As a woman in politics, an outspoken democratic socialist woman in politics, no less, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been targeted again and again by conservative opponents in the media and beyond. Whether it’s constantly using visuals that make her seem aggressive, scouring the internet for videos of her harmlessly dancing to the Breakfast Club and selling it as her acting like a ‘clueless nitwit’, or – most recently – sharing a (fake) image of her feet and dubbing it a ‘nude selfie’. Now however, her ‘nude selfie’ has been debunked as not only not actually being a nude selfie at all, but also not being her feet- and it’s all thanks to foot fetishists.
The Daily Caller,a right-wing online magazine, posted the story on Monday with the headline ‘HERE’S THE PHOTO SOME PEOPLE DESCRIBED AS A NUDE SELFIE OF ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ’. Tweeting the piece, it was picked up by New York Times politics reporter Astead Herndon, who shared it with the caption ‘I know nothing shocks us anymore but this is truly abhorrent media behavior re: a sitting member of congress.’ Agreeing with his perception of terrible reporting, Ocasio-Cortez then shared his post, adding:
‘GOP have been losing their mind + frothing at the mouth all week, so this was just a matter of time. There is also a Daily Mail reporter (Ruth Styles) going to my boyfriend’s relative’s homes+offering them cash for “stories.” Women in leadership face more scrutiny. Period.’
Her tweet, which has been liked nearly 80,000 times, has highlighted just how far right-wing reporters will go to discredit a woman who won her seat in the House of Congress in the US midterm elections back in November. As not only was the image debunked as fake before the news outlet reported the story, they also failed to indicate that in the headline, which is as far as many people read when they’re taking in their daily news.
The irony is the story behind the debunked nude selfie is actually far more interesting that the existence of said selfie in the first place, as it was proven to be fake by a community of foot fetishists on wikiFeet.
WikiFeet is ‘a collaborative site for sharing, rating and discussing celebrity feet pictures and videos’, and Ocasio-Cortez has her own gallery of 15 photos. Whether it’s pictures of her in sandals or barefoot, her feet are discussed on a regular basis by users, who somewhat disturbingly deliver a rating out of five (Ocasio-Cortez's feet have 3.25 stars on the site, if you must know).
Whether this information disturbs you or not, the community actually came to Ocasio-Cortez’s rescue last week when the first image of her nude feet surfaced. A picture showing a woman’s lefts and feet in the bath was posted to Reddit. While you couldn’t see her face, the woman in the bath is holding a vape pen and the image contained text suggesting it was posted to Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram in 2016.
However foot fetishists from Reddit and wikiFeet alike came together to debunk the picture as hers. A user of wikiFeet told Vice that the feet in the image posted to Reddit showed signs of brachydactyly – where the bones of fingers and toes are relatively short compared with the rest of the body – which doesn’t align with the gallery of Ocasio-Cortez’s feet on their site.
Alas, the potentially career-ending scandal that Ocasio-Cortez has baths and vapes was avoided, and her seat in the Congress safe, allowing her to continue fighting for universal healthcare, immigration protection and tighter gun control – you know, all the important stuff.