I have absolutely no respect for people who spread the racist and transphobic conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama was born male.
None.
This lie has been debunked repeatedly, yet people keep recycling it as though repetition will turn it into evidence. Michelle Obama was born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson. There is no credible evidence for the claim that she was born “Michael” or assigned male at birth.
But this is about more than one lie about one woman.
It is about the willingness to treat Black women’s bodies, voices, and appearance as public property. Apparently, anyone with an internet connection gets to inspect them and decide whether they qualify as women.
And some Black men participate in this bullshit when they should know better.
Black women get called “masculine” for being tall, strong, outspoken, athletic, angry, or unwilling to make themselves small. A deeper voice becomes suspicious. Short hair becomes suspicious. Muscles become suspicious.
Even confidence becomes suspicious.
Women of other races can possess those same characteristics, but Black women are too often treated as though they have violated some rule of womanhood by possessing them.
Who made that rule? And why are we helping enforce it?
Think about the scrutiny directed at Venus and Serena Williams. Think about Brittney Griner and Grace Jones. Think about how quickly people turn a Black woman’s strength, stature, or appearance into an accusation.
The details of each woman’s experience differ. But the impulse to inspect, mock, and police Black women’s bodies is familiar as hell.
I hear echoes of Malcolm X’s criticism of the disrespect and lack of protection Black women face. Decades later, we are still watching people turn that disrespect into entertainment.
And the supposed defense of Michelle Obama sometimes falls into the same trap.
People point to her children, her marriage, her clothes, or how feminine she looks, as though the right combination of evidence will finally satisfy the people attacking her.
We should challenge the lie. But we should also challenge the premise.
A woman does not have to give birth, wear dresses, have a particular body shape, or meet somebody’s beauty standard to deserve respect.
Michelle Obama does not need an exception made for her height or her facial features. There is nothing about those things that needs explaining away.
Nor should defending her require treating transgender women as an insult she must be separated from. The conspiracy is false, and its use of trans identity as a weapon is part of what makes it ugly.
Being transgender is not a disgrace. Lying about someone’s identity to humiliate them is disgraceful.
The people spreading this story often try to demean Barack Obama at the same time. In their telling, supposedly exposing his wife would somehow diminish his manhood.
That tells us something about the prejudices doing the work here. Black womanhood becomes something to ridicule. Black manhood becomes something to undermine. Transgender identity becomes something to sneer at.
And the whole thing gets passed around as a joke.
What, exactly, is funny?
The contempt for Black women? The attempt to humiliate a Black family? The idea that somebody’s gender can be determined by studying a photograph and making shit up?
I do not find any of that clever.
You do not have to like Michelle Obama. You do not have to agree with her politics, admire her speeches, buy her books, or defend her husband’s administration.
There are legitimate things to discuss and criticize.
But disagreement does not entitle you to invent a different identity for her or subject her body to some imaginary gender inspection.
And being Black does not make participation in that harassment less anti-Black.
If you are a Black man spreading this lie, ask yourself why you are so eager to help people degrade a Black woman. Ask yourself whose approval you are seeking and what, exactly, you think our community gains from your participation.
The same goes for Black women who join in. Familiarity with this kind of scrutiny should give us more reason to reject it.
I am not going to insult somebody’s mother, grandmother, or partner to make that point. Those women do not deserve to have their appearance dragged into this either.
That is the whole damn problem: too many people think a woman’s appearance is fair game whenever they want to win an argument.
It needs to stop.
Black women do not owe you a particular kind of femininity. They do not owe you access to their private lives. And they do not owe you proof that they are women.
Criticize what Michelle Obama actually says and does if you have an argument to make.
But stop spreading this racist, transphobic bullshit and pretending it is political commentary.