Tom Williams/Congressional Quarterly via ZUMA Press
After Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” took over the internet—its video has nearly 95 million views on YouTube a week after its release—and conservatives lost their minds freaking out over the songs lyrics of sexual empowerment, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined in some Twitter fun over the song’s acronym when Cardi B called for her to run for president.
On Friday night, Ocasio-Cortez posted an Instagram story talking about how she is going to get braces. She used the opportunity to talk about unequal access to dental health, and how it was yet another “perfect example of how being lower income is WAY more *expensive* than otherwise.”
She explained that she’d had braces and a retainer when she was younger, but the retainer broke in her 20s. As a waitress she knew she needed to get her teeth checked out but couldn’t afford it “on top of everything else,” so her dental health suffered, a situation many people can likely relate to. “If I was able to afford a retainer THEN, it would have cost way, way less than getting braces now,” she wrote in the Instagram story.
But, she explained, after getting elected to congress she had dental insurance and better insurance overall, which allowed her to more easily afford proper dental care. “In other words, I got a bag and fixed my teeth,” she wrote, quoting from Cardi B’s 2017 smash hit “Bodak Yellow,” while the song played in the background. AOC went on to explain that dental health is partly about aesthetics, but mostly its about how better dental care leads to better health care overall, which saves everyone money.
She also noted that conservatives make fun of her teeth which doesn’t bother her but is an example of classist insults.
A Cardi B fan twitter account posted this section of AOC’s story on Twitter, and the rapper took notice:
She better run for president when she turns 35 https://t.co/TcSfYLGeah
— iamcardib (@iamcardib) August 15, 2020
AOC responded by proposing her own interpretation of WAP:
Women Against Patriarchy (WAP) 2020 😜
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 15, 2020
