$230,000 (and counting)
July 27, 2022 9:40 AM   Subscribe

Matt Gaetz Body-Shamed a Teen — Who Then Launched a Fundraiser for Abortion Rights. Olivia Julianna has raised over $230,000 for abortion funds.
How did you make the jump from “Ok, I just got publicly body shamed by a congressman” to “I’m going to use this to make positive change”?

OJ: I had an opportunity to have more attention. Matt had put a spotlight on me; he had given me a chance to rebut publicly and I think what he was expecting was for me to fall into an outrage cycle and he wanted me to be like, “This is horrendous, you’re evil, you should be canceled.” He wants people to label him as a monster and free-speech absolutist and I don’t think he expected for me to respond in the way that I did — to fundraise for abortions. And he also didn’t expect me to bring up his criminal investigation. What a weirdo to talk about another teenager.
posted by bitteschoen (52 comments total) 57 users marked this as a favorite
 
hell yeah!
posted by subdee at 9:47 AM on July 27, 2022 [7 favorites]


TV: How did you get the confidence to shut down elected officials publicly?

OJ: I don't think I’ve ever said this in an interview but I grew up obsessed with professional wrestling and WWE and I truly believe that my comeback ability and my confidence in times of arguments or attacks 100% comes from years of watching WWE and scripted conflict.


I love EVERYTHING about this.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on July 27, 2022 [100 favorites]


What a badass.
posted by obfuscation at 9:53 AM on July 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


Showing us all how to do this. You go, Olivia!
posted by humbug at 10:10 AM on July 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


oooh, this, also in the original story, is the sickest of burns. and yeah, it does sound like a professional wrestler line:
“Its come to my attention that Matt Gaetz—alleged pedophile—has said that it’s always the ‘odious.. 5’2 350 pound’ women that ‘nobody wants to impregnate’ who rally for abortion,” Texas activist Olivia Julianna tweeted. “I’m actually 5’11. 6’4 in heels. I wear them so the small men like you are reminded of your place.”
posted by martin q blank at 10:10 AM on July 27, 2022 [91 favorites]


And he also didn’t expect me to bring up his criminal investigation.

His scumbag child pimp told the feds everything, what's taking them so long?

Bro is still on the House Judiciary Committee. Remember when Madison Cawthorn said he was invited to a cocaine orgy? If he's not lying, it has to be Matt Gaetz. Apparently he shows other congress people nudes on his phone. He's like the star in one of those dodgy 80s college movies. Frat Paddle goes to Congress.

Anyhow he's a troll so fuck him.

lol get rekt
posted by adept256 at 10:12 AM on July 27, 2022 [18 favorites]


My takeaway from this is that I'm honestly surprised that Gaetz would tweet out such an odious and juvenile attack. Good for her for rallying support, but you can't really shame a complete slimebag.
posted by anhedonic at 10:14 AM on July 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


I also appreciated the sick burn of her pointing out that Gaetz didn't quote tweet the start of her thread (the obvious place to start) but a reply. Why? He didn't want to put the words "Matt Gaetz--alleged pedophile" into his feed.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:27 AM on July 27, 2022 [33 favorites]


My takeaway from this is that I'm honestly surprised that Gaetz would tweet out such an odious and juvenile attack.

....You're surprised Gaetz would do that?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:32 AM on July 27, 2022 [23 favorites]


*not ???
posted by stevil at 10:45 AM on July 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


Can he go to jail now please? It’s been said before he looks like a mix of Beavis and Butt Head in one person and frankly I feel bad comparing them to Gaetz
posted by glaucon at 10:49 AM on July 27, 2022 [8 favorites]


His father held that office before him. I have seen his district. Military…all he has to do is run ads listing all the new war toys he has brought to NW FL.

He is a criminal.

Go ‘head, Olivia. Happy to send along a small bit of green energy.
posted by aiq at 10:54 AM on July 27, 2022 [5 favorites]


I get so many emails that I have pretty much given up on donating to online political causes, but this is worth an exception. Here is the link for anyone else who is interested. (I hope that is the link; if not feel free to point me in the right direction and I will donate there too.)
posted by TedW at 11:07 AM on July 27, 2022 [4 favorites]


Fantastic! Just donated.
posted by obol at 11:16 AM on July 27, 2022


I hadn't heard of Gen-Z for Change before today, but I'm just thrilled to learn that these are among their successes:

Flooded and took down a Texas anti-abortion tip line with over 30K fake submissions.

Flooded and took down a Virginia anti-critical race theory tip line with over 100K emails.
posted by box at 11:27 AM on July 27, 2022 [42 favorites]


I love her world-class sledging, but the real kicker for me is the last couple of lines:
He can claim he’s pro-life, pro-family, pro-child but the reality is this is a sitting congressman who voted against increased funding for baby formula during a shortage. When it comes down to helping families, it’s not Matt Gaetz. It’s me.
That's how it's done. FINISH HIM!
posted by prismatic7 at 11:39 AM on July 27, 2022 [66 favorites]


I get so many emails that I have pretty much given up on donating to online political causes.

This, oh this

...but, this is worth an exception
.

Well, yeah, absolutely!
posted by y2karl at 11:44 AM on July 27, 2022 [5 favorites]


This post rocks! Seriously, such good news during such shitty times. Thanks, bitteschoen!
posted by Bella Donna at 12:03 PM on July 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


prismatic7, I shouted out loud with joy on that last response. GET IT, OLIVIA
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 12:08 PM on July 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


I am so glad to see this. Donation made, and social media accounts followed. Olivia is an inspiration.

A few years ago, during the height of the attacks on Hilary Clinton, I attended an activist workshop on preventing harassment of women in politics, especially on social media. Most of the participants thought the answer was to prevent trolls from trolling. A minority, including me, thought we needed to get to a point where we didn’t care, so that calling a woman unattractive wasn’t seen as a weapon akin to throwing water on a witch. I am very happy to see that Olivia has found an even better third way, i.e. thriving on that bile and not just weaponizing it against the haters, but also using it to advance a positive issue.

Inspirational.
posted by rpfields at 12:41 PM on July 27, 2022 [13 favorites]


Where do I donate?
posted by SoberHighland at 1:02 PM on July 27, 2022


She has an actblue donation site. I saw this on twitter yesterday and donated - her ecstatic tweets this morning announcing the increasing donations was heart warming. She's pretty amazing. Go GenZ!
posted by bluesky43 at 1:06 PM on July 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


Also Matt Gaetz is the very worst humanity has to offer.
posted by bluesky43 at 1:06 PM on July 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


Now over $300,000. Awesome
posted by LooseFilter at 1:31 PM on July 27, 2022 [7 favorites]


Gotta love the headline.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 1:47 PM on July 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


(Because I always look it up, here are the other Nay votes on that bill.)
posted by box at 2:24 PM on July 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


Impressive. I just donated as well.
posted by AMyNameIs at 4:35 PM on July 27, 2022


What is a supportive response to seeing a successful, "How do you like them apples ?"
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 5:51 PM on July 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


This reminded me a little of HBomberGuy talking about the power of 'fuck that guy in particular' after his Linehan-inspired Mermaids charity donation stream.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 7:10 PM on July 27, 2022 [9 favorites]


What is a supportive response to seeing a successful, "How do you like them apples ?"

You usually have to Venmo a woman before she’ll spank you this hard.

Venmo.
posted by bendy at 8:45 PM on July 27, 2022 [5 favorites]


So, because she was fat-shamed, she decided to retaliate by shaming smaller or shorter men, a population who already experience a lot of bullying? Great that she got donations. Not great that she responded to hate with hate.
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 12:51 AM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]


I don't know about Gaetz's stature, but I read "small" primarily as "petty, trifling, insubstantial," even in the tweet's context of height comparison. I thought it was a pun, in other words.

It's not great that our language synonymises those things with physical size ("dumb" etc. are problematic for similar reasons), of course. But I don't think the tweet is saying at all that we should laugh at alleged pedophile Matt Gaetz for his height.
posted by Chef Flamboyardee at 1:23 AM on July 28, 2022 [19 favorites]


Eh, on second thought I'm less convinced of what I wrote. It's a double-dig: both kinds of stature. It sure isn't easy to fight clean against these folks.
posted by Chef Flamboyardee at 1:31 AM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]


I think it was once a part of a George Carlin's routine : "how come people who are against abortion are people you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place ?". The punch was followed by better arguments though, including "Conservatives only care for the unborn, but once you're born, you're on your own" or "they are not pro-life, they're anti-women", which seems only confirmed by the likes of Matt Gaetz.
posted by nicolin at 3:59 AM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]


His scumbag child pimp told the feds everything, what's taking them so long?

Lots and lots of lawyers and money, I suspect.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:32 AM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]


she decided to retaliate by shaming smaller or shorter men

So - tell me - in this dynamic (initially at least), who had the power?

A sitting congresscritter, or the teenager who said some words to "hurt" him, when he threw the first punch himself? Oh. The. Horror.

Over and over and over, I always hear that left-leaning people must never ever ever ever ever respond in kind to the vitriol spewed by these idiots. Why? Pretending that they are respectable members of society and have an opinion worth listening too is what has landed the world in the mess it is in now.

Myself, I am shorter than she is (so, technially a 'small man') - and I feel she had every right to respond however she wanted... She was "punching up", while of course he was "punching down" - which is standard GQP practice these days.

And the actual result of her turning this free publicity into a legit fundraiser is.... "chef's kiss".
posted by rozcakj at 5:42 AM on July 28, 2022 [20 favorites]


Over $555,000 as of this morning, just glorious. I wonder if she'll hit a million.
posted by LooseFilter at 6:42 AM on July 28, 2022 [11 favorites]


So, because she was fat-shamed, she decided to retaliate by shaming smaller or shorter men, a population who already experience a lot of bullying? Great that she got donations. Not great that she responded to hate with hate.

Hmm, I think this interpretation of events might do with an extra dose of sense of proportion and a little bit more accuracy, perhaps? She did not use the word "short" at all, she used "small", and as has already been noted above that can very well be read in its second meaning of "insignificant, unimportant" or even "small-minded", rather than the literal physical sense of small-sized. That’s how a lot of people read it in the replies to her tweet. There’s no general hate or bullying there. It kind of helps to re-read that tweet in its context:
Its come to my attention that Matt Gaetz — alleged pedophile— has said that it’s always the “odious.. 5’2 350 pound” women that “nobody wants to impregnate” who rally for abortion.

I’m actually 5’11. 6’4 in heels. I wear them so the small men like you are reminded of your place
Gaetz wasn’t just "fat-shaming" there (and in later tweets aimed directly at Olivia Julianna), he was being a vile misogynist (on top of already being a misogynist by virtue of his political stance on abortion laws). She responded with an hyperbolic burn, directed at him and misogynists like him. If you interpret her retort in this context as some expression of scorn for all short men, I think that’s a serious misreading of both the retort and its immediate and wider context.

Anyway, more importantly: more than 700k raised as of now
posted by bitteschoen at 11:27 AM on July 28, 2022 [19 favorites]


(Here's an ad the Lincoln Project put out shortly after Gaetz's remarks.)
posted by box at 12:33 PM on July 28, 2022


**ONE MILLION DOLLARS** in 72 hours!
posted by LooseFilter at 4:25 PM on July 28, 2022 [17 favorites]


For flurk sake, folks. She used the word 'small' in the context of having talked about how tall she is, 6'4" in heels. It is among other things clearly a dig based on height.

Obviously I don't give a shit whether Gaetz gets his feelings hurt. But many people will read that quote who have done nothing to deserve being shamed.

I know I would feel dissed if someone made a fat-shaming comment as part of trying to take down a sexist jerk. I feel for short or small men, who often have to try to not look like they flinch when their body is shamed.
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 5:39 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


One million dollars is fantastic, and I'm so happy to see her turn her viral moment into something good. I expect good things from her and her organization in the future. It's so nice to see young people stepping up like this.

I'm a very short woman. I agree with you Flock that shaming short men is an issue in our culture. Absolutely. But I disagree with you on the reading of her tweet. I read her "small" as to mean insignificant, nothing to do with height. She was just referencing his 5.2 comment with her "in heels" one. For the record, Matt Gaetz is listed as 5.6, which is the exact average for males in the United States.
posted by gemmy at 5:58 AM on July 29, 2022 [6 favorites]


People, think about it - her comments about "small" are basically a gussied-up equivalent of "I know you are, but what am I?" as a comeback to an insult - and, since Gaetz is used to consorting with children, she's probably simply tailoring her response to what she knows his maturity level probably is.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:10 AM on July 29, 2022 [3 favorites]


Just to keep everyone updated, $1.5 million and counting--and she's pushing to close the gap to $2 million. I continue to be astonished by Ms. Julianna's moxie and political acumen.*


*(My 10-grade English teacher would likely be glowing to see me use both 'moxie' and 'acumen' in one sentence. Thanks, Ms. Touchet; I hated all that vocab work at the time but sure do use all those really descriptive words now.)
posted by LooseFilter at 12:45 PM on July 29, 2022 [6 favorites]


And in the sixteen minutes since that "$1.5 million and counting" post, she already reached $1.6 million.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:02 PM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


Going "for shame!" at the young woman who said something that might be interpreted as mean to short men when she was saying it in response to a grown man with an extraordinary amount of power deciding to call her short and fat in public feels misguided.

Is the lesson that women should never respond to men being cruel to them by throwing shade back? Because that feels like putting yet another layer of "be the better person" moralizing on the staggeringly-less-powerful individual in this situation. And deciding that, of all the intersectional injustices on display here, the one that most deserves attention is the plight of poor 5'6" male congressmen... I dunno. Donald Trump calls men short all the time, maybe let's wait till he does it again and have this conversation there.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 1:50 PM on July 29, 2022 [8 favorites]


I may not be Gen Z, but I wholeheartedly support her. Donated.
posted by hydra77 at 2:55 PM on July 29, 2022


I’m a short man. I’m 5’3”. I can only speak for myself, but I didn’t feel attacked or shamed by her insulting him. Didn’t cross my mind as a thing at all until I read it in the comments here. She likely knows that her height is intimidating to some men, and maybe she’s using that to her advantage.

I’ve noticed that, while I’m definitely short, guys who are three to five inches taller than me seem to bemoan being short more than I do. Being in the mid-range, they are perhaps more aware of not-being-tall, while shorter guys like me, we at least get to identify as short.

The internet says Gaetz is 5’7”.
posted by SafetyPirate at 7:29 PM on July 29, 2022 [5 favorites]


Tom Hanks, did you bother reading what I wrote???? I don't care at all about Gaetz. Stop claiming anyone in this thread cares about him getting his feelings hurt.

But, yeah, do go ahead and attribute shit to me that I never said ("the one that deserves the most attention") and don't believe. Your mansplaining the situation to a woman is especially ironic.
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 9:15 PM on July 29, 2022


For sure the conversation on whether she was insulting him back via a literal reference to his physical rather than moral stature after he had pathetically mocked all pro-choice women and then mocked her directly is the conversation that absolutely needs to be had here! It's vital for the future of political organizing on the left or something!

Anyway! She's going for 2 million now, wonder how long that'll take
posted by bitteschoen at 11:01 PM on July 29, 2022 [4 favorites]


1.95 million right now, closing in on that 2 million goal.

Hot mic captured Gaetz assuring Stone of pardon, discussing Mueller redactions (Washington Post exclusive, July 30 2022) I would like these 25 minutes, captured by a Danish documentary crew, to have repercussions for Gaetz. As the congressman predicted, Roger Stone was found guilty, "didn't do a day in prison" (Trump commuted the sentence before it began), and was ultimately pardoned. In the conversation (which took place on Oct. 11, 2019 at Trump's Doral resort in Florida) Gaetz told Stone, a Trump advisor/conspirator for 40 years, that he was mentioned frequently in portions of the Mueller Report -- Gaetz, as a member of the freakin' House Judiciary Committee, had been allowed to view that material. He's still on the Committee, despite being under investigation for sex crimes for at least 18 months now.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:08 PM on July 30, 2022 [4 favorites]


Matt Gaetz deserves all the scorn this young woman, and any woman really, can muster. He's revolting.
posted by bluesky43 at 6:15 PM on July 30, 2022 [2 favorites]


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