Michelle Obama: Barack's ‘Swaggalicious’

ashley.rae | June 20, 2016
DONATE
Font Size

Speaking at the United State of Women Summit on Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama referred to her husband, President Obama, as “swaggalicious” while bragging about the opportunities he has been able to provide for her because of his job as the leader of the free world.

During her talk at the conference, which was billed as a way to help women tackle gender equality issues and confront sexism, Michelle sat down with Oprah Winfrey to discuss her life as a woman and First Lady.

“Okay. I believe in service, I believe in helping people, I want people to feel fulfilled and empowered in their life, but still some days I think it’s just cool to be me,” Winfrey said.

“And I think that too, some days it’s just cool to be Oprah,” Michelle said.

Winfrey asked, “So I want to know, what are those days when you just say, ‘mmm mmm mmm, look at me in the White House!’”

“You know, there are a lot of those moments,” Michelle said. “You know, Prince and Stevie Wonder singing in the East Room—may he rest in peace—I mean, you know, those rare gifts of entertainment that the kind of music that we’ve been able to bring into the White House you know, sitting with the Pope, watching my mother and my daughters, talk to the pope.”

“That’s like a ‘mmm mmm mmm.’ You know, dinner with the Queen of England? ‘Mmm mmm mmm.’ You know, you try to play these moments off like, ‘Oh yes, yes, I know what I’m doing,’ but inside, you’re like, ‘mmm mmm mmm.’ Good lord. Watching my husband walk off of Marine One and go into the Oval Office it’s like ‘mmm mmm mmm.’ And you know he’s got that walk, right? Like ‘mmm mmm mmm.’”

“He’s got the swag,” Winfrey exclaimed. “Did he always have that swag or has he gotten swaggier?”

“No, he was very swaggalicious throughout,” Michelle responded.

Although the point of the conference was to help women learn how to achieve on their own (presumably without the help of men), part of Michelle’s discussion focused explicitly on how she has experienced things she never would have without her husband’s occupation.

Michelle’s comments also sexualized her husband and reduced him to his “swagger,” even though the United State of Women pledge includes the clause that participants will “call out sexism when [they] see it.”

donate