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Sisterhood in the halls of Congress, and you’re invited

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December 14, 2018

Sisterhood in the halls of Congress, and you’re invited

Source: The New York Times

By Maya Salam,

“Speak truth, sis!”

— Rashida Tlaib to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both newly elected congresswomen, in a message on Instagram

It was not terribly surprising this week when yet another one of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets went viral, this time in response to an article about House Speaker Paul Ryan. Every word Ms. Ocasio-Cortez types on social media, it seems, is ripe for scrutiny.

What caught my eye, though, was not the criticism she regularly levels at conservatives, but the validation — a digital fist-bump, almost — she received from her soon-to-be fellow Democratic congresswoman. “Speak truth, sis!” proclaimed Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, responding to her tweet.

Some might say it was “Shine Theory” in action — a term coined by the feminist podcasters Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow to describe women who make a concerted effort to support one another. (In Ms. Sow’s words: “I don’t shine if you don’t shine.”)

In fact, in an exchange of mutual admiration on Twitter on Wednesday, Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts’s first African-American congresswoman, thanked Ms. Ocasio-Cortez for “living #ShineTheory out loud.” (Ms. Ocasio-Cortez had tweeted that she was “so incredibly proud” of Ms. Pressley, pointing to a Buzzfeed article about her.)

It’s a camaraderie that’s been on full display among the Democratic newcomers since November’s election. Their message: We’re cool, we’re transparent and we’ve got each other’s backs.

Click here to read the full article published by The New York Times on 14 December 2018.

Focus areas

By Maya Salam,

“Speak truth, sis!”

— Rashida Tlaib to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both newly elected congresswomen, in a message on Instagram

It was not terribly surprising this week when yet another one of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets went viral, this time in response to an article about House Speaker Paul Ryan. Every word Ms. Ocasio-Cortez types on social media, it seems, is ripe for scrutiny.

What caught my eye, though, was not the criticism she regularly levels at conservatives, but the validation — a digital fist-bump, almost — she received from her soon-to-be fellow Democratic congresswoman. “Speak truth, sis!” proclaimed Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, responding to her tweet.

Some might say it was “Shine Theory” in action — a term coined by the feminist podcasters Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow to describe women who make a concerted effort to support one another. (In Ms. Sow’s words: “I don’t shine if you don’t shine.”)

In fact, in an exchange of mutual admiration on Twitter on Wednesday, Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts’s first African-American congresswoman, thanked Ms. Ocasio-Cortez for “living #ShineTheory out loud.” (Ms. Ocasio-Cortez had tweeted that she was “so incredibly proud” of Ms. Pressley, pointing to a Buzzfeed article about her.)

It’s a camaraderie that’s been on full display among the Democratic newcomers since November’s election. Their message: We’re cool, we’re transparent and we’ve got each other’s backs.

Click here to read the full article published by The New York Times on 14 December 2018.

Focus areas