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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Claim That Michelle Obama Is A Man Isn't A Conspiracy Theory -- It's A Racialized Attack On Black Womanhood
They reflect something much older, much deeper, and much more troubling: a centuries-old pattern in which Black womens femininity, humanity, and identity are routinely questioned, denied, and weaponized. Michelle Obama is simply the latest target and has been for some time.
Today, these stereotypes rarely appear in the overt forms many people associate with the past. Instead, they often emerge through memes, GIFs, viral videos, comments sections, and online jokes.
A Black woman expressing frustration may be labeled as angry immediately.
A Black woman demonstrating confidence may be characterized as intimidating.
A successful and/or powerful Black woman, such as Michelle Obama, may be mocked as masculine and have her appearance scrutinized in ways that have little to do with reality and everything to do with maintaining harmful stereotypes.
https://zora.medium.com/the-claim-that-michelle-obama-is-a-man-isnt-a-conspiracy-theory-it-s-a-racialized-attack-on-669ac6b6fef2
MineralMan
(152,004 posts)I can't believe it's still out there...
Sweet Rosie Red
(186 posts)is a lovely, intelligent, sophisticated and very accomplished women who intimidates the small dicks and incels who populate the Magaverse. Theyre afraid her existence might give their little women ideas. She also intimidates Maga women because they cant hide their surrender of identity and lack of accomplishments behind their skin color and faith.
So the insults serve a double purpose. The men want her to be invisible, and they all want to show their little women how theyll be treated if they ever try to assert themselves. Its a psychological fence line at the kitchen door!
I only have one problem: In my next life, do I want to be like Michele Obama or AOC?
Thank you for the history. It validates everything Ive been thinking!
Biophilic
(6,775 posts)No wonder they are afraid of her. She is awesome. she makes me proud to be a woman.
Mustellus
(421 posts)... Melinia's naked porfolio is still available on the internet. No one can dare make the claim that she is a man.....
ananda
(35,778 posts)...
MorbidButterflyTat
(4,949 posts)progressoid
(53,540 posts)Ironically, one of our clients (who was formerly a man) looked a lot like Melania. Especially in the kidney area.
GiqueCee
(5,038 posts)... spawned in the bottom of an outhouse have no other recourse by which to elevate themselves but to attack those who are innately superior to them by every possible metric. But the schadenfreude is especially sweet for those who have been their favorite victims for more than four hundred years.
Lonestarblue
(13,629 posts)Read the whole piece from Wikipedia. It is horrifying and inhumane as the doctor doing experimental surgeries on her could have used anesthesia and chose not to. It seems clear that he saw her as less than human.
I could not find a photo I remember seeing years ago of Anarcha on a bed with chains hanging nearby to restrain her during the pain of surgery with no anesthesia. Dr. Sims was honored for his heinous experiments and became known as the father of gynecology.
"Anarcha Westcott (c. 1828 June 27, 1869) was an enslaved woman who is known as the "mother of modern gynecology" for having undergone a series of experimental surgical procedures conducted by medical doctor J. Marion Sims, without the use of anesthesia, in order to develop treatments for vesicovaginal fistula and rectovaginal fistula resulting from traumatic childbirth, primarily aimed at benefitting white female patients.[1] Sims's medical experimentation on Anarcha and other enslaved women, and its role in the development of modern gynaecology, has generated controversy among medical historians, particularly because enslaved women have not had the right to refuse involvement."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcha_Westcott
TheProle
(4,198 posts)But casting this as an exclusive issue of race is a little off the mark, in my opinion.
Politics in the US engenders hatred and that hate manifests in insults against political enemies.
People are cruel and it's not the province of a single race or political persuasion...

MorbidButterflyTat
(4,949 posts)A bit disingenuous without context.
progressoid
(53,540 posts)mcar
(46,534 posts)RandomNumbers
(19,302 posts)in the case of Michelle Obama.
Deliberately misgendering anyone is sick bullshit. Especially calling a woman a "man" JUST BECAUSE she doesn't comport herself according to the name-callers fantasy of womanhood ... or (as for some in the case of Michelle), intentionally as in insult ... it's misogynistic bullying, period.
I agree that the being Black adds another dimension to it. But it is sick regardless.
It's almost like a large segment of America thinks bullying is okay.
mucholderthandirt
(1,803 posts)That's what they claim about any woman who's working, making her own life, being happy without a man. We can't possibly be "normal" if we don't want to be little trad wife slaves, so we must really be men.