RI State Senator Tiara Mack 'won't allow' shame for twerking video

Updated July 13, 9:30 a.m.

In one of her first TikTok posts, Rhode Island State Senator Tiara Mack slowly pans the camera up, showing a lemon-yellow crop top.

“I’m just trying to go viral,” she says. “I’m trying to go viral so I can talk to you more about abortion. And also to talk more about the state of politics in Rhode Island.”

“And maybe,” she adds, “to bless your For You page with some thirst traps.”

That’s exactly what happened on July 4th weekend. She posted a video wearing a bikini, doing a headstand and twerking, a regular activity in her free time. It then cuts to a shot of her standing on the beach, smiling at the camera, and saying, “Vote Senator Mack!”

“Lo and behold, I found the key to going viral,” she told GBH’s Morning Edition this week. The video has more than 200,000 views.

Mack's video has been dissected and disparaged by conservatives and liberals alike. Comments on the post range from calling Mack an embarrassment and a disgrace to one user saying "I don't ever want to hear you complain about this is why women aren't respected in this country after posting this."

She's also received hate mail and death threats. On Tuesday TikTok briefly suspended her account, she told GBH News, though the platform did not tell her why.

“It's been wild,” she said. “I have seen and heard it all. I have a 9-to-5 job that I've been going to daily. I've also been canvassing my neighbors, and I've been able to talk to many of my voters. I watched a 10-month-old baby last night. So my life has been going on as normal. But this idea of Tiara Mack, meme sensation, I guess, has, like, really blown up.”

Some people objected to Mack posting a video of herself twerking to an account that identifies her as a state senator, instead of a private or personal page. But Mack said she wants to stay true to who she is.

“I think the ways in which someone could be too open about their personal and private life is living exclusively on social media,” Mack said. “I haven't used that platform to address my mental health or to seek counsel or to seek approval. I have not used that platform to share the struggles of trying to hold a full-time job while being a part-time legislator.”

The internet, she said, “is about creating a separate persona in some respects, but still being able to say, I want people to see at least some part of me in them. I want the next generation of leaders to see that they can lead an authentic life and draw people into their message, into their platforms. It's about showing the imperfections when you need to. It's about showing the failures when you need to, and then also having fun when you need to.”

She described twerking as something she does to let loose and have fun. Mack noted a list of people who have made twerking part of their professional lives, many of whom still deal with serious issues on their platforms: musicians Big Freedia, Lizzo and Meghan Thee Stallion among them.

“Some people might sexualize it,” she said. “I don't. There may be a cultural difference and an age difference for a lot of people. But dance for me is a joy, it is expression. And so for people to try to take that away, well, you don't want me to dance? You don't want me to move my body in ways that feel good and powerful and empowering? You want me to feel small, you want me to feel shame. I won't allow that.”

Some people who have responded to her TikTok agree, but others push back, insisting that the video is not respectable or has “set the race back years,” or that it might cost Mack a seat the people she serves can’t afford to lose.

“I've made a lot of people uncomfortable with how free I can be,” Mack said. She said she has “done every single thing in the textbook of respectability.”

“I grew up with people saying that I talked 'white,'” she said. “I went to an Ivy League institution. I am a state senator. And still in those spaces I was disrespected for being young, for being Black, for being queer. I'm going to be the same person I am in my daily life because I've seen politicians who try to create a facade, or they lead in inauthentic ways."

Mack is up for reelection this fall. Her platform includes reproductive health care access and sex education that incorporates gender, sexual orientation and pleasure — that has not gone without controversy either. But Senator Mack has also received plenty of encouragement and support for her actions, both online and in-person.

“My constituents on the doors have laughed. They're like, 'Oh my God, we got to meet you,' or like, 'I don't get why this is happening,'” she said.

“I was speaking to a group of older Black men today, born in the '50s and they said, 'thank you for not apologizing.' They saw power in that," she continued. "And those are the people who are voting for me. I was never here to lead for a global audience, or a national audience or a regional audience. I'm leading for the people who I show up for every day in the State House, trying to make their lives in Rhode Island a better place.”

Mack said she plans to keep posting videos — and yes, maybe even some more thirst traps. She already has a series of graphics on her Instagram with the hashtag #TwerkFor issues, like a green new deal, ending evictions or police accountability.