ABSTRACT
Jessalynn Keller analyzes media coverage of Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, tracing how Ocasio-Cortez has become symbolic of a feminized and feminist politics, which is constructed by anti-feminists as threatening the American nation. She focuses on a forty-five-second video of a college-aged Ocasio-Cortez dancing in a mashup video, which was anonymously leaked on Twitter. Meant to embarrass Ocasio-Cortez, Keller references Sara Ahmed in analyzing this video as an example of “snap-lash” - the use of digitally networked humiliation as a gendered tactic of sabotage against powerful, or “snappy,” girls and women. She draws connections between Ocasio-Cortez’s embodiment through dance, her Latina identity, and girlhood to contend that through the leaked video, Ocasio-Cortez is made girl as a way to contain her political authority. However, the leak backfired when Ocasio-Cortez responded with her own viral video on Twitter, depicting her dancing and laughing in front of her congressional office. Keller analyzes Ocasio-Cortez’s response as an agential practice of media production, locating it as part of a tradition of embodied joy that communities of color have used to resist oppression. She concludes by reflecting on the possibilities of embodied joy as a strategy of feminist resistance and community-building across media platforms and cultures.
