If this wasn’t a Freudian moment, then I don’t know what is.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama is fed up — not with politics, but with what she sees as a glaring double standard between how young men and women carry themselves.
On the latest episode of her “IMO” podcast, co-hosted with her brother Craig Robinson, Obama took aim at what she sees as an imbalance in confidence between the sexes. Speaking with Seinfeld and Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Obama lamented how long it takes for women to feel secure in their own skin — only to reach that point when society has largely stopped paying attention to them.
“We’re always hedging, you know, because in the back of our minds, we weren’t raised with the certainty of maleness that, you know – kind of the confidence that young men in their 30s have, which they haven’t earned. They just have it,” she told Louis-Dreyfus.
“You know, we don’t start feeling that and owning that until our 50s and 60s, at a time when we start to be treated as invisible in society,” she added.
What is she talking about?
Oh and just look at her face while she speaks.
I can see why Michelle and Barack Obama spend most of their time away from each other. Both are totally insufferable! pic.twitter.com/4S9HlifiHm
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) July 10, 2025
So what she really means to imply is that it wasn’t until her 60s she figured it out.
The conversation took a reflective turn after Louis-Dreyfus mentioned her growing friendship with legendary actress Jane Fonda, now 87, saying she was struck by “the breadth of her life” and how little attention older women receive despite their accomplishments.
“And it got me thinking about, wow, there’s so many women out there that are older… that have had these extraordinary lives, and we’re not hearing from them.”
Obama didn’t hold back in her agreement.
“We’ve talked about this a lot, how women, as we age, we get pushed out of the picture.”
Can you hear the jealousy?
“Yeah, it’s incredible,” Louis-Dreyfus replied.
The former First Lady went on to say that now, at 60, she finally feels the kind of confidence and assurance that younger men often display without hesitation.
“Now that I’m 60… this is really the first time in my life where I feel completely me, and I can absolutely embrace my wisdom,” Obama said. “I mean, because I think we, as women, we spend most of our lives saying, ‘Well, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.’ We qualify everything,”
“We apologize,” Louis-Dreyfus added.
“We apologize. We don’t want to put our opinions on the table because maybe we’re wrong,” Obama continued.
And right there shows she was pretty much projecting.
