31 October 2021

FASHIONISTA SINEMA: When A Closet of Colorful Clothes is All-Out There In A Political Agenda That's a Mixed-Bag of Messaging

Thanks to Angela Johnson, who wanted to start up (and succeeded) to establish an entire new woman-owned fashion industry here in Arizona from her company Fabric work-space in Tempe, it looked like all the right stuff was moving in the right direction... until Kyrsten Sinema and her eye-candy clothes grabbed all the eyes of national media attention.  
The latest episode happened in Tempe - inside a public bathroom at ASU where the Democratic Arizona Senator was teaching a class in political fund-raising

Moment activists chase Sen. Sinema into BATHROOM at ASU and demand she back Biden's $3.5T social bill to address immigration issues

  • A group of activists confronted Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in a restroom about her reluctancy to back President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan
  • They threatened to vote her 'out of office' if she failed to fulfill her promises
  • One activist, who identified herself as Blanca, shared her own immigration story with Sinema, asking her to help find a 'pathway to citizenship'
  • Video of the incident was shared on social media, promoting response from Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz who tweeted: '#DeportBlanca'  
  • Sinema did not engage with the activists
'We knocked on doors for you to get you elected. Just how we got you elected, we can get you out of office if you don't support what you promised us,' one activist threatened

A group of activists followed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema into a bathroom at Arizona State University on Friday to demand that the Democrat address immigration issues

'We knocked on doors for you to get you elected. Just how we got you elected, we can get you out of office if you don't support what you promised us,' one activist threatened.

'We knocked on doors for you to get you elected. Just how we got you elected, we can get you out of office if you don't support what you promised us,' one activist threatened.

The activists begged Sinema — who did not engage in discussion — to support President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda that would provide a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants

In a statement released on Twitter, Sinema argued that delaying the vote was 'deeply disappointing' and a betrayal of the trust of the American people

'I have never, and would never, agree to any bargain that would hold one piece of legislation hostage to another.'

Sinema also argued that she worked to deliver the infrastructure bill while also engaging in 'good faith negotiations' on the reconciliation package.

In a statement released on Twitter, Sinema argued that delaying the vote was 'deeply disappointing' and a betrayal of the trust of the American people.
 

The video of Sinema being confronted in the bathroom came on the same day that another group of activists confronted Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia — the Democratic party's other key holdout on the legislation. 

In a video capturing the exchange, Manchin, aboard his $700,000 yacht named Almost Heaven, assured the West Virginian kayakers that Democrats were working to pass a reasonable bill.

Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, spoke to protesters from aboard his $700,000 yacht

Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, spoke to protesters from aboard his $700,000 yacht

Protesters kayaked to the ship to ask why their senator would not support his own party's $3.5 trillion infrustructe bill
 

Protesters kayaked to the ship to ask why their senator would not support his own party's $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill 

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A DRESS IS A POLITICAL STRATEGY...

Another line of argument is what I see as the third-wave feminist response to our culture’s obsession with women’s bodies as their only worth, which is: We should never acknowledge what a woman looks like. I have heard people proclaim emphatically, for instance, “Never comment on a person’s body.” To the extent that Sinema’s clothes are worn on her body, the logic goes, we should never comment on her clothing.

This line of reasoning stems from a really decent impulse, for the most part, and that impulse is a response to a fact that research reveals: Women are judged unfairly in the workplace for their looks, their bodies and their clothing. . .

EQUAL TIME
WHEN ONE WOMAN TELLS ON THE WARDROBE OF THE WARDROBE OF ANOTHER WOMAN

Tressie McMillan Cottom

Why We Should Talk About What Kyrsten Sinema Is Wearing

Credit...Diana Ejaita
 

Opinion Writer

"I spent the past week in Nashville, where I’ve been reporting a story and doing background for a book project. It was a wonderful trip. Great people, great music and a complicated new-urban Southern city. There weren’t enough masks for my liking but there was great culture.

As I was leaving, an important question pushed itself to the fore of the national conversation: What the heck is Kyrsten Sinema wearing?

You may have seen Sinema, Democratic senator from Arizona, wearing a distressed denim vest as she presided over the Senate. To someone who loves folk music and just left Nashville (me), the look was serving classic Aaron Neville vibes. I was not the only one to pick up on that similarity, as evidenced by this social media exchange where Aaron Neville himself claims (correctly) that he wore it better.

The politics around the two bills President Biden is trying to pass — a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget reconciliation bill — have centered on two senators: Joe Manchin and Sinema. Both have been analyzed and critiqued for their political performance as outsider centrist Democrats, but Sinema is particularly interesting, especially this past week.

Given the high legislative stakes, it is easy to treat Sinema’s aesthetics as unimportant. But those aesthetics are part of the way she courts, manipulates and plays with public attention as a political figure. Politicians are part of the cultural and economic elite. Their choices are always about public perception. In that context, a dress is never just a dress. It is always strategy.

 
 
 
 
 
 
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