Donald Trump had just let loose with how he is uniquely suited temperamentally to be president, when Hillary Clinton did, for those who know her only from afar, a most uncharacteristic thing: She coquettishly shimmied her shoulders and let out a whoop, all the while beaming red and devilish. It looked like this.
For a politician routinely accused of being a monotone stiff on stage, the Democratic nominee got a rousing cheer out of the studio audience with the unexpected unleashing of what may possibly be her inner Clinton.
News of the shimmying quickly went viral. “Hillary Clinton’s mid-debate shimmy sure was something,” USA Today declared. The Telegraph credited her with coining a new dance move. And Elite Daily, the self-described “voice of generation-Y,” offered the very on-brand observation that “Hillary Cinton’s Debate-Winning Shoulder Shimmy is the New ‘Bye Felicia.'” The reference is to a dismissive goodbye rendered in the 1995 film Friday.
The shimmy seemed to say many things, but especially to ridicule Trump’s presumptuous assumption of his utter control over women—a physical translation of an intensely sarcastic “Oh Donald, you’re so hot when you get angry!” and a secret handshake of sorts to women everywhere.
It was a mark of a woman who’s sure of herself. And in taking such risk with the stakes so high, Clinton looked all the more confident.