Michelle Obama Drops Gems & Comes Under Fire for Comments Made About Female Trump Voters
Michelle Obama never fails to leave the public with words of wisdom. The former First Lady made an appearance on the panel at the INBOUND 2017 marketing conference in Boston alongside Insecure star Issa Rae on Wednesday (Sept. 27). She and Rae embodied sisterhood as they engaged in conversation that flowed like they were girlfriends for years.
Michelle and Rae even talked about the season two Insecure finale fake out! The writer/actress posted a series of photos of she and her President on Instagram with a caption that described what was happening in each photo of the set. “A) Me and My President. B) Me after my President told me she was mad about the #InsecureHBO finale fake out. C) Me hugging My President with eternal gratefulness. #INBOUND17”
While on the panel, Michelle did what she does best and presented the members of the audience with gems they probably didn’t know they needed – particularly the women.
“We think 12 times before we open our mouths – ‘Well maybe I’m wrong.’ We argue with ourselves in our head and we think that ‘Before I speak up, it has to be perfect,’ while the guy is like blah blah blah – not thinking about perfect, right, or anything – he’s just like ‘I’m used to hearing my voice.’ That’s what happens to a lot of people. And if you’ve been socialized to think your voice doesn’t matter – and it’s done in very subtle ways: maybe it happened at your dinner table with the father you adored who would talk right over you, or the brothers who just took up too much space and you learned to be quiet, or the mother who told you that being ladylike meant that you watched your words and you didn’t interrupt … There’s so much that goes on that shushes us.”
See? Gems.
The statement that has no doubt been the focal point of most mainstream news articles wasn’t one of the harsh criticism that Conservative commentators are trying to project. Instead, it’s meant to empower, not denounce – particularly to women who might be walking through life on autopilot and not realizing how much of their beliefs are hardwired in them versus being something they truly feel.
The comment that Michelle is under fire for reads as follows:
“Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice. What does it mean for us as women that we look at those two candidates, as women, and many of us said, that guy, he’s better for me, his voice is more true to me. Well, to me that just says you don’t like your voice. You like the thing you’re told to like.”
Conservative commentator S.E. Cupp spoke her piece and slammed Obama for her comment on the Thursday night edition of her HLN show “Unfiltered.” “With all due respect to Mrs. Obama, that’s disgusting. This is condescending gender imperialism that decrees that just because I’m a woman, I’m obligated to vote for your corrupt, dishonest, morally-bereft, out of touch, and totally unaccountable candidate, who also just happens to be a woman.”
“I didn’t vote for Trump, but how dare you accuse women who did of liking the thing they’re told to like,” Cupp added. “There were countless good reasons not to vote for Hillary Clinton. You know what, plenty of Democrats agreed.”
What Michelle said isn’t anti-women, or pro-Clinton – which is something the truth often gets lost underneath in the wake of being candid about the 2016 election. It is anti-misogynistic. It is anti-supremacy. It is anti-Trump. There is no condescension in that.
Photo Credit: Issa Rae/Instagram
