Am I Hot Enough to Vote for Bernie Sanders?

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Imagine you’re in a crowded room with famously hot people Cardi B and Ariana Grande. Suddenly Miley Cyrus walks in, accompanied by equally beautiful and brilliant performers Lil Yachty and Willow Smith. International sex symbol Emily Ratajkowski is over in the corner, chatting with Mark Ruffalo and Dave Bautista. The impossibly good-looking comedian Rob Delaney is joking around with Prabal Gurung. Where, exactly, is this magical place where everyone seems to be incredibly attractive and accomplished? Surprise! It’s a Bernie Sanders rally.

Following Ratajkowski’s January 9 Twitter endorsement for Bernie, Twitter users jokingly rejoiced that even the “hot girls” demographic is showing their support. It was around that time that DePaul University student Danaka Katovich glibly tweeted, “I wanna start a hot girls for Bernie group chat or something.” Encouraged by friends Hadiya Afzal and Jaya Sundaresh, the group text formed, and the social media campaign #HotGirlsForBernie was hatched.

To raise money for the campaign, a viral movement would need to be started, like a “Sexy Cop Calendar,” but paperless, online, and probably devoid of cops. The call to action was simple: on January 24, “Post a selfie with the hashtag #HotGirlsForBernie” to “join forces with our reply guys and hot girls around the country to get Bernie Sanders elected.” To be clear: “You are hot if you support Bernie. Down with billionaires and conventional standards of beauty.”

On the 24th, #HotGirlsForBernie trended, with hundreds of selfies making the timeline rounds. “Hot” was deemed not prescriptive, but a state of being, a way of flexing the diversity and non-heteronormity of female, trans, and non-binary people who have Sanders’ vote. “If you wanna be hot, just be hot,” tweeted Hadiya next to her submission.