Obama Admits, "Men Have Been Getting on My Nerves Recently," and, I Mean, Same

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 19 July 2018

Hey-o, remember when the president of the free world thought of women as autonomous beings and not objects whose genitalia one can grab at will? That guy, who was certainly not perfect but also never practiced diplomacy by pretending to confuse the words "would" and "wouldn't," is getting pretty exasperated, too. "Men have been getting on my nerves lately," Obama informed a Johannesburg crowd yesterday at an Obama Foundation event. "Every day I read the newspaper, and I just think, like, ‘Brothers, what’s wrong with you guys? What’s wrong with us?'"

Same, Obama. Same.

The former (but forever) president was speaking about the importance of women being involved in politics, and just how critical it is that their voices are considered equal to, I don't know, someone who has described women as "fat," "slobs," "pigs," and "disgusting animals." A women in the crowd asked Obama how he'd suggest women get into politics in a country like Kenya.

"Women, in particular," Obama replied, "I want you to get more involved."

He added:

Because men have been getting on my nerves lately. I mean, every day I read the newspaper, and I just think, like, ‘Brothers, what’s wrong with you guys? What’s wrong with us?’ I mean, we’re violent, we’re bullying. You know, just not handling our business. So I think empowering more women on the continent―that, right away, is going to lead to some better policies.

Obama was speaking specifically to politics within Africa, but it's no great stretch to suggest that he had Trump et al in mind, too. In a not-super-subtle nod to Trump's Russia snafu, he said Tuesday: "We see the utter loss of shame of political leaders when they're caught in a lie, and they just double down and lie some more."

With his recommendation for men in politics in Africa—that they should, essentially, back off and let women have a seat at the table—Obama doubles down on his self-described status as a feminist. A central tenet of male feminism, after all, is for men and male-identifying individuals to amplify women and femmes' voices. To stand back for a second, recognize the privilege that they own, and consider how to use it to raise the voices of a gender more oppressed.

Miss u, Barack.

Jenny is the Digital Director at Marie Claire. A graduate of Leeds University, and a native of London, she moved to New York in 2012 to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was the first intern at Bustle when it launched in 2013 and spent five years building out its news and politics department. In 2018 she joined Marie Claire, where she held the roles of Deputy Digital Editor and Director of Content Strategy before becoming Digital Director. Working closely with Marie Claire's exceptional editorial, audience, commercial, and e-commerce teams, Jenny oversees the brand's digital arm, with an emphasis on driving readership. When she isn't editing or knee-deep in Google Analytics, you can find Jenny writing about television, celebrities, her lifelong hate of umbrellas, or (most likely) her dog, Captain. In her spare time, she writes fiction: her first novel, the thriller EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD, was published with Minotaur Books (UK) and Little, Brown (US) in February 2024 and became a USA Today bestseller. She has also written extensively about developmental coordination disorder, or dyspraxia , which she was diagnosed with when she was nine.