“Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice,” Obama said at a conference in Boston with Dr. Roxane Gay. “It doesn’t say as much about Hillary, and everybody’s trying to worry about what it means for Hillary and no, no, no, what does this mean for us, as women? That we look at those two candidates, as women, and many of us said, ‘He’s better for me. His voice is more true to me.’ To me that just says, you don’t like your voice. You like the thing you’re told to like.”
Dr. Gay kickstarts the event by saying to Obama “Only two people can get me up that early in the morning: you or Beyoncé.” A ripple of laughter groans away across the audience, as Michelle and Roxane dive headfirst into what will be an enlightening event. I feel like the world has been sat, tensely waiting to hear what queen of the entire world, Michelle Obama, really had to say about this election. There have been a few quotes here and there, but none that dug deep into her actual thoughts and feelings. As the brains behind the whole Obama operation (not to diminish Barack’s successes), Michelle has served the United States as diligently as any President, and I know I certainly hang on to every word she says. So I was ecstatic to hear Obama’s honesty. She can be truly honest, now she doesn’t have to worry about the backlash affecting her husband’s presidency. But there will be a backlash, because she’s a woman, and because she’s black. But let’s not dwell on the negative here. “One of the things I learned in the process was that I really can do anything,” Obama replies to Gay’s question of what had she learned and how had she changed since becoming First Lady. She’s inspirational beyond the cliche, beyond saccharine quotes of bravery. She has been butchered by reporters, had every part of her and her family’s lives inspected with a magnifying glass, and been insulted and slurred more than many of us can care to imagine. So when she says she can do anything, we believe her.
Obama speaks with charm and eloquence as she tackles difficult questions about Donald Trump and her life. “When you’ve been in that position, you have a different perspective,” says Michelle about how she wants the human embodiment of a fascist potato Donald Trump to succeed as a president, despite her criticisms. It makes sense; who’d want to see their country in a wreck right after they tried to make it better? Gay also asks the ever important question of which song from Beyoncé.’s Lemonade is her favorite (Love Drought).
Additionally, Obama announced that she’ll be writing a book, about living our authentic selves, featuring stories from her childhood. “How did that little girl get to be here? How many of us have sat in a classroom somewhere and watched a man go on and on and on?” she asks the audience. “We’ve been socialized to sit there and be quiet. We think in our heads ‘maybe I’m wrong.’ We have to be perfect.” We don’t know what the future will hold for the Obamas, but what I’m sure of is that we haven’t seen the best of Michelle Obama yet.
