AOC: ‘So Many People in This Country Hate Women’

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke about the impacts of misogyny in America, from her personal experience with sexual assault to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, in a new interview with GQ. The 32-year-old congresswoman, known as AOC, also reflected on the January 6 riot and the power of protest—and how all of this has shaped her job, and her outlook on the future, since taking office in 2019.

As a woman of color, Ocasio-Cortez already understood how racism and misogyny can affect the lives of marginalized people in America, but her time serving in the US House of Representatives has further illuminated just how pervasive these societal problems are. “My experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women,” she told GQ. “And they hate women of color.”

These thoughts can be tied back to her personal trauma and encounter with violence, including when she was sexually assaulted by someone she was dating, “a pivotal event in the trajectory that led me to run for office,” she revealed.

Even though AOC has become the “political voice of a generation,” as GQ puts it, she admits that she, too, feels pretty overwhelmed by, well, everything. “People ask me questions about the future. And realistically, I can’t even tell you if I’m going to be alive in September,” she said. “And that weighs very heavily on me. And it’s not just the right wing. Misogyny transcends political ideology: left, right, center. This grip of patriarchy affects all of us, not just women; men, as I mentioned before, but also, ideologically, there’s an extraordinary lack of self-awareness in so many places.”

The January 6 riot, during which a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building following President Biden’s election win, also shook something in her. Ocasio-Cortez told CNN just how terrifying the experience was; as a survivor of sexual assault, she didn’t think that she “was just going to be killed” if the attackers found her in her barricaded office. Now, she drives to work each day because it makes her feel safer, even though she used to prefer walking.

But she still believes in the power of using her voice—even if it’s via social media to her 13+ million Twitter followers—to enact change, and she’s long been a supporter of the agitating power of protests. In response to the heightened conversation around police brutality in 2020, she tweeted: “Popular support often starts small and grows. To folks who complain protest demands make others uncomfortable… that’s the point.”

In fact, when she learned that Roe had been overturned on June 24, her first instinct was to protest. “Sometimes people ask, ‘Oh, what’s the point of protest?’” Ocasio-Cortez said. That day, she explained, joining the protests in front of the Supreme Court building reminded constituents that she was with them: “It’s really important for people to feel like their elected officials give a shit about them. Not from on high, but from the same level.” In July, AOC was arrested, along with fellow lawmakers like Representative Ilhan Omar, during another abortion rights protest.