The policing and critique of influential women’s sartorial choices to discredit them has long been a favorite activity of conservative media. The 2021 Met Gala serves as perfect fodder, because democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, better known as AOC, scored an invite. AOC attended the glitzy event in a white, form-fitting sheath dress with the words “Tax the Rich,” emblazoned in bold red letters across the back.
Predictably, the dress became a conversation on all sides of the political spectrum, but none more so than with the right-wing media who love every opportunity to stuff AOC into whatever box they can, to shape their narrative. It’s why Twitch streamer, HasanAbi referred to the Congresswoman when discussing her Met Gala dress as Schrodinger’s AOC. Schrodinger’s cat is a famous thought experiments in the popular zeitgeist. It puts forth the theory that something can exist equally between two states.
So how does this apply to AOC? Well as the conservative rhetoric around almost everything she does goes; AOC is spread equally between two states of being — she is both too elitist and out-of-touch with her constituents and yet not elitist enough, i.e., doesn’t belong in the halls of power.
In other words, AOC, a former bartender with arguably one of the biggest glow-up stories of the last five years, is conveniently too out of touch with the working-class people she claims to represent and at the same time has no background, experience, or legacy to be putting forth any kind of legislation.
Who can forget the distasteful way conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, offered AOC a $10,000 donation to appear on his talk show (something she herself referred to as catcalling and unsolicited attention), proving he sees her as an elevated bartender he can bait with a big tip? Or his constant referrals to her as a barmaid whenever he wants to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about her skills and qualifications as an elected official. According to him, what does AOC, a young woman of color from a working-class background know about running the country?
On the other side of the equation AOC is criticized every time she participates in anything construed as elitist, or out of touch. Have we forgotten the media outrage at her Vanity Fair cover because she posed in $14,000 worth of borrowed designer clothing (incidentally do we ever ask about the price tag of a suit anytime a powerful man is on the cover of a popular publication?).
Critiques of AOC’s Met Gala dress are in the same vein. The criticisms from the right are all about how hypocritical AOC is to wear a dress that says, “Tax the Rich,” to an event where her ticket alone costs $30,000. How out-of-touch she must seem to her constituents for attending an ultra-exclusive event, in support of an elite institution that most of them will never be a part of. Or that AOC’s dress was simply a self-promotional stunt (ironically, very in keeping with the Met Gala’s American Independence theme). And yet AOC walked the Met Gala carpet (and held her own) alongside the likes of J.Lo. and Kim Kardashian in a dress that advocates taxing the very people who are posing beside her.
These not-so-subtle dog whistles become loud and piecing anytime women and especially women of color occupy spaces long dominated by white male elites. It’s ridiculous to expect that AOC, a woman of Latin background, who four years ago was bartending in NYC would turn down an invite to one of the most elite and exclusive events in the world.
For those of you living under a rock or on an extended break from pop culture, the Met Gala is fashion’s night out. It’s where the rich, famous, and influential gather to strut their stuff in literally, wearable art. The guest list is exclusive, under the vice-like grip of the clackers (any Devil Wears Prada fans here?) and highly coveted. To expect that she is so ideologically pure that she would miss an opportunity to make a statement on the global platform that is the Met Gala is the naive and elitist thinking of people who believe the world belongs to them.
And this is not to defend left-wing critiques either. Plenty has been said about how AOC could have pushed the ball further, The New Yorker suggested that she could have brought one of the seamstresses who sewed the dress as a guest, and then acknowledged that had she done so, she would probably have been criticized for performative tokenism.
But whether AOC had pushed the bar on her outfit, or gone with a safer choice, or organized the waitstaff at the event into a labor union and protested the Met Gala and its outrageous opulence in a potato sack, she would have been wrong. Because women of color who threaten the status quo always are. AOC’s Met Gala dress says more about how we engage in the political debate than the actual words on it. Since the Met Gala, the conversation has been largely mired in where AOC fits. Is she still a working-class girl who was bartending a few years ago that’s fighting for a better life for her constituents? Or she is now just like anyone else who glows up and enters the elite and glamorous world of high politics and power. And no one is asking the question — Should we tax the rich?
And in this way, AOC is Schrodinger’s cat — equal parts Breaker of Chains and ruling Khaleesi in her ivory tower in Meereen, with one tiny caveat. When she wants to ignite a debate, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will hand us a match. And that’s reason enough to love her.
