When New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered her fiery rebuke to Florida congressman Ted Yoho’s verbal assault over the weekend, her words weren’t just heralded as a powerful feminist message. Zingers like “I am someone’s daughter, too” and “My parents did not raise me to accept abuse from men” instantly made their way to t-shirts, mugs, and other items of #resistance-chic merch (see below).
In addition to already available prints on e-commerce sites such as Etsy and Teepublic, DC resistance-apparel shop The Outrage is working on a new AOC line. Founder and CEO Rebecca Lee Funk says they’re “fast-tracking” an Ocasio-Cortez design for their “heroes” collection, which celebrates advocates such as Nancy Pelosi and Colin Kaepernick. Oakland-based artist Katie Zhu will design AOC’s likeness for the T-shirts, and Funk says proceeds will benefit an organization like She Should Run, which helps women get into politics. The Outrage team is also dreaming up new merchandise that will embrace some of AOC’s best lines in her speech and plans to host an event in the future.
“If our community space could be open, I imagine we’d host a night broadcasting her speech before Congress on repeat, drinks flowing, and toasts galore. We think her words will go down as one of the most important feminist speeches of this generation. To be scheduled in a post Covid-19 world,” says Funk.
In the meantime, you can always rock a “But hey, bitches get stuff done” face mask—the “Nevertheless, she persisted” of 2020.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
