AOC is no stranger to the political spotlight. Since elected to Congress in 2018 — and even throughout her campaign before that — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has found herself on the receiving end of an endless string of media coverage. Any facet of her life is fair game: her previous job as a bartender, her college years at Boston University, her childhood in New York, her fashion, and now, even some of the most intimate aspects of her personal life.
In the past 48 hours, Ocasio-Cortez has been publicly discussing plans for her political future and reassessing previous left-wing strategy. However, the coverage of her has been dominated by her personal life. It started with her announcement that she decided to freeze her eggs on Aug. 10, followed soon after by reports of her split from fiancé Riley Roberts on Aug. 11. Ocasio-Cortez has yet to confirm or deny the latter, but that hasn’t stopped media outlets and folks on social media from talking all about her personal life.
The obsession with Ocasio-Cortez’s personal life isn’t a unique experience for many female politicians. “Since women entered the arena of national politics, they have been subject to objectifying rhetoric and portrayals in a way that men have not,” researcher Claire Gothreau wrote in a 2020 article for the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “Objectification is just one strategy used to devalue and undermine women in politics.”
Further, in their 2009 research on the media coverage of Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin in the 2008 election, researchers Diana B. Carlin and Kelly L. Winfrey reported that female candidates received less coverage overall than male candidates — however, female candidates’ appearance and personal lives were reported on more than that of their male counterparts. “Stories are also more likely to mention children and marital status and to define candidates in terms of these roles rather than as a political candidate,” the report read.
Clearly, Ocasio-Cortez’s experiences aren’t unique — but her approach to being under the magnifying glass of the public eye certainly is, and it has the potential to shift the way women in politics can own their stories going forward.
While in the past, many female politicians have tried to downplay the aspects of their lives that have been disproportionately scrutinized compared to men, Ocasio-Cortez is leaning in. Rather than trying to keep her personal and professional lives separate, Ocasio-Cortez has developed her personal and professional personas side by side, allowing them to influence each other and even inviting a dialogue between the two.
One of her most powerful tactics for doing is by carefully cultivating her own personal platforms across Instagram, X, and TikTok. It’s on these forums that Ocasio-Cortez addresses the news that surrounds her. She isn’t a silent recipient of external media coverage, but instead is making her voice heard.
The latest events are a prime example of this. While discussing fertility and family planning can be a taboo subject — especially in a post-Roe V. Wade America — Ocasio-Cortez is choosing to publicize her journey with egg freezing, not only getting ahead of the media coverage but also inspiring meaningful conversations while she’s at it. Every day, she’s posting videos about her journey, showing self-shot and self-edited footage of her preparing for the process, answering follower questions, and even injecting herself with her meds. Followers can expect updates throughout the process on her grid and Instagram Stories, where she’s turning this personal life event into a bigger — and crucial — conversation about reproductive health.
As for her alleged split from Roberts, Ocasio-Cortez has yet to comment publicly. When asked about the rumors by the New York Post on Aug. 12, Ocasio-Cortez said, “I don’t comment on my private life — thank you.” Historically, though (and evidenced by her egg-freezing posts), Ocasio-Cortez does speak about her private life. What’s she’s doing here is sending a message that discussions about her private life exist on her terms and conditions, no one else’s. Here’s hoping more women in politics will feel empowered to follow suit.