Looks like Ozempic face,” another person responded. Several people just replied with “Ozempic.”
For what it’s worth, Obama does look great in the Leibovitz photo — she always has. That is kind of one of the main things about Michelle Obama. I think what might actually be throwing people off is that we have basically never seen her in a casual fitted tee before. It seems that what’s happened here is the upsetting confluence of Ozempic chatter, a famous person looking slightly different from how we usually see them, and the fact that X pays verified users for their viral tweets. In reality, these people are just not looking at Michelle Obama that frequently. They also need to log off and go outside for a second, but that’s a different issue altogether.
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