Blonde AOC

Submission 43,557

Part of a series on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. [View Related Entries]

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About

Blonde AOC, also known as White AOC, Aryan AOC, AOC1488 or Conservative AOC, is a photoshopped image of U.S. House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with blonde hair and blue eyes. The conservative reimagining of AOC became an exploitable image macro in mid-2022, as well as the subject of hornyposting after being uploaded to Twitter where it was used alongside images of Marjorie Taylor Greene and the Ben Shapiro x Eminem character, among others. In March 2023, Elon Musk posted a Twitter reply to a tweet that featured Blonde AOC and asked him when the two were going to date.

Origin

On July 4th, 2022, Twitter^[1] user CadillacRetro posted a photoshopped image of New York House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, depicting her with blonde hair and blue eyes edited over the original photo. CadillacRetro captioned the image, "Okay hold up," with the tweet receiving roughly 18,100 likes in four days (shown below).

Originally, the image of AOC that was photoshopped for Blonde AOC was taken on April 10th, 2019, showing her listening during a House Financial Services Committee hearing with leaders of major banks on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.^[2]

Spread

As the tweet gained engagement and accumulated likes, reactions and more photoshopped images of AOC started to emerge. For instance, on the morning of July 5th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user Mastu_Denton posted a reply that included a new Blonde AOC image, earning roughly 1,200 likes in three days. Minutes later, Twitter^[4] user CadillacRetro posted another, new Blonde AOC image, earning over 830 likes in three days (shown below).

Later on July 5th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user kimpossiblefact posted a screenshot of CadillacRetro's original tweet,^[1] captioning it, "This is like the weirdest thing you can do on this website," and earning roughly 43,500 likes in three days (shown below, left). The aforementioned tweet brought more attention to the image macro of Blonde AOC, accompanied by other posts made on July 5th like a tweet from the Twitter^[6] account litnewsnet that compared the original image and photoshopped image by saying, "Progressive AOC vs. Conservative AOC." The tweet received roughly 6,300 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Going into the days following, Blonde AOC was inserted into multiple exploitable meme templates. One of the first to do so was Twitter^[7] user XV20_Camry on July 5th, 2022, who compared normal AOC to Blonde AOC in the Place, Japan template with Soyjaks (shown below). Their tweet received over 900 likes in five days.

On July 6th, Twitter^[8] user BowTiedCoffee then photoshopped the AOC image to make her look like a long-haired man, earning over 150 likes in two days (shown below, left).

As the image spread online, the meme also appeared on other platforms like Instagram. For instance, on July 7th, 2022, the Instagram^[9] page imunchie posted a carousel post that included many Blonde AOC memes, earning roughly 1,100 likes in one day. The first meme in the post used the Dramatic Crossroads template and asked Which Way, Western Man? about choosing either Blonde AOC or an image of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that showcased her breasts, commonly referred to as "Pelunkers" (shown below, right).

Elon Musk's Aryan AOC Tweet

On March 6th, 2023, the Twitter^[10] page @Teslaconomics tweeted two photos of Blonde AOC with the caption, "Elon, when’s the date with AOC? @elonmusk $TSLA," and earned roughly 27,200 likes in one day. Later on March 7th, Elon Musk posted a Twitter^[11] reply, writing, "Alas she would never date me I’m not cool enough 😢." It received roughly 89,400 likes in one day (shown below, left). Musk's reply garnered interest from others and increased discourse about the meme. For instance, on March 6th, 2023, Twitter^[12] user @iWetMyDenims tweeted, "Why did Elon reply To an Aryan AOC edit," and earned roughly 3,100 likes in one day (shown below, right). Inherently, Musk's reply and the discourse surrounding it was based on the AOC vs. Elon Musk Twitter Conflict in October 2022.