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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman elected to the US Congress. And it shows! It shows in the way she refuses to put up and shut up. It shows in the way she refuses to be grateful because the white boys let her in their club called Congress https://www.feministgiant.com/p/essay-aoc-the-disruptor
Remember when Ted Yoho called AOC a “fucking bitch” last year? I cannot recall another female lawmaker get up in Congress and say “Not today. Not me” in the way AOC did in response. https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/1286328181578964993?s=20
The election of AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and more recently Cori Bush, was a big fuck you to white supremacists, misogynists, Islamophobes, racists. They are Black and women of colour, including Muslim women, who refuse to stay in their appointed place
"On my very first day of orientation, I got my first death threat. It was a serious one. They took me aside, the FBI ... I didn't even get sworn in yet & someone wanted me dead for just existing. More came later. Uglier, more violent,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib
They reject the way so many women of my generation olde were socialized not to show "weakness" when we're finally "allowed" into once all-male spaces. They look white supremacist patriarchy square in the eye and says "Fuck you, I will expose all this fuckery because it must end."
They are disruptors: You will remember Rep. Rashida Tlaib's "Impeach the motherfucker" during a party celebrating her election in 2018. You should also remember that in 2016, along with 12 other women, she disrupted a speech Trump was giving in Detroit. https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/08/24/rashida-tlaib-why-disrupted-donald-trump/89251860/
They are complicators: I wrote this on the importance of Reps. Tlaib and Ilhan Omar's election to the US Congress in 2018. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/rashida-tlaib-ilhan-omar-make-midterms-history-while-complicating-stereotypes-ncna934561
They are disturbers: they force onto the agenda what for too long U.S. politicians ignored. As well as being the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, Tlaib and Omar question power unaccustomed to being disturbed. https://zora.medium.com/trumps-incitement-against-congresswomen-omar-and-tlaib-is-dangerous-8e276b7e22e6
And they are targeted by white supremacists, right wing fuckery. Again and again. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-attacks-ilhan-omar-echo-his-lock-her-chants-ncna1035701
In September, Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on her candidate Facebook page an image of herself holding a gun alongside images of Reps. AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib and encouraged going on the "offense against these socialists." https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/04/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-gun-post-squad/index.html
The white supremacist fascists of the GOP Trump Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert are obsessed with and have positioned themselves as the "anti-Squad." “the antidote to the Squad.” She said she’s tired of no one challenging AOC’s agenda. https://www.feministgiant.com/p/a-white-supremacist-womans-place
And that is why AOC's Instagram Live and the testimonies in the House that she organized are so important - to say that white supremacist terror - be it before or on Jan. 6 or the day to day - must be held accountable. Listen to Rep. Cori Bush
It is so important that they refuse the "Put up and shut up and be grateful we let you in the men's club" thinking that socialized women of my genderation and older women to put a "brave" face on it.
That is why it is important that they are DISRUPTORS https://www.feministgiant.com/p/essay-aoc-the-disruptor
More essays soon.
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