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In the last few days there is a video called "Dreams from My Real Father". The video claims that Barack Obama's mother posed for erotic/pornographic pictures for a pornographic magazine, and provide pictures of a woman that they claim is his mother.

  • Is it indeed Barack Obama's mother in those pictures?
  • And if yes, were they indeed taken for commercial purpose, or were they private photos that leaked out somehow?

The pictures: (NSFW): pic1 , pic 2, pic 3.

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SIMEL
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    What are the chances that it's some pathetic muck-raking exercise do you think? – Alan B Oct 04 '12 at 13:12
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    @AlanB, I'm certain that the video is a smear attempt at Obama, however, they do present those photos that in my opinion resemble her very much. While I'm not a US citizen, and even If I was, I believe that whether or not someone's mother was an erotic model shouldn't prohibit him from any public office, there is a notable claim here that I want to know if true, mainly, for pure curiosity. – SIMEL Oct 04 '12 at 13:27
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    > someone's mother was an erotic model – Alan B Oct 04 '12 at 14:16
  • [This blogger](http://barackryphal.blogspot.co.at/2012/10/fever-dreams-from-my-real-father-1-nude.html) did some research, i.e. checked out those magazines the photos were supposedly published in. – Oliver_C Oct 04 '12 at 16:06
  • I fail to see how some racy photos of his mother is any smear on the president. Unless the claim is he has some part in their creation or publication. I also think that this question is a broken window on the site. – Chad Oct 04 '12 at 17:34
  • The original claim is from a movie that argues Obama is some sort of manchurian candidate stooge who will impose communism on the US (not doing a very good job, is he?) because he was influenced by his real father, a leading US communist. It is not obvious to me that bothering to refute such bizarre chains of conspiracy built on conspiracy is a good thing for skeptics.se to be doing. – matt_black Oct 04 '12 at 18:55
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    @matt_black, I'm not asking about the whole movie, I haven't even seen it. I just heard about the pictures, and I'm asking only about them, actually I'm looking for a proof that it isn't she. – SIMEL Oct 04 '12 at 19:39
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    @matt_black isn't refuting (or confirming) claims, bizarre or otherwise, what the site is about? (with a proviso on how widely held the beliefs are) http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/1155/104 – Andrew Grimm Oct 05 '12 at 09:10
  • @AndrewGrimm Yes, that is what the site is about and I feel some conflict over questions like this. But there has to be some quality threshold to stop the site filling with conspiracy junk built on overactive imaginations and extreme political partisanship. I'm not sure where to draw the line: i'd say "birther" questions are legitimate (even though from a non-US perspective they seem like the partizan ramblings of lunatics) but this one seems to be on the other side of line being bad taste, insignificant and irrelevant. – matt_black Oct 05 '12 at 11:48
  • I have the DVD and will keep it for histories sake, Whether it is her or not. My neighbor got two and tossed them into the trash. –  Jan 26 '13 at 23:56

1 Answers1

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No.

WARNING: Possibly NSFW.

The racy photos are from "Bizarre Life" Magazine #9, the Spring 1969 Edition. It would have been quite a feat for her to appear in the magazine, as - to quote the "About the Author" section from the book "Pendekar-pendekar besi Nusantara: kajian antropologi tentang pandai besi tradisional di Indonesia (Peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia: surviving and thriving against all odds).":

From January 1968 to December 1969, Dunham taught English and was an assistant director of the Lembaga Persahabatan Indonesia Amerika (LIA)–the Indonesia-America Friendship Institute at 9 Teuku Umar Street in the Gondangdia administrative village of the Menteng subdistrict in Central Jakarta–which was subsidized by U.S. government.

Also very noteworthy is that the image on the right below, who is purported to be "Ann Dunham" - isn't actually in the magazine, which you can find high res images for via the link above.

Purported image of Ann Dunahm

Who's on the right (and isn't actually clad in leather)? Whoever the person below is: enter image description here

If you're still iffy, here's another comparison between the only character dressed like the mysterious woman above and Ann Dunham herself (taken at a US Embassy):

Close-upAnn Dunham at the United Sates Embassy

MCM
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    The pictures could have been taken in an earlier time and published only in 1969, or, they could have been taken in Indonesia. – SIMEL Oct 04 '12 at 16:28
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    @Ilya Melamed - What reasons do you have for believing either of those are probable? – MCM Oct 04 '12 at 17:56
  • @SIMEL - flying monkeys COULD emerge from your anus each time you sneeze. I COULD have an invisible elephant living in my kitchen. Would my claiming it was so be a credible claim? – PoloHoleSet Feb 28 '17 at 21:54
  • @PoloHoleSet, I don't get it, what is your complaint, is it about the question or the note about the possibility of the pictures to be from an earlier date? – SIMEL Feb 28 '17 at 22:03
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    @SIMEL - we're dealing with whether a claim has any credibility. Since almost nothing is COMPLETELY impossible that's not a statement that actually gives any kind of support to the claim. It's pretty clear you've crossed a line into looking for excuses to believe a fabricated smear campaign. – PoloHoleSet Feb 28 '17 at 22:06
  • @PoloHoleSet, If you would look at my comments on the question you would see that I don't think that it had any consequence on the Obama (also, I'm not a US citizen, so my opinion doesn't really count), and that I didn't really believe it, and that I was looking for that will show that the pictures were not of Obama's mother. And the claim did have notability at that time, I don't remember how I heard about it for the first time, but I can assure you it was from people who critisizing the claim, not supporting it. – SIMEL Feb 28 '17 at 22:15
  • @SIMEL - looking to prove the negative? How does that work? The porn actress who plays the Sarah Palin parody character certainly has a passing resemblance to her. Does Palin need to PROVE that she isn't in those porn movies? There isn't anyone alive who doesn't have someone or many someones out there that could pass for them in a photograph, let alone a photograph from many, many years ago. I am taking exception to that one specific argument, only, so I don't care about what else you've said or haven't said. That statement, alone, is absurd on its own merits, or lack thereof. – PoloHoleSet Feb 28 '17 at 22:22
  • @PoloHoleSet, her name is Lisa Ann, and she is credited for her work. More over nobody claimed that Pailin actualy did those movies, this is the difference between the two cases, in one case you have a claim that this is the same person, and we have no idea who the model is, on the other case we have no one claiming that Pailin did those movies, and even if someone did claim then we have the name of the actress who played her, those are completly different stories. – SIMEL Feb 28 '17 at 22:28
  • But if we are on the subject, there have been cases where nude pictures/movies were published where it was claimed that it features a celebrity, yet the celebrity denied it. Those cases can be asked here theoreticly. If you want to discuss it farther we can take it to chat. – SIMEL Feb 28 '17 at 22:30
  • @SIMEL - I know that the actual actress is known, and that she is credited. You are missing the point. No one claimed, at that time, that it was Dunham, right? So what's the basis for this claim? Someone found a photo with a passing resemblance. I'm pointing out that passing resemblance is not a credible basis for a claim. – PoloHoleSet Feb 28 '17 at 22:36
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/54536/discussion-between-simel-and-poloholeset). – SIMEL Feb 28 '17 at 22:37