Obama Warned His Daughters About Toxic Masculinity, How Boys Are Taught to ‘Excel in Sports and Sexual Conquest’
Barack Obama said he’s discussed toxic masculinity with his daughters and concluded there was “never a full reckoning of who our dads were, what they had in them,” during Monday’s episode of Renegades: Born in the USA alongside co-host Bruce Springsteen.
“I talk to my daughters’ friends about boys growing up and, so much of popular culture tells [boys] that the only clear, defining thing about being a man, being masculine, is you excel in sports and sexual conquest,” Barack Obama said during the latest episode of the podcast titled, “Wrestling with Ghosts: American Men.
Bruce @Springsteen and I both had complicated relationships with our fathers. In our latest conversation on Renegades: Born in the USA, we discuss our upbringing, masculinity, and the role our fathers played in helping us become the men we are today. https://t.co/FNriJIUw3r pic.twitter.com/tqGXS6SzMj
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 22, 2021
The former president, father to Malia, 22, and Sasha, 19, added that some young men consider violence a masculine trait and noted: “Violence, if it’s healthy at least, is subsumed into sports.”
“What lessons we should learn from it. All that kind of got buried,” he added.
Barack Obama made headlines last month after claiming during an episode of the podcast that he once punched someone for calling him a racial slur.
“Listen, when I was in school, I had a friend. We played basketball together,” he said. “And one time we got into a fight and he called me a coon. And I remember I popped him in the face and broke his nose.”
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