Women and the White House
Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics
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- 11,99 €
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- 11,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
As the first female vice president takes office, this volume explores gender perceptions and the executive role: “An important, impressive book” (Lane Crothers, author of Globalization and American Popular Culture).
The president of the United States has traditionally served as a symbol of power, virtue, ability, dominance, popularity, and patriarchy. In recent years, however, a number of high-profile female candidacies have provoked new interest in gendered popular culture and how it influences Americans’ perceptions of the country's highest political office.
In this timely volume, editors Justin S. Vaughn and Lilly J. Goren lead a team of scholars in examining how the president and the first lady exist as a function of public expectations and cultural gender roles. The authors investigate how the candidates’ messages are conveyed, altered, and interpreted in “hard” and “soft” media forums, from the nightly news to daytime talk shows, and from tabloids to the blogosphere. They also address the portrayal of the presidency in film and television productions such as 1964’s Kisses for My President and 2005’s Commander in Chief.
With its strong, multidisciplinary approach, Women and the White House commences a wider discussion about the growing possibility of a female president in the United States, the ways in which popular perceptions of gender will impact her leadership, and the cultural challenges she will face.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this well-documented scholarly work, 13 essays explore the role gender plays in presidential politics, with topics including "Colbert Nation: Gender, Late-Night Television, and Candidate Humanization" and "Fact or Fiction: The Reality of Race and Gender in Reaching the White House." The book investigates how citizens observe and engage with female political leaders, how concepts of presidential leadership are gendered across different forms of media, and how popular culture influences women in politics. The authors find the campaigns of polarizing figures including Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michele Bachmann to both defy and embody gender stereotypes, and analyze how pop culture like the 1964 film Kisses for My President and ABC's short-lived 2005 drama Commander in Chief imagine female presidents. A provocative thread throughout is the potential for late night television to either humanize or demonize a candidate, notably Palin. This thought-provoking lineup makes for compelling reading, no matter what side of the political spectrum one is on.