"I am a daughter, too." Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gives brilliant speech about hateful speech directed at women

I don't like her- not just because of that.

It's interesting that she champions the poor and disadvantaged. From what I see and hear, if you take children out of the conversation about rights trans people don't have, I'm not sure many of the vocal mainly men/TW trans activists are in any way economically disadvantaged. Odd that.

As ever, I may be wrong and often are!

However, her speech as a response to the misogyny she encountered on the Capitol steps was a strong one.

I think her point about saying she was a daughter was to emphasis how ludicrous it is to use being a father of daughters as mitigation for being a misogynist to other people’s daughters.

Yep I understand that. I still think that referencing women only in relation to being 'daughters' simply reduces her argument to his level. Who cares that he has daughters - it clearly hasn't given him any insight, and the fact that she's someone's daughter doesn't make her more or less worthy of derogatory slurs. I understand she's countering his argument but it's a shame that she didn't extend it.

I won't fault an impressive young woman for being a product of her culture.

She is a Congresswoman and has power and influence in regards to the legislature of our nation. Once she became influential in regards to my rights I became justified in being critical of what she does/does not support or endorse or her entertainment of lobbyists that seek to erase my sex-based rights. If she was some random young woman I would have zero to say about her or her beliefs but she is a legislator not some random young woman. Her naivete is destructive and her self-righteous pandering to men that want to define her out of existence is fucking stupid as fuck (she isn't stupid in any way but her behavior in this respect is).

But still I have hope for her because sometimes it takes a while to see the light - I just wish she didn't have the power to impact laws until she gets her head sorted.

I will not accept excuses based on being a product of her culture especially when her TWAW perspective has nothing to do with 'her culture'...

She shouldn't get a pass because she drank the kool-aid in college - this TWAW perspective did not come from her upbringing or culture it came from indoctrination, she is an ideologue that has power and contributes to legislation (as well as authors it) for all Americans.

She has some fantastic ideas but they are mostly immature and need to be developed, scaled, and tailored to this nation in pragmatically realistic models. My hope is that she will focus on the changes that will benefit all Americans and leave the dogma behind; she's intelligent, passionate, and strong-willed - if she uses those powers for good she could be a catalyst in changing this nation for the good.

dh came across this today & showed me - he thought she was impressive - (& dh attitude to women's rights & his disgust at what happened shows that stereotyping people by sex age & culture shows how narrow peoples viewpoint is)

I saw a documentary about her and was bowled over... took a look at her twitter profile and saw she’d posted her pronouns, which turned me off her. Interesting to hear a bit more about this

I love her. She stands up for the ordinary person and she does it with class, razor sharp intelligence and a lack of political BS. I think she's enormously impressive, and I hope she retains that integrity and clarity as she moves through the political system.

That male politician was appallingly abusive and the 'apology' was just doubling down. She was absolutely right to point out the sheer mundanity of the abuse he subjected her to, because men like that treat women they don't see as wife or daughter material that way, all the time. Bartender? Slut. Argues back? Bitch. Won't accept male domination? Crazy. It's classic male entitlement, and as ordinary and unnoticed as rain in winter. Good for her, for calling him to account, and clearly delineating why what he did matters.

As for her views on trans issues: very few left-leaning American women ever hear the other side of this debate. If you never hear the arguments against other than from genuine bigots, you won't realise the very real collision of rights at stake. I didn't myself until I decided to prove gender critical feminists wrong with data, only to discover the data proved them, and not me, right. Lots of us were in that boat.

I won't fault an impressive young woman for being a product of her culture.

Is it bad to be called a 'bitch'? And
Is calling a woman a 'bitch' still offensive?

Is it acceptable to call a black women a n**?
Is it acceptable to call a lesbian a d?

Of course it isn't and the BBC wouldn't ask such questions.

What is offensive, is the fact that they think so little of women, to even consider that it was acceptable to ask if it was offensive to call a woman a bitch.

FireUnderTheHand
Very interesting post, I've seen a lot about AOC in the media recently and knew she was pro trans rights, but hadn't realised that it was to that extent. Probably because there is so much that is terrible for women in the states, that trans issues don't always feature on my radar.

*BBC reporting in this... I read the article and the two suggested articles under it were:

Is it bad to be called a 'bitch'? And
Is calling a woman a 'bitch' still offensive?*

I am soo sick of the ‘nation’s broadcaster’.

I can’t imagine alternative versions for other demographics. But women - fair game it seems.

I think her point about saying she was a daughter was to emphasis how ludicrous it is to use being a father of daughters as mitigation for being a misogynist to other people’s daughters.

Her position on TW does not change that fact that her speech is calling out and challenging the embedded misogyny within the American culture.

I am uncomfortable with the very idea of the House of Lords, I’m not a Conservative and I’m an atheist. I am never going to approve of someone voting against gay marriage. None of these things mean I’m going to spurn the positive input of Baroness Nicholson. I don’t believe someone has to completely align with my political and religious views for me to see something they’ve done as positive.

No one should call her the things she was called and I commend her for sticking up for herself. The words she chose represent only a fraction of her perspective but expose a great deal - our value as women is determined and defined by our juxtaposition to the men in our lives.

AOC is a nightmare for the US as she currently serves. Young and old alike think she is a beacon of hope and change but she has bought the TWAW mantra wholeheartedly. She is dangerous because she is a an outspoken trailblazer while being painfully woke. She participated in fundraising for Mermaids... she helped raise money for a UK nonprofit that ignores safeguards, misrepresents the law, and campaigns for the chemical and surgical modifications to healthy children's bodies.

She believes that TW should be in women's prisons in cells with women, she believes that bio women are privileged over TW, that TW belong competing against women in sport, that "[g]oing by track record, I'd feel safer in a bathroom with a trans woman than a powerful male executive any day of the week.". She clearly does not grasp basic bio, basic expectations of privacy or safety, and is happily throwing women under the bus via her women's rights position wherein she includes and elevates TW above women/girls.

She is intelligent but intelligence alone does not make a good POTUS. I can see her potential but if she continues her current path she is no help to actual women or children and actually quite harmful. If she, Biden, and their ilk get their way women's sex-based protections under the Civil Rights Act and Titles will be useless as they will include any man that says he's a woman... we already have Self-ID here in many states without any hurdles to jump through (short of name changes).

She believes that my voice as a survivor is not important because TW say that they are more vulnerable - that I have to "be nice" and capitulate to the now women-realm overlords (transferring it from the fraying ends of the straight men's oversight to a group of men that have decided that they 'woman' better than I).

As it stands currently, she is a proud misogynist and no ally to any female or any child.

Hopefully as she matures she gains insight and revises her platform - I will be watching as I would like for her to see the sunlight and reform to where I can look at her as a viable candidate beyond her current seat. I'm not holding my breath but I am hopeful as while I disagree with most of her platform she will grow like we all do and in growing many (like myself) change policy preferences.

Defunding the police isn't lunacy in the US, in the UK it would be, but US police funding is excessive and at the expense of other agencies who would be better tasked to take on some of the roles of the police.
But AOC is fantastic at championing the poor and disadvantaged, especially re. employment and healthcare. But the trans issue is a sticking point unfortunately, it's a shame, but for the US I think she will in general do more good than harm.

I would personally think the "defund the police" stuff is just lunacy.

And see AOC opinions like saying the increase in crime is because of people being hungry:

www.foxnews.com/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-nyc-crime-shoplifting

While this looks like AOC is just plain stupid, of course she isn't. It's a case of ideology that will make you deny reality.

As others have said upthread she doesn't actually know what a woman is which renders her comments useless. I suspect she does, in fact, know what a woman is but she uses that information to score points politically. In other words, a hypocrite.

The excellent give no fucks @feminist_rachel who've I've discovered today thanks to another thread on this board points this out on Twitter

I agree Rave. I remember a poster ages ago said they should be called TVAs or trans validation activists. Or just trans activists.

She's great in general and very, very smart. She seems to be unquestioningly TWAW but is smart enough that of she ever has cause to question the knee-jerk Democratic party line, she will see that the GC position is logical and not hateful. But AOC has massive potential and aspirations, so who knows if once she sees the Emporer is naked, she'll be willing to say so.

Even on this thread, from feminists who clearly oppose the regressive ideology espoused by transactivists, the issue is framed as being about "trans rights". I'm not pointing that out to have a go at other posters (genuinely), but as long as the issue is framed as "do you support this group's rights?" it can't be a surprise that the auto-reply from well meaning progressives is "of course!!".

I'm not against anyone's rights. I'm of the view that only female people are women and girls, and that changing the legal and social definition of 'woman' or 'girl' or 'female' to include males will be devastating for women's and girl's rights.

'Trans rights' is how those who would deny the reality of sex want to frame this issue, and I don't think we do ourselves any favours by going along with that framing. Trans people are not lacking any human rights in the UK or US, and feminists are not trying to remove any human rights from trans people.

God that's quite depressing really. So only certain women are deserving of the courtesy and respect she talks of?

I'm sorry to say she isn't much of a friend to women. She's a massive 'trans ally' and actively campaigns to get male bodied prisoners into female prisons. She believes that not only women get pregnant. She recently said that JK Rowling hasn't been cancelled, because her views have been put on the news: "you aren't been cancelled, you're just being challenged or unliked." Cortez then said it's part of her everyday life to get death threats and slurs, and you don't see her complaining about cancel culture.

This is of course deeply ironic because she clearly doesn't think it's acceptable for men to call her a 'bitch' - but aren't they just expressing their right of free speech and showing how much they disagree or dislike her? Why does she get a reply, but JK Rowling is expected to shut up?

Great speech but the part I don't like is 'I am a daughter too'. She herself implies that women are valuable only as their father's daughters, not intrinsically valuable in themselves but because if their relationships to men. That's a shame

Great response to a non-apology. I especially like her point that when men like him verbally abuse women they give other men permission to do the same to his daughters and wife.

Well unless she has had a damascene conversion to women's rights (as in adult human female) in the past week I won't be listening to Alexandria blathering on about sexism.

I hope she takes a crack at the Presidency someday.

I wonder what her thoughts are on trans rights at the expense of women's?

I am afraid she has drunk the Kool Aid. A huge disappointment. How she can complain about sexism when she doesn't even believe in the reality of sex is beyond me.