Taking a social media break might be more challenging than staying on. Just ask Gisele Fetterman.
The wife of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, responded to online speculation after she abruptly deleted her accounts on Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, this week.
After deactivating her X account, Fetterman reactivated it Tuesday evening to point out that she had previously talked about taking a social media break.
“I posted several months ago that I would be talking a break from social media. I was bored with it … I am a Pisces … it wasn’t adding anything to my life .., but leaving social media is somehow more exhausting than having it?!” Fetterman wrote in a post on X.
I posted several months ago that i would be talking a break from social media. I was bored with it … i am a Pisces ♓️ … it wasn’t adding anything to my life .. but leaving social media is somehow more exhausting than having it?! ????????
— Gisele Barreto Fetterman (@giselefetterman) January 30, 2024
In another post she said, “You guys really are terrible, respectfully.”
You guys really are terrible, respectfully ????
— Gisele Barreto Fetterman (@giselefetterman) January 30, 2024
A post about her taking a social media break from Nov. 17 criticized people “treating someone as simply someone’s spouse” as “insulting and minimizing.”
3 weeks into a social media break that may last another month or forever. PS. treating someone as simply someone’s spouse is insulting and minimizing. PSS. did you know male spouses don’t get treated this way? PSSS. no more cute animal pics for you. ????
— Gisele Barreto Fetterman (@giselefetterman) November 17, 2023
Speculation about her deletion of the accounts sparked a buzz on social media earlier this week.
Sen. Fetterman has drawn some criticism over his positions staunchly supporting Israel and not calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as his recent statements about immigration at the southern border.
In December, Sen. Fetterman said he was “not a progressive” despite previous backing of issues like single-payer health care, recreational marijuana, LGBTQ rights and progressive politicians like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. He emphasized his support for Israel and for negotiating with Republicans on immigration restrictions.
Some have questioned his positions on immigration because his wife was herself an undocumented immigrant when she moved to the U.S. with her family from Brazil at age 7. Gisele Fetterman became a U.S. citizen five years later.
This isn’t Gisele Fetterman’s first brush with harassment. In 2020, a woman approached her and verbally assaulted her in an Aldi in Forest Hills.
“She said I don’t belong here,” Giesele Fetterman said at the time.
She told TribLive she has endured plenty of insults hurled at her in the past but has never been attacked in person.
“If you look at the comments on any story that involves me, I pretty regularly get the ‘go back to your country,’ and calling me an illegal alien and all these very hurtful things,” she said at the time.
