GQ Magazine just dropped a massive 7000-word article on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and to hear the reactions of some of her haters it’s as if it had been dropped directly on their toes.
Centered around several lengthy discussions AOC had with GQ correspondent Wesley Lowery in recent months, the article discusses a wide range of topics, from the personal to the political, including the sexual assault she endured in her barista days, the politics of the Green New Deal, and the perils of conventional masculinity.
It’s that last topic that seems to have aroused the most, well lets just call it passionate response from her haters online, many of whom took to Twitter to make sure everybody knows that AOC has no right to talk about the subject.
The assorted tweeters give an assortment of reasons why AOC should be disqualified from speaking about masculinity — she’s a liberal, a Democrat, a feminist, a woman. But the most striking reason is the one given in the final tweet there: she’s not a “real woman.”
Now Lina Money here doesn’t explain what a “real woman” is or why AOC isn’t one. But other commenters had no problem answering this question: AOC isn’t a real woman because she isn’t with a real man. Her fiancé isn’t some square-jawed, wide-chested Chad; he’s a soy boy beta cuck with a problem beard.
Some took him to task for not punching a comedian making fun of his fiancée on the Capitol steps.
Others declared that real women only like “toxic” males because SCIENCE.
I’m just glad I don’t live in this guy’s head. In her comments in this article, and in both her personal and political life, AOC makes clear that none of us have to, and that this is a very good thing, for us and for the world.
Follow me on Mastodon.
Send tips to dfutrelle at gmail dot com.
We Hunted the Mammoth relies on support from you, its readers, to survive. So please donate here if you can, or at David-Futrelle-1 on Venmo.
“she was puzzled why there were no cops… all along her fiancé was right there…”
No one, not even men, should be forced to be bodyguards if that’s not their jobs, doubly so if someone else is supposed to be doing it. Misandrist much? Also, I don’t know what incident this is referring to, but if the police were supposed to be there but weren’t for some reason, and things happened to go bad, you could hardly expect a lone person of any gender to fight off a mob, regardless. Nobody is Batman, or Rambo. (There are probably better examples but I can’t think of any offhand.)
@Snowberry: This guy.
@Snowberry
That’s actully the ironic things I found with such ilk, and I think I mentioned it before but I do believe it bears repeating for the record: their is no greater Misandrist: than a Misogynist
The last two words of your headline seem unnecessary.
Wow, they’re upset. Did she touch a nerve?
I’m a cis white male and I find the idea of toxic masculinity very interesting. First off, yes it exists and it’s a problem. I just wanted to say that up front so no one has to wonder about where I stand.
I’ve followed this blog for years and rarely comment. I’ve used a different name in the past but don’t even remember it. So the other day I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a meme about She Hulk twerking and men just being toxic and needlessly mean “because women.” I made a comment basically saying, “It’s so easy to trigger men, why are they so fragile?”
The torrent of comments was/is astounding. I’m up to nearly 200 comments and they all read like the ones directed at AOC. I truly don’t understand the fragility of masculinity.
In related political news. Bannon had to do the perp walk; in handcuffs. There’s footage on YouTube etc, but I have a bit of a fondness for courtroom artist interpretations.
I don’t see any mention of Ben Shapiro’s complaint on Twitter that AOC, Jennifer Lawrence, and Meghan Markle’s interviews in GC are “indistinguishable” and therefore the merging of celebrity culture and political office is complete…
On the one hand, yes, three women of about the same age, who’ve become politically active as adults, talking writers with the same editorial oversite, about their experiences of being the subject of invasive interest into their lives (remember that Lawrence was the subject of “the fappening”) are going to hit a lot of the same notes.
But on the other hand, Shapiro is clearly insisting that because these women are saying the same things they are all ignorable.
A woman would damn well have an understanding of masculinity that a man wouldn’t, in terms of its effect on women.
I wonder how many of these guys spent hour after hour pontificating on the nature of women.
I’ll give them the problematic beard. It drastically imbalances his face. Take some off the bottom and it would be perfectly fine. But it’s his face, so it’s his choice. And apparently AOC doesn’t mind, and they’re the only two whose opinions about his beard count.
Looks like she hit a nerve. Why they care so much about what a former bartender/barista who doesn’t even represent their district thinks is another puzzler.
@Alan: fervent hope we see Agent Orange the same way. I want LOTS of photos of him with his hairdon’t gone and no orange makeup.
@Allandrel: Good point.
@GSS ex-noob:
Cue the endless conspiracy theories about the person on trial not being the real ex-prez.
… That man looks like a yeti. Incredible that these guys think he’s not masculine enough. Maybe they’re jealous?
We know about masculinity because it’s society’s default position.
@Cyborgette:
I think they’re talking about the pose. It’s like someone went through video looking for the one frame that had the most cringy curled up ‘limp wristed’ sort of pose. And I say ‘limp wristed’ deliberately because you just know that folks that would complain about this are going to be focusing on that and those stereotypes.
@GSS ex-noob:
I’ll give them the problematic beard. It drastically imbalances his face. Take some off the bottom and it would be perfectly fine. But it’s his face, so it’s his choice. And apparently AOC doesn’t mind, and they’re the only two whose opinions about his beard count.
One detail that ruffles feathers, I think, is that he’s got a decent growth of scalp hair accompanying said beard, rather than the Three B’s I swear I’m seeing on just about every blue-collar straight millennial white guy: beard, buzz cut, and ball cap. (And what, nobody’s yet played the ginger card? I recall that particular prejudice having been the basis of a South Park episode, suggesting that it’s not solely a British thing.)
Trump is suing Hilary Clinton for, something.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.610157/gov.uscourts.flsd.610157.267.0.pdf
Judge is not impressed.
@Snowberry: eh, endless conspiracy theories are going to happen anyway, so LOCK HIM UP! Buzz-cut head (so everyone can see how bald he is), no makeup troweled on (so he’s not as orange as the jumpsuit). It’ll be good to see the man behind the (tacky) curtain in his true form. Maybe make him wear a t-shirt and jeans, or at least a jumpsuit that’s the size he pretends to be.
@Battering Ram: Who is that guy? Looks like it’s from a movie. Excellent editing.
@FMOx: All the fedora-wearers who keep it on to hide their baldness and the MRAs who can’t grow a beard are just jealous of him. If Riley is an ancestral family surname, that’s where the red hair comes from (and also the prejudice against them).
@Alan: I am loving all the snarky judges these days. Thanks for bringing the legal papers to our attention.
“Donkey-faced”? One thing AOC is not is donkey-faced.
@Alan Robertshaw
Is he suing her for… the FBI investigation into collusion between him and Russia? [Is that something you can be sued for as a private citizen???] Plus more conspiracy stuff? And the upshot is that the judge agrees with Clinton that there is no merit to the lawsuit? Full confession: I did not read all 60 pages because my head hurt after only a few.
OT: Condolences on your Queen, if you were fond of her. As you know, I’m a union woman, so I’m very interested in all of the strikes in the UK being called off because the Queen died. In all of the official material it’s a mark of respect to the Queen, etc. I’m wondering if, as institutions, UK unions typically have great respect for the Queen, or it’s more that they would lose public sympathy for the cause if, for example, a rail strike caused extreme disruption during a time of national mourning, etc?
Long, but worth a read:
https://truthout.org/audio/fascism-has-gone-mainstream/
@ Alan
That judge is really not impressed.
So much restrained disgust –
more –
I found this particularly amusing for some reason: “Knowledge that Florida is a State in the United States does not equate to knowledge that Defendants’ actions will have consequences in Florida.”
I skimmed parts, but basically it can be summed up as:
Plaintiff and/or his lawyers do not understand how law works or what words mean.
…RICO? Seriously? That doesn’t come even remotely close to applying here.
Plaintiff fails to allege any substantial injury and mostly doesn’t try.
…Running against you in an election is not an “injury”.
Most of the alleged actions, if real and proven injurious, would be past the statute of limitations anyway.
…No, we can’t grant exemptions because you were “busy”.
Speculation on the actions of unknown and possibly nonexistent entities is not evidence.
Plaintiff does not understand how the internet works.
Does this explain the Florida Man phenomenon?
@ big titty demon
Thank you.
It has been a bit weird. I found all the Diana grieving a bit bewildering, so I was surprised how much the death of the Queen hit me. I think though Macron put his finger on it in his rather excellent tribute. It’s the loss of something that had been such a fixture. She “represented a sense of eternity” as he so eloquently put it. I guess it must be like New Yorkers of a certain age notice a gap on the skyline.
I did have the opportunity to meet the Queen a few times; but I always turned it down. I always thought “I’ll do it next time”. So, bizarrely, she’s rather like the Ramones in that regard.