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Rhetorical Analysis of Online Discourse Regarding Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Her 2021 Met Gala Controversy
Abstract
This paper was written as the final project of the course ENGL U377: Women and Political Rhetoric, taught by Dr. Monika Shehi Herr in Fall of 2022. The paper conducts a rhetorical analysis of online discourse surrounding politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez regarding her controversial attendance at the 2021 Met Gala, where she wore a white designer dress emblazoned with the phrase “Tax The Rich” across the back in red lettering. The paper also analyzes Ocasio-Cortez’s own rhetorical strategy within the Instagram post she made to defend her appearance at the Met Gala.
The paper examines four tweets made on or about September 13, 2021 regarding Ocasio-Cortez’s Met appearance. The language used in the rhetorical items surveyed is examined to understand how it either reinforces or subverts misogynistic ideas about women in politics. The analysis illustrates how the online discourse surrounding Ocasio-Cortez’s 2021 Met Gala appearance serves as a microcosm of the larger online landscape of rhetoric regarding female politicians.
This paper ultimately argues that while the discourse surveyed regarding Ocasio-Cortez complicates and perpetuates traditional views about women and political rhetoric because it plays into harmful cultural ideas about women in power, Ocasio-Cortez’s own rhetorical strategy effectively acknowledges her own existence as woman in politics and serves to challenge those traditional ideas as she speaks directly to the issues of racism and misogyny present within the rhetoric used against her.
Rhetorical Analysis of Online Discourse Regarding Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Her 2021 Met Gala Controversy
CASB 108 - History, Politics, and Sociology
This paper was written as the final project of the course ENGL U377: Women and Political Rhetoric, taught by Dr. Monika Shehi Herr in Fall of 2022. The paper conducts a rhetorical analysis of online discourse surrounding politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez regarding her controversial attendance at the 2021 Met Gala, where she wore a white designer dress emblazoned with the phrase “Tax The Rich” across the back in red lettering. The paper also analyzes Ocasio-Cortez’s own rhetorical strategy within the Instagram post she made to defend her appearance at the Met Gala.
The paper examines four tweets made on or about September 13, 2021 regarding Ocasio-Cortez’s Met appearance. The language used in the rhetorical items surveyed is examined to understand how it either reinforces or subverts misogynistic ideas about women in politics. The analysis illustrates how the online discourse surrounding Ocasio-Cortez’s 2021 Met Gala appearance serves as a microcosm of the larger online landscape of rhetoric regarding female politicians.
This paper ultimately argues that while the discourse surveyed regarding Ocasio-Cortez complicates and perpetuates traditional views about women and political rhetoric because it plays into harmful cultural ideas about women in power, Ocasio-Cortez’s own rhetorical strategy effectively acknowledges her own existence as woman in politics and serves to challenge those traditional ideas as she speaks directly to the issues of racism and misogyny present within the rhetoric used against her.