Lynda Carter cheers on 'Wonder Woman' fan Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: 'Never stop being fierce and brave'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may have her share of detractors — as evidenced by her encounter with Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida last week — but she’s got a firm fan in Wonder Woman.
Friday, July 24 marked the 69th birthday of actress Lynda Carter, who famously played the superhero on TV from 1975 to 1979. On her special day, Carter happened across a 2018 photo of Ocasio-Cortez — taken by photographer Daniel Arnold and posted by Vogue’s Instagram account — which shows the New York congresswoman sitting next to a Wonder Woman poster in her Capitol Hill office. (A 2019 profile by the magazine, shot by Arnold, features another image of the lawmaker with the Carter-inspired art print from artist M.Tony Peralta celebrating “powerful and iconic Latin women” throughout history; Carter is of Mexican descent on her mother’s side.)
Apparently, the feeling is mutual. Just days after Ocasio-Cortez delivered a passionate speech on the House floor on Thursday morning in response to Yoho’s allegedly calling her a “f*****g b***h’ — which he denies, though he did apologize for the “abrupt manner of the conversation I had with my colleague from New York” — Carter took to Twitter to offer her support.
“Never stop being fierce and brave,” the DC icon told the, erm, budding D.C. icon, adding that seeing Ocasio-Cortez’s poster tribute “made my birthday that much sweeter.”
Okay, seeing this last night totally made my birthday that much sweeter. Love your decor, @AOC! Never stop being fierce and brave. 💫 pic.twitter.com/zlssiokhlS
— Lynda Carter (@RealLyndaCarter) July 25, 2020
Carter’s tweet got a “like” from Ocasio-Cortez, who thanked Carter for “being a shining example of a woman’s strength.”
Thank you for being a shining example of a woman’s strength! Happy birthday ?
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 26, 2020
Carter’s post also fired up debate among the actress’s followers. While some said they were “disappointed” by the former Miss World USA’s politics, others cheered her and AOC on and shared photos of their daughters in their own superhero gear.
In her speech on Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez decried men, including Yoho, who “accost women without remorse.”
“I do not care what your views are,” she said. “It does not matter how much I disagree or how much it incenses me or how much I feel that people are dehumanizing others.
“I will not do that myself. I will not allow people to change and create hatred in our hearts.
“And so, what I believe is that having a daughter does not make a man decent. Having a wife does not make a decent man. Treating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man. And when a decent man messes up, as we all are bound to do, he tries his best and does apologize. Not to save face, not to win a vote. He apologizes genuinely to repair and acknowledge the harm done so that we can all move on.”
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