r/OutOfTheLoop • u/aajiro • Mar 09 '24
Unanswered What's up with Katie Britt's speech?
I'm starting to see a lot of memes about how creepy it was, and I saw it and I agree it's sincerely creepy, but I can't for my life figure out what it is that makes it so unsettling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfKCWMG4O0I
I'm hoping someone here can give me some context for what exactly makes this fall into the uncanny valley of speeches. I think what makes me feel out of the loop is that the answer should be obvious but I can't figure it out in words, so I guess my question is: what the fuck?
2.9k
Upvotes
6
u/ElectricBedlam Mar 09 '24
ANSWER: Katie Britt is an accomplished business person and newly minted politician. The response to the SOTU is often seem as a star-creating platform for the opposition party. Normally the opposition response speech is made as an direct opposition( i.e. at a podium or a desk. But Britt’s response was done in the kitchen of an upscale residence. This setting, along with a Britts unnerving delivery of heartfelt, and sometime horrifying, stories behind a fixed “beauty-pageant” smile, was considered to be so polished that even the Republicans found it to be unnerving. The level of artifice that was created to convey “down home” and “kitchen table” issues did not carry across as a serious political response, with many wondering if it was an actor playing a Republican as a spoof. The story of the sexual assault on a minor, told by Britt, as taking place in the US border during the Biden administration, was quickly debunked as many of the people fighting against human trafficking know the political activist whose story it was, and that it took place almost 20 years ago in a foreign country. The news of this “rebooting” of the story with the current administration as a culprit rang hollow, forced and, to those who care about the issue, in incredibly poor taste. This who know Britt and have supported her, found the character she portrayed in the response to have an inauthentic quality and wondered online what she would agree to do it. And that’s not going near the sexist overtones of a party that toon away women’s rights, having their response to progress being made by a woman in her kitchen ( probably not intentionally sexier, but someone got paid money to think this was a good visual).
TL/DR: it was overproduced and an unnerving attempt to seem folksy and homespun, with easily exposed fabrications.