Amazing AOC

Featured image is from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram (@aoc) — Link to image: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj-ugo0lZod/?igshid=wh38bm1foswo

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (or AOC, as she’s more commonly referred to) is a congresswoman who represents New York’s 14th congressional district. A Democrat on paper, but a democratic socialist at heart, she was elected for the first time in 2018—the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress, might I add—and re-elected this year. She’s also a total badass who worked as a waitress and bartender before joining Congress, but who chose to run for office after our absolute gem of a president was elected in 2016. I could go on and on about how incredible this woman is, but Google is a thing and I need to move along. However, I will add that she shares a birth year with Taylor Swift (AOC is exactly 2 months older than Taylor) which gives her brownie points in my opinion, and no I will not be elaborating upon that further.

It’s clear that I think AOC is awesome, but there are a lot of people who don’t. Not anyone whose opinion I value, but I digress. She receives a ton of hate, and I’d like to talk a little bit about why (especially because she seems to be a bit of a genius when it comes to interacting with young voters)…

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For starters, the woman seems to face ridiculous criticism that male politicians simply don’t have to deal with. I was having a conversation with one of my mom’s friends—let’s call her Ella—and I mentioned how much I like AOC. Well, Ella didn’t agree. Why, you may ask? Oh, literally only because she wore expensive clothes on the cover of Vanity Fair. The only reason Ella could provide for not liking AOC was a regurgitated, sad excuse she likely saw on some obscure conservative website (if not the dreaded Fox News itself). Even though she didn’t get to keep the clothes, Ella (aided by conservative media trolls) tried to claim a double standard existed between AOC’s democratic socialist stance and her decision to wear the nice clothes offered by Vanity Fair for the specific purpose of being on their cover. Aside from the simple fact that that piece of criticism is stupid (sorry not sorry), AREN’T THERE MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS TO BE PRESSED ABOUT? Isn’t our president still acting like a baby and trying to undermine democracy because he lost an election? WHY for the love of ALL THINGS GOOD IN THIS WORLD are we still picking women apart over straight up dumb sh*t while the literal president gets away with soooooo much worse? I can’t.

RELATED POST: https://shoutoutjmu.com/2019/04/15/when-is-it-enough-the-attack-on-congresswomen-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-ilhan-omar/

Earlier this year, a TikTok trend went viral. Women started using the sound of AOC talking about Representative Ted Yoho accosting her on the steps of the Capitol. In the sound, she talks about how he spoke to her, including the disgusting quote from the excerpt of this article. Harassment and abuse from men is likely nothing new to any woman, but how is it that he can talk to her like that without receiving massive amounts of backlash, but she couldn’t make a simple wardrobe decision without being villainized? It’s bullshit. Anyway, to learn more about AOC and some other super dope, kickass women who ran for Congress in 2018, watch Knock Down the House on Netflix!