Michelle Obama is considered a role model for the women and girls of America. Michelle Obama is praised in the most gushing, fawning manner in the mainstream media.
Michelle Obama is also an astonishing bigot.
There have been some occasions when I have felt she was undoubtedly a supporter of feminism and a believer in so many of the mythical notions feminists have about the way in which the world oppresses women. But it wasn’t until I read the transcripts of her interview with Oprah Winfrey in June of this year that I was introduced to her hateful, patronizing view of the entire male gender.
During the interview which naturally took place in front of an all-female audience, Michelle made the following observations about men.
Men should simply be better if they want to help women achieve gender equality. Be better at everything. Be better fathers. Good lord, just being good fathers who love your daughters and are providing a solid example of what it means to be a good man in the world, showing them what it feels like to be loved.
A woman with a powerful voice and a very public platform decides it is her right to sit in judgment upon the male gender and tell them how they can be better men and better fathers. She even feels the need to tell fathers to love their daughters. It is breathtakingly arrogant and deeply offensive. I know that the “flip the genders” test is by now old hat, but it remains the single best way to make people reflect upon the incredibly different way in which the public responds to what men and women have to say about each other.
Imagine if you will, that Donald Trump held a rally or did an interview with a male journalist who was so enamored with him that he would be willing to lick his boots should he ask him to do so. Imagine this interview is taking place in front of an all-male audience.
The interviewer asks Trump if he has any advice for the women of America.
Trump responds: “Be better mothers. Good lord, just being good mothers who love your sons and are providing a solid example of what it means to be a woman in the world.”
Of course, these words are spoken to the accompanying applause and cheers of the all-male audience.
There is nothing in Michelle Obama’s words that one could call hateful (not yet.) But the sheer arrogance and prejudice are clearly evident to any objective observer. Now, if Mr. Trump has spoken the words I just quoted the media would crucify him. Even people in his camp would have thrown their hands up in dismay at his stupidity and chauvinism.
Can you believe it? This buffoon has the effrontery to lecture the women of America and tell them how to be better women-him, a man! What a fat, sexist pig! He has cost himself the women’s vote if indeed he had any to begin with. How can this woman hating pig even be running for President? There would be street marches and breathless, orgasmic editorials by the salivating left and head shaking condemnation from the right.
Here we have the First Lady, on stage with the most famous, influential and richest female in America and the only reaction to these words were positive. I am yet to hear one word of condemnation.
The words became far more poisonous as the interview continued, but the audience and Oprah remained as enthusiastic and supportive as ever.
Obama told Winfrey that it’s sad that her experience of never being physically abused by a man is a “rare reality.”
Just pause and read those words again. Can you believe it? The First Lady just said that the vast majority of men in America physically abuse their wives and partners. This is the only inference one can make when she states it is a “rare reality” for a woman never to experience physical abuse in a relationship with a man.
Public condemnation, criticism, raised eyebrows- zero. Again, not even a mild rebuke from a conservative journalist or politician. Nothing.
Let’s flip it again.
Trump says to his all-male audience. “I am fortunate enough to have been in a relationship where I have never been nagged or been used as an ATM, but this is a rare reality for men in America.”
The campaign would end there. There is every possibility his very life could be in danger. The media would eviscerate him, and his friends would apologize on his behalf and beg forgiveness from the women of America.
And surely being called nag is preferable to being branded a woman basher.
Nevertheless, as much as Trump has trampled on many politically correct conventions, if he attacked the whole female gender he would be finished. As it is, if he calls one nasty, abusive, obese woman a “pig” this apparently can be taken to mean he hates all women.
Michelle Obama not only makes these hateful, bigoted statements about the entire male gender without any negative consequences; she is hailed as an inspiration to all woman at the conclusion of the interview!
She hasn’t finished yet.
Stopping violence against women is something men can be better at.
Men can be better husbands, which is-be a part of your families life. Do the dishes. Don’t babysit your children. You don’t babysit your own children. Be engaged. Don’t just think going to work and coming home makes you a man.
Be a better employer. When you are sitting at a seat of power at a table of any kind and you look around and it’s just you and a bunch of men around the table, on a golf course, making deals, and you allow that to happen, and you’re okay with that-be better.
Just imagine, yeah I know, you get it. Use your imaginations and see how a man in public office would fare speaking these words about women.
And how does this interview end?
- An interview loaded with vile stereotyping of one group of people in our society.
- An interview in which Obama branded one group in our society violent, abusive thugs.
- An interview in which she felt the need to lecture one group of people on how they can be a better parent and better employer.
Well the Queen of American television said:
The way you’ve handled this office reminds me of a line that Maya used to say-it’s actually in the beginning of one of her books-she says “You make me proud to spell my name W-O-M-A-N. Michelle Obama.
Cue standing ovation
Michelle has also publicly declared that “women are smarter than men” and of course how could any one forget her heartbreaking photo which went viral? The one in which with a suitable sad, puppy dog face she holds up a sign saying “Bring back our girls” in response to the Boko Haram terrorists kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls. Of course, no such sign was held up by Michelle or Barack when approximately 2000 boys and young men were massacred by the very same terrorist group. In fact, I don’t believe the Obamas have mentioned those males to this very day.
The gender bigotry in our western society is a shameful reality; men are invariably viewed as blustering buffoons or dangerous predators unless of course, they sing from the feminist hymn book.
Hillary is able to call Trump a sexist, racist, homophobe to his face and Trump knows that if he responds with the same slurs ( even with ample factual evidence to support him), the public would condemn him and call him a bully and misogynist. How liberating is it to be a female politician debating a male in 2016, knowing your opponent fights you with both hands tied behind his back and his tongue tethered? Is it any wonder Hillary smirked so smugly throughout the first debate?
What disturbs me the most is the fact that even Hillary and Michelle Obama’s conservative opponents refuse to call them out when they demonstrate their contempt for men. Hillary can speak to female-only audiences and regularly talk about championing women’s rights. She used the mythical gender wage gap as proof of our oppression of women in the first debate and was not called out by her opponent. No male politician in a position of power and influence has ever declared his intention to focus on men’s issues as his most pressing priority despite the fact that this could be justified far more easily than the need to fight for women’s issues. It would be catastrophic come election day. Female politicians who are meant to represent the entire population can openly declare their intention to place women’s needs ahead of men’s and win applause and admiration when they do.
I live for the day when a male politician or journalist looks a female politician in the eye and tells her to cut the bigotry and do what she is meant to do- work and care for all the people she represents men, women, and children.
I won’t hold my breath.
*****
https://twitter.com/flotus/status/464148654354628608
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/michelle-obama-to-men-be-better_us_57615d20e4b05e4be8604663
The article was originally published on Relating to Men.
