I don’t intend for this to be a political blog, and this post is not about politics, but I want to talk about somebody in the political spotlight right now so bear with me.
I like Michelle Obama. No, scratch that. I LOVE Michelle Obama. She reminds me of so many of the black women in my life that there is no way that I couldn’t love her. In a lot of ways I hope to be that confident and poised whenever I get into the spotlight (however big or small that spotlight might be).
So I’m reading this article on newsweek.com and I’m thinking about how much I identify with what the writer is saying. Michelle is stuck between a rock and a hard place because she is being her black, female self. It is a shame that long-ago placed stereotypes made it so that strong black women are seen as emasculating on one hand and sex-crazed on the other. But that begs the question…how can a black woman be herself in a world that, far too often, wants to make her out to be something else?
Black women love black men (at least most of them do…..and I certainly do). In fact, in most surveys, the majority of black women say they will not date anyone other than a black man. And here we have an example (all too rare) of black love and yet Michelle has been (and probably will continue to be) criticized as being emasculating because she has said that Barack doesn’t pick up his socks? What’s emasculating about that statement?
So I continue to sit here and wonder….how does a black woman not get stuck between a rock and a hard place.
East Of Midnight 
What is emasculating about not saying that someone doesn’t pick up their socks? Women of many races have that complaint about their husbands.
Try about saying – sheesh
If not picking up his socks is the one thing Michelle chose to comment on, I’d say she (and he) are doing pretty well. For the record, my husband does NOT pick up his socks, and he doesn’t find it emasculating at all when I mention this to others. If this is being nitpicked, it’s just ridiculous.
“What’s emasculating about that statement?”
Nothing. I thought, if anything, it was quite “masculating” as did others here. 😉
Ridiculous! People said the same thing about Senator Clinton back when she was First Lady. Misogyny is alive and well in the U.S. I think it will be a very long time before this country elects a woman president. Why, she would “emasculate” every man in this country! Sheesh.