One of the top trends in Google Trends right now is “Obama checking out girl." For the people in the room who don’t care which popular search terms internet users around the world are typing into their search engines right now, the hottest image making the rounds in the internet universe right this moment is of President Obama checking out a young woman’s rear end while making his way down a flight of stairs with other world leaders at the G8 Summit.
Except… he probably wasn’t. As the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun Times and ABC News among many other big-name news outlets were so quick to point out, President Obama was probably just watching his feet while going down the steps and the angle at which his head was looking down just so happened to coincide on the horizontal plane with the backside view of some junior G8 delegate making her way up the stairs in the opposite direction. Thank you, everyone, for making this clarification.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world has either joined in the playground amusement or is disgusted that we can talk endlessly for hours about these kinds of inane things, but cannot hold one minute’s worth of attention to soldiers getting killed in Iraq or women being brutally raped in the Congo.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof clearly belongs in the latter category. He made his outrage succinctly clear in less than 140 characters in his latest tweet @nytimeskristof: "Instead of indignation at Obama supposedly checking out a tush, how about outrage at mass rape unfolding in Congo?"
Are these two sentiments mutually exclusive? Of course not.
And yet Kristof’s rhetorical question is worth examining anyway: why is it so universally easier for us to get so much more excited about the former than the latter?
Let’s see what exactly is going on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Though peace had formally been declared in 2003, military factions of various regions are still fighting each other, and are still using rape as a weapon of war.
What this means is that countless women of all ages of various villages in the region are being systematically raped by order of the military, oftentimes in front of their family members and communities. Many male family members are forced at gunpoint to rape their own mothers, daughters and sisters.
According to this CNN article, after rape many women are stabbed or shot in the genitals, even sometimes being forced by their captors to eat excrement or the flesh of their murdered relatives. Rape disrupts communities and family structures to the point of no healing, often resulting in the rape victims being ostracized forever.
The perpetrators are not punished. With the exception of a scant few, the majority of these rape victims are not helped. Recent reports suggest that the mass rapes in the region have only gotten worse.
So where is the outrage at the mass rape unfolding in the Congo? Many of us, after all, are very consciously aware that this humanitarian crisis is going on right this moment right in this world. Why do so many of us hesitate to fully feel the outrage?
What a terrifying scenario it would be, to truly let the outrage supercede our amusement. If we let ourselves become engulfed by our anger for these human atrocities, we just might be forced to take some of the responsibility.
We just might, against our own preference, have to become the change we wish to see in this world.
On the other hand, tittering over the “O-BUM-a” incident is terribly relieving. While hearing news of the rape in the Congo makes us cower and avert our eyes, Sarnoff and McNair and Obama’s wandering eyes give us the opportunity to openly stare and shriek.
In other words, we do not like it when the news story points its finger at us, isolating us to the cell of our own conscience.
We much prefer to join in on the rabble of onlookers, disappear into the crowd, and point our fingers at the news story instead–and we can do this all day long.
Reading this, Yumi, just about made me want to get down on my knees and just sob. Our priorities on this planet are so skewed and frightening.
Let's see, spend days "twittering" with your friends about our president supposedly checking out a rear end—or no consideration, no discussion, zero acknowledgement that masses of people are being terrorized and pleading for help and whose pleas are falling only on the deaf ears and blind eyes of those who want to address only the "truly important topics of the day".
I'm very aware of the atrocities going on in the Congo and many other places around our globe and I have made a commitment since the early 90's to Amnesty International to join with them to put an end to the insanity that is pervading our planet through crimes against humanity. What is really maddening is that the Democratic Republic of Congo's government refuses to admit that these atrocities exist or are as widespread and prevalent as they truly are. They completely downplay the horror going on around them.
I believe we do have to get completely "engulfed"and outraged by these stories and like you said, once you know and once you see what is going on, you cannot forget and you can't not have a sense of responsibility to help those who are suffering. You may be able to put it "out of your mind" for a while as you amuse yourself with assorted "twitters" and "tweaters" but in the back of your mind, way, way back there in the dark recessess, your humanity is calling to you in a persistent, nagging voice–DO SOMETHING!
Well done. I support everything you have said here. By turning a blind eye we are as guilty as the rapists. Healing by healing I have a desire to change the world. The energy I shift from someone suffering depression is the same I would shift from a country in a state of war. Its possible. Each one of us, our thoughts and actions, are only reflections of ourselves. We're all a part of a constant and singular consciousness, God?, and share violence and love equally. The actions of one, disrupt, or harmonise the actions of all. I am responsible, for everything, every moment of time, I am responsible.
Thank you, Simon.
Great blog, Yumi!
I took a class in college about being more critical of the news, and how to spot this sort of a thing.
First off, I agree he was probably just watching his step. But even if he was checking the girl out, who cares?!
This just in! Men love to look at the female anatomy!! SHOCKING!
If you want to help the women in the Congo go to – http://www.theirc.org/what/gender-based-violence….
The International Rescue Committee is a wonderful organization. You may communicate with the women and the people who are working and living there directly through e-mail.
Fierce blog Yumi! Thanks for putting things in proper perspective..shameful really how so much of 'news' has become a sorry excuse for spreading sleaziness. LIke the world needs anymore of this!
Thank you, Elaine, for sharing that website.
Gayle
Just came home form my photography class where the lecturer showed & talked about this image. Apparently the full video clarifies what Obama was doing. Anyway reading yumi's article what was more disturbing was the whats going on in Congo…. I guess when news is about staying ahead and making the biggest buck humanitarian causes have very little value over gossip. Don't we live in an era of 'Gossip Girls' . . . young an old gossip binds some folks like a family a thread…. and media always make enough opportuniities out of this human vulnerabiliy…
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Simplicity ~
The Beauty in Chaos
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Are you kidding me?
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5880/barackobama…
When you walk down stairs and are concerned about footing, you look ahead. Not behind.
What is it with POTUS supporters being so overly sensitive that you can't just speak the truth plainly?
The whole world could tell the Obama was bowing to the Saudi King awhile back and the media couldn't just say it like it was?
Officials say he was in fact NOT bowing "He was actually tying his shoe and changed his mind."
Nice red herring about Africa. Horrific scenarios are a great change of subject Yumi. Alternately you could discuss how deep the recession is, the unemployment rate, the government takeover of banks, car manufacturers, hospitals, businesses left and right.
If you really want to talk international news how about the fight for freedom in Iran? China's battle versus Democracy. North Korea's attention based behaviour with nuclear implications?
Is there a reason to be ashamed that Obama checks out asses? As far as I can see the only person who should even be annoyed by it is his wife.
?????
The example of the news in the Congo could be replaced by any of the international news that you have mentioned.
Also, whether or not Obama does check out asses is besides the point. The point is that we keep talking about it.
Have a fab day
Oh please. Are we really going to try to say Obama was looking at some woman's derri
Oh please. Are we really going to try to say Obama was looking at some woman’s derri
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I agree to all your sentiments. We have a lot of issues in our country that should be prioritize instead of "President Obama Checks Out a Girl's Butt". So what if did that! What we need to give attention is our current problem in national defense. According to Red State, TSA has another reason to hang its head. A recent incident involving a <a title="TSA says no to armed United States of America solder – because of finger nail clippers" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2010/11/19/tsa-nail-clippers-armed-soldier/"> company of soldiers returning home from Afghanistan makes Transportation Security Administration look ridiculous once again. The gear the soldiers brought had already been inspected and approved by U.S. Customs, but Transportation Security Administration felt the need to totally empty the flight and thoroughly inspect the gun-toting soldiers (minus ammo). They found nail clippers in the bag of one soldier – mission accomplished, TSA.