Why the Right’s Response to AOC’s Personal Testimony About the Insurrection Isn’t Just Partisan Politicking
It’s a prime example of our society’s penchant for silencing women when they elect to share their trauma
In her 2017 book, The Mother of All Questions, author Rebecca Solnit engages in an exploration into how silence is imposed on women in a patriarchal society and how that extends to the silencing of other minority groups. It was a collection of essays published in direct response and as a sort of social commentary to the ever-growing Me Too movement.
She opines about this growing women’s movement and its impact on the concept of feminism. “Feminism,” Solnit writes, “is remaking the world” through the telling of women’s stories — stories that, prior to such a broad-sweeping movement, may not have been told, whether out of fear of retribution or far, far worse. In her essay, “A Short History of Silence,” she details the ways in which society silences women, whether by interruption or intimations of violence. She goes on to explain the importance of women breaking their silence — the idea that telling one’s story further confirms one’s personhood:
Silence is what allows people to suffer without recourse, what allows hypocrisies and lies to grow and flourish, crimes to go unpunished. If our voices are essential aspects of our humanity, to be rendered voiceless is to be dehumanized or excluded from one’s humanity. And the history of silence is central to women’s history.
Solnit’s book did not come to my mind until after Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s most recent Instagram live video regarding her experience during the Capitol insurrection had concluded. I only came to think of Solnit’s words and ruminations on silence and how it is imposed, nay, expected of women who experience traumatic events once the inevitable “takes” began to roll in.
It is not the first time Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has taken to Instagram Live to discuss the January 6 Capitol insurrection. She first began to discuss her experience on January 12, during an hour-long, candid and incredibly transparent account.
It is not an exaggeration to say that many, many members of the House were nearly assassinated. It’s just not an exaggeration to say that at all.
In the days following her initial account on January 12, multiple Republican Congresspeople, most notably Sen. Ted Cruz, downplayed the seriousness of what occurred and scoffed at Sen. Ocasio-Cortez’s refusal to capitulate. Indeed, the broader Republican response to what occurred on January 6 feels tantamount to a collective gaslighting — an outright refusal to acknowledge the truth of what happened — making overt pleas for “unity” as a way of deflecting from their complete disregard for the violence that took place.
Gaslighting is an effective method of silencing. It is, at its core, emotional manipulation, an attempt to reject a trauma victim’s version of events through trivilization of the victim’s experiences, a calling into question of the legitimacy of a victim’s experience, or diverting and deflecting. A close friend forwarded me an email that Sen. Ocasio-Cortez sent out earlier today — addressing what she spoke about on her Instagram Live last night and the response she’s received today and since publicly accounting her experience about January 6. In it, she writes:
It’s important to share because so many of the people who helped perpetrate what happened are trying to tell us to move on and forget about what happened — saying it isn’t a big deal.
They’re asking us to move on for their own convenience. These are the same tactics used by abusers. What they are really asking is: “Can you forget about this so we can do it again?”
Part of my hesitancy to tell this story until now has to do with some of my trauma. As a survivor, I struggle with the idea of being believed.
All women understand, in some way, this sentiment. Part of the power of the Me Too movement in particular was the way in which it democratized the telling of victim’s stories. Women (and some men) were able to use the hashtag “Me Too” and experience a collective feeling of solidarity with regard to the trauma experiences they had, for so long, been forced or coerced to keep silent about.
In a similar way, there is a power in Rep. Ocasio-Cortez taking directly to her Instagram — shedding light on a day of violence that still feels blurry and opaque in some ways. Ocasio-Cortez is, in many ways, a new kind of politician. She is conscious, in the way many younger feminists (both male and female) are conscious, of the power of their voice and of the power of digital platforms. As Solnit writes in her essay on silence:
She regained the voice taken away from her and with it rehumanized her dehumanized self. She spoke words that built a cage around him, erected a monument to his casual malice, words that will likely follow him all his life.
Her voice was her power.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s willingness to be publicly vulnerable and open about her experiences and emotions and refusal to yield to Republican pressure to “move on” is a threat to a patriarchal establishment that has subsisted for so long by denying women and minorities the platform to use their voice. She is an example, I hope, of the ways in which future elected leadership will engage with their public constituents. Today, I am grateful for the clarity and strength of her voice.
