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During an interview on MS NOW with Jonathan Capehart, former first lady Michelle Obama says we have to pick leaders who don’t rob women of their femininity: CAPEHART: “You write this, ‘When you’re a woman in the public eye, you’re often reduced first and foremost to your physical appearance.’ You also write, ‘If someone wants to take something away from a woman, they will try to rob her of her femininity, her beauty.’ We have current examples of this right now —”OBAMA: “Yes, we do.”CAPEHART: “— particularly aimed at —”OBAMA: “Surprise, surprise. And I —”CAPEHART: “— at female reporters.”OBAMA: “I had written the book before that, before all that.”CAPEHART: “Right. Why does it persist? What will it take to shame folks into stopping what you describe there?”OBAMA: “You know, look, we — we have to pick leaders that don’t do that, you know. (Cheering and Applause) I — look, it is — it is hard to — I can’t get into the minds of people who are cruel and mean. My empathy in me says that that comes from a place of brokenness and insecurity and at a certain stage in life, it is not fixable. It is, you know, planted in there. You know, the question that we have to ask ourselves is, well, why are we OK with it? You know, people are who they are. So, you know, in — in — in the present day situation, we’re here because either we did do something stupid or we didn’t do anything. And we’re all culpable in it. So surprise, surprise. So we’ve got to want more for ourselves first. You know, and I think the conversation with us as women and as black women and the men that we’re with, you know, we got to figure out, well, are you with us? Are you with you? Are you going to vote your interest? Are you going to vote our interest? These are all conversations that I think we need to be having first within ourselves, which is why the look to me starts with us, right? Because people will call you out your name as they say how it affects you starts with how we feel about ourselves.”Source: MS NOW/Grabien