“It flowed because every single one of us has lived this silent script.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said that she ad-libbed her viral speech about misogyny in the workplace.
The US Representative took to the House floor last week to address the criticism and abuse that women are often faced with in male dominated workspaces, following reports that fellow Representative Ted Yoho had called her a “fucking bitch.”
“I do not need Rep. Yoho to apologise to me,” she said at the time. “Clearly, he does not want to.
“Clearly, when given the opportunity, he will not, and I will not stay up late at night waiting for an apology from a man who has no remorse.”
Ocasio-Cortez told the House that she took issue with the wives and daughters of men being used “as shields and excuses for poor behaviour.”
“Mr. Yoho mentioned that he has a wife and two daughters,” she said. “I am two years younger than Mr. Yoho’s youngest daughter. I am someone’s daughter too.
“My father, thankfully, is not alive to see how Mr. Yoho treated his daughter. My mother got to see Mr. Yoho’s disrespect on the floor of this House towards me on television.
“And I am here because I have to show my parents that I am their daughter and that they did not raise me to accept abuse from men.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s speech soon went viral, with many applauding her for addressing the misogyny that women, even those in high power positions, still experience in the workplace and the consistent abuses of power that still dominate the political sphere.
“Many have asked me if my speech was pre-written. The answer is no,” she wrote on Instagram, next to a photo of a series of vague notes she had made beforehand.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDMrZIzAI1B/
“But in some ways, yes. Yes because this speech was a recounting of thoughts that so many women and femme people have carried since the time we were children.
“It flowed because every single one of us has lived this silent script: stay silent (why?), keep your head down (for whom?), suck it up (to whose benefit?).”
Ocasio-Cortez said that the evening before, she didn’t know what she was going to say to Yoho. “What is there to say to a man who isn’t listening?” she asked.
“I couldn’t come up with much, because frankly I didn’t want to diminish myself or waste my breath,” she said.
“It was then that I decided if I couldn’t get through to this him, perhaps I could speak directly to the culture, people, and institutions responsible for creating and protecting this violence and violent language.”
You can watch Ocasio-Cortez’s speech in full here:
