When an elected official - a white man - calls another elected official - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina - a “fucking bitch” on the Capitol steps, it is indeed outrageously “nothing new” as she says. Racism & misogyny are veteran bedfellows.

BUT: there *is* something new about AOC & other women of colour recently been elected to Congress.

You think Yoho was the 1st man to call a congresswoman a “fucking bitch” or other epithets?

Fuck no.

But AOC et are looking at that white supremacist misogyny & saying “Fuck no.”

AOC became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She’s subjected to white supremacy, misogyny & ageism.

For too many old, white, wealthy male politicians, young powerful women of colour are terrifying. because they put patriarchy and its attendant oppressions on notice.

AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib’s very existence says they refuse to stay in their appointed place.

Election of AOC,Ilhan Omar,Rashida TlaibAyanna Pressley was a big fuck you to white supremacists, misogynists, Islamophobes, racists, & those who believe politics are domain of wealthy white men who seek to maintain economic & social status quo that keeps rest of us in our place

See that picture hanging on the wall behind Reps. Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
The US Congress is full of statues & pictures white men.
Omar & Tlaib: 1st Muslim women
Pressley: 1st Black woman from MA
Ocasio-Cortez: youngest woman

And it’s not just old, white and wealthy male politicians that AOC et al disrupt and terrify.

They disrupt and terrify white female politicians too, e.g. Nancy Pelosi and others. Women whose whiteness offered some protection, and women who knew how to play with and use rules.

Remember when Trump attacked the 4 lawmakers of colour - told them they should go “back to their countries” after they exposed inhumane conditions at concentration camps?

When the leader of your own party, Nancy Pelosi (a white woman) attacks you - congresswomen of colour - she opens the way for the president - a misogynist and white supremacist “leader” of the country - to attack you https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/outright-disrespectful-four-house-women-struggle-as-pelosi-isolates-them/2019/07/10/a33c63a8-a33f-11e9-b7b4-95e30869bd15_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.31a82be6ff03

The four congresswomen that both Pelosi and Trump singled out are women of colour who come from working class backgrounds.

Race, class, gender.

It is always about race, class, gender.

The disruption that AOC et al have caused to the US body politic is essential and incredible to see.

I’ll conclude with AOC’s words to Trump after he attacked them, which can equally apply to Yoho and all racist misogynist shits:

“you cannot accept that we don’t fear you...”

I write more about women and power in The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls.

I do not subscribe to the “I will vote for any woman” school of politics. I want women in power who subvert, not uphold, patriarchy. #7NecessarySins

Take the time to watch Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s full 10 min speech.

It is a lesson in feminism. She is exactly what I mean by a woman in power who subverts patriarchy

h/t @rerutled

#AOC

This speech will be taught in schools. It is an incredible example of feminist rhetoric. This is how to look white supremacist patriarchy in the eye and to say “Not today. Not me.” #AOC

And remember - there is a connection. When an elected official - a white man - calls another elected official - a Latina - a “fucking bitch” on the Capitol steps, don’t be shocked that a lawyer - a white man - hunted down a federal judge - a Latina - and murdered her son. #AOC https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/1285583386384506880