Michelle Obama he has (among others) the merit of always speaking loud and clear, without shortcuts and omissions. During an episode of his IMO podcastwhich he shares with his brother Craig Robinson, the former US first lady reported the psychological pressure to which they are subjected every day womenon which the not too implicit request of is serious always having to appear aesthetically pleasing to be taken seriously.
Michelle Obama denounces the psychological pressure on female aesthetics
Speaking on her podcast, a charming Michelle Obama underlined: «When people want to belittle a woman, what they do is attack its outward appearance».
Then the former lawyer, 61 years old, added: «And this it happens in any partyin any political wing. Women feel they always have to show up in public with this Barbie doll image to avoid ending up attacked and judged. All this happens to young actresses, girls on social platforms.. It’s a cultural habit rooted in the world we live in to attack women for their physicality».
The attack on women’s external appearance as a devaluation of the person
As underlined by psychologist and psychoanalyst Elena Benvenuti, «the attack on a woman’s external appearance is, unfortunately, a form of strategic devaluation: it aims to take away its authority and credibility, starting from beauty. The problem is that when society imposes the ideal of perfectionwomen internalize the idea that their value depends on external judgment.”
So how do you defend yourself? «We need to first recognize the mechanism for what it is and stop making it our own: not everything that is judged has real value. And then, one step at a time, it is up to us to build ourselves a more solid personal narrativemade up of skills, clear and insurmountable boundariesall while giving space to people and relationships that don’t measure a woman’s worth by her appearancebut from its interiority and its personal value.”
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