On Friday (Nov.14), Michelle Obama hosted a live conference, with Tracee Ellis Ross as its host, to discuss “Beauty, Culture & Confidence.” Throughout the hour-long discussion, the former First Lady didn’t hold back her thoughts about harmful beauty standards—specifically, how straight hair is pedestalized and “traps” Black women. “Let me explain something to White people,” Obama said to the crowd. “Our hair comes out of our heads naturally, in a curly pattern. So when we’re straightening it to follow your beauty standards, we are trapped by the straightness.”
Michelle continued: “That’s why so many of us can’t swim, and we run away from the water. [I] [mean] people won’t even go to the gym because we tryna to keep our hair straight for y’all. The IMO Podcast host calls the process of maintaining straight hair “exhausting” and time-consuming. She added,
