Arwa Mahdawi: AOC represents the future of America: women who refuse to be silenced

By Dilip -
When Brett Kavanaugh threw a temper tantrum in front of the Senate judiciary committee, Donald Trump Jr praised his “tone.” Men like Kavanaugh and Yoho are not penalized for their “passion”; they’re not penalized for showing their emotion. Women are. Show too much emotion and you’re “hysterical”, you’re “crazy”, you’re a “nasty woman”. And so you learn to control your fury, to modulate your emotion. You learn to apologize for your passion.

 AOC’s speech about Ted Yoho’s ‘apology’ was a comeback for the ages

But no matter how measured you are, no matter how reasonable, it’s never enough. A New York Times article about Ocasio-Cortez’s speech cynically noted the congresswoman “excels at using her detractors to amplify her own political brand”. Instead of analyzing the cultural norms that allow men like Yoho to belittle women with impunity, it cast Ocasio-Cortez as a disruptive opportunist. A woman standing up for her dignity is reduced to “brand-building”. The article is a perfect example of what Ocasio-Cortez was referring to when she talked about Yoho’s actions being supported by an “entire structure of power”.

That structure of power, it’s important to note, encompasses race and gender. The only thing that irritates men like Yoho more than an outspoken woman is an outspoken woman who also has the temerity not to be white. “I cannot apologize for my passion or for loving my God, my family and my country,” Yoho told the House. The subtext of that, of course, is that women like Ocasio-Cortez do not belong in “his” country. As Ocasio-Cortez pointed out in her speech, it’s a sentiment she hears a lot: “The president of the United States last year told me to go home to another country, with the implication that I don’t even belong in America.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/25/aoc-speech-represents-future-america-women

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