Michelle Obama is facing backlash after joking with actress Sharon Stone on her podcast that if men could get pregnant, “there would be trophies given” for it. The comment, which was made while the two discussed pregnancy and the different ways men and women experience parenthood, quickly drew criticism online. Keep reading for more information.
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Michelle Obama Jokes About Pregnancy
The comments came during the Wednesday, September 30th episode of IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, which featured actress Sharon Stone discussing her own experience with pregnancy and abortion as a teenager, as well as broader concerns about women's reproductive healthcare. Stone argued that men would receive very different treatment if they experienced pregnancy, joking that "if men got pregnant, you could get an abortion from a vending machine."
Obama then joined in with her own hypothetical about how men would handle childbirth, saying there would be "the birth-Olympics" and imagining men filming themselves in labor and "honoring their pain."
"There would be trophies given," she said, and then joked that men would congratulate one another for giving birth without the use of an epidural. "Well done, dude! Bob, you did that without an epidural!" she laughed.
Social Media Platforms
Across social media platforms, many users didn't appreciate the joke. "Just like some women can already do?" one person asked on Instagram. "What's the humor here??"
"The ignorance is astounding," wrote another user.
"Imagine mocking men for something that women have been asking to be taken seriously about for decades," wrote another.
"What point was she even trying to make?" asked the next.
"Women deserve recognition for what they go through during pregnancy too, but this joke missed the mark," added another.
"That was an incredibly strange thing to joke about," a final user said.
