The US midterms saw a lot of firsts among the diverse pool of newly-elected officials. One of them is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest congresswoman in New York at 29, who’s facing some controversy recently. At the same time, they’re kinda funny and stupid too.
Alexandria is a democrat and right wing groups have been trying to bring her down by spreading “provocative” posts. Just a day before swearing in to office, she was criticized after—get this—a dancing video from her college days resurfaced. The New York Times noted that it was supposed to be a smear campaign to ruin the congresswoman’s reputation. Detractors called her dancing “scandalous,” among other things, because government officials apparently aren’t allowed to have fun in their youth.
Alexandria later showed she wasn’t fazed with this failed smear against her. In true millennial fashion, she posted another dancing video while entering her office.
A few days later, another controversy popped up claiming that a certain bathtub photo showed Alexandria in the nude. When you look at it, all you’ll see are a woman’s toes and a vape. But if you zoom in on the reflection on the faucet, there’s a blurry image of the woman’s face and bare breasts.
You can’t really tell who it is but, again, right-wing groups insisted that it was Alexandria. Why? Because someone overlayed a text that read, “alexandria ocasio-cortez.instagram.post. 9-3-2016.” Yup, that’s conclusive evidence, alright.
Alexandria and her team didn’t address the viral photo. But Motherboard reported that the woman in the photo isn’t the congresswoman. This is according to the original owner of the photo, Sydney Leathers, and one foot fetishist who debunked the mystery because, they said, it didn’t add up to Alexandria’s WikiFeet page. And yes, it exists.
Now, we’re not saying that Alexandria is a perfect politician. She’s been in the job for less than month and she’s already being criticized by concerned citizens over her proposed tax plan, as well as Whoopi Goldberg telling her to “learn the job” being acting recklessly.
But does that warrant all the attempts (albeit dumb) at humiliating her? Hell no. We can’t even believe that people are still using tactics to try and destroy a woman. They might’ve failed but the intentions don’t change. Imagine these people taking the time to dig up a wholesome college video and an old deleted photo from another woman’s account. You can bet that there are still many of them who are looking for similar dirt for the next viral “scandal.”
If you’re going to criticize Alexandria and every other political figure you don’t agree with, don’t resort to slut-shaming and objectification. Engage in meaningful discourse and don’t join the humiliation train for once.
Art by Marian Hukom
Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Seth Wenig via Inquirer.net
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