Take Up Space by The Editors of New York Magazine

Author:The Editors of New York Magazine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Published: 2022-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

What are the metaphors for Ocasio-Cortez’s political performance during the hot, horrible, historic summer of 2020? A trapeze artist over a shark tank. A climber without a rope. The higher she ascended, the more fatal the risk of her fall—yet she kept strengthening herself.

On July 20, Florida Republican representative Ted Yoho called Ocasio-Cortez a “fucking bitch” on the steps of the Capitol. This was bad, impolite, but the epithet wasn’t what pissed her off. After all, she had been called a “fucking bitch,” among other such “little comments,” a million times before at the restaurant, on the subway, on the streets of New York. She had thrown guys like Ted Yoho out of her bar. After the incident, “I honestly thought I was going to pack it up and go home,” she said later. “It’s just another day, right?”

No, what pissed her off was Yoho’s non-apology, which he later made on the floor of the House. Like a boy caught throwing spitballs in school, he read from a script so quickly and in such a perfunctory monotone that his insincerity radiated off him. He denied he said “fucking bitch.” Maybe his remarks had been misconstrued, he said. He implied that, in any case, whatever he said was owed to his passion for causes and his political disagreements with Ocasio-Cortez, whom he didn’t specifically name. And he said that, as a father of daughters and a husband to a wife, “I’m very cognizant of my language.” Ocasio-Cortez took to the podium the next day. She wanted her remarks, as a matter of personal privilege, to be read into the congressional record for posterity’s sake. She had reflected on this matter, she said, and she hoped to make herself very clear. The ordinary, everyday degradation of women was one kind of problem, and for elected officials, including her own colleagues and the president of the United States, to use insulting, violent, and humiliating language was not acceptable. But this wasn’t what she was here to speak about, and she wasn’t going to stay up late waiting for a sincere apology from Ted Yoho, who seemed disinclined to offer one. “What I do have an issue with,” she continued, “is using women, our wives and daughters, as shields and excuses for poor behavior. Mr. Yoho mentioned that he has a wife and two daughters. I am two years younger than Mr. Yoho’s youngest daughter.” Here, Ocasio-Cortez paused, and when she continued, her voice shook. “I am someone’s daughter too. My father, thankfully, is not alive to see how Mr. Yoho treated his daughter. My mother got to see Mr. Yoho’s disrespect on the floor of this House, towards me, on television. And I am here because I have to show my parents that I am their daughter. And that they did not raise me to accept abuse from men.” No politician has ever described, as succinctly or with so much righteousness, the universal experience of being female.19 (MORE ON AOC’S YOHO SPEECH, SEE PAGE 309.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.