A Rhode Island state senator who posted a TikTok twerking video has since claimed that she’s just “challenging norms.”
The viral video of a bikini-clad Rhode Island senator Tiara Mack has garnered over 220,000 views and caused TikTok to temporarily suspend her account.
But, according to the New York Post, Mack said that the video shouldn’t be such a big deal:
“My behavior on my Twitter, Instagram and TikTok are consistent with a young millennial who is in office and challenging norms,” she told the Associated Press. “I’m showing that leadership looks different and welcoming people into the many different facets of my life.”
New York Post – July 14, 2022
Yet, to many, the video is a big deal. Mack’s TikTok twerking video raised the ire of many who viewed it, including Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, who sarcastically called Mack “the next rising star in the Democratic Party.” Mack even claimed that she’s received death threats:
As you can see, Mack, a queer Black elected official has adopted the hashtag “#TwerkFor” as part of her campaign. Because from her point of view, Mack is being her “authentic self”:
I’ve struggled with the idea that in order to be respected, I have to be fully clothed and buttoned up and I have to be performing in a way that is inauthentic to myself.
Our Take…
So, this is what leadership looks like in 2022 for Democrats? Twerking for votes, cursing out Supreme Court justices and hypocritical cries for insurrection?
We have all lost the difference between getting elected and leading. Mack’s video has nothing to do with leadership, and all to do with getting elected. It is an appeal to passion and titillation, and nothing at all associated with governance.
Let’s be clear: Mack certainly does not deserve death threats. But she doesn’t deserve votes for this stunt, either. Mack’s display is completely buffoonish. She displays a combination of different Buffoonish traits. For one, her tactic smacks of narcissism; using a nasty self-image to gain support is certainly one way to go! But it doesn’t garner respect.
What’s most upsetting about Mack’s TikTok twerking video is that it’s not like she doesn’t have a brain in her head. A graduate of Brown in 2016, Mack had successfully advocated for the codification of Roe v. Wade in Rhode Island. While you may disagree with her political views, she is, in our opinion, not dumb. So she’s not over-compensating for a lack of skill.
Given that, Mack’s TikTok twerking video seems even more like a display of Buffoonish attention grabbing that diminishes the Rhode Island senator. We get that Mack doesn’t feel comfortable being buttoned up in a business suit. But, there is such a thing as dressing for success!
Let’s not push casual wear to its Buffoonish breaking point.
