Palin For President
Although the 2008 presidential elections just took place a couple of weeks ago, there is already talk of the 2012 presidential candidates. After President Obama fulfills his four years in office, people wonder what will be in store for America. There is speculation that although we have yet to see the positives and negatives of Obama as president, that he hopes to take on another term. There is also speculation that Sara Palin will take the ticket for the Republicans nomination. After the Republicans “weak” choice of Senator John McCain as there nominee, one must question if choosing Palin would be beneficial for the party as a whole. Throughout this semester, our class has discussed the role of females in political communication. After seeing how negatively the press and eventually the people responded to her throughout the campaign I have doubts on whether or not it would be in the Republicans best interest to nominate her if they really want to see a GOP riding in Air Force One.
Palin took harsh abuse from the media throughout her vice-presidential campaign. The media ridiculed her, mocked her and practically terrorized her on how she dressed, acted, spoke, winked, and also on her knowledge of policies and politics. The discussion of her wardrobe was truly baffling. Claims that a large portion of the campaign’s budget was allotted for Palin’s clothing alone terrified many people. The media talked about that story for weeks and negatively promoted the image of Plain as a large spender and questioned her ability to relate to the “Joe Six Packs,” “Joe the Plumbers” and the “Michelle I’m finally proud to be an American’s.” If Palin were to dress a different way and not look as polished and wear pant suits as Hilary Clinton did, she would be critiqued for that. One must question what the appropriate in-between dress code for women in politics is.
Palin would also be critiqued if she didn’t appear to be feminine as Hilary Clinton (a female presidential candidate) was. When Clinton didn’t respond with a smirk or a laugh to an innocent joke the media and people viewed her as inhumane, yet when Sarah Palin embraces her bubbly, high spirited and enthusiastic personality, and winks during a debate the media mocks her. This raises the awareness that women truly do get the brunt of the media.
Overall, the media plays a large part in the presidential election. With the media having such a negative impact on the Republican’s campaign in this past election, one must question if they will really consider nominating Sarah Palin for president. It seems as though the media has more to critique on female candidates making it questionable if and when America will be ready for a woman in the White House.
Palin took harsh abuse from the media throughout her vice-presidential campaign. The media ridiculed her, mocked her and practically terrorized her on how she dressed, acted, spoke, winked, and also on her knowledge of policies and politics. The discussion of her wardrobe was truly baffling. Claims that a large portion of the campaign’s budget was allotted for Palin’s clothing alone terrified many people. The media talked about that story for weeks and negatively promoted the image of Plain as a large spender and questioned her ability to relate to the “Joe Six Packs,” “Joe the Plumbers” and the “Michelle I’m finally proud to be an American’s.” If Palin were to dress a different way and not look as polished and wear pant suits as Hilary Clinton did, she would be critiqued for that. One must question what the appropriate in-between dress code for women in politics is.
Palin would also be critiqued if she didn’t appear to be feminine as Hilary Clinton (a female presidential candidate) was. When Clinton didn’t respond with a smirk or a laugh to an innocent joke the media and people viewed her as inhumane, yet when Sarah Palin embraces her bubbly, high spirited and enthusiastic personality, and winks during a debate the media mocks her. This raises the awareness that women truly do get the brunt of the media.
Overall, the media plays a large part in the presidential election. With the media having such a negative impact on the Republican’s campaign in this past election, one must question if they will really consider nominating Sarah Palin for president. It seems as though the media has more to critique on female candidates making it questionable if and when America will be ready for a woman in the White House.
Labels: gender roles in politics, media influence
posted by Caitlin B | 11:19 AM
2 Comments:
The media constantly criticized Governor Sarah Palin during this year’s presidential campaign, but whether or not it would be in the best interest of the Republican Party to nominate her has nothing to do with this issue. Senator Clinton also was under scrutiny for her pantsuits and masculine look. However, she was able to get beyond that in her quest for the presidency. Although she did not win the nomination, she put up a strong fight to Senator Obama with her platforms and stances on different issues. Just because Governor Palin has been heavily criticized does not mean that she cannot do the same. It is hard to be a woman in politics because there is so much focus on things that shouldn’t matter, such as the way that she chose to dress. In the 2008 campaign, she did prove that she was still just a "Joe Six Pack" even though there was a substantial amount of money spent on her clothes, because they weren’t hers. It was the faulty decision of this campaign to try to groom her into looking like a vice president when it was more important America see her as one. Although her personality might been a bit more bubbly then your average politician, people need to look beyond that and listen to what she can do to better our country with her return to a more conservative ideal. Though it is doubtful that Governor Palin will not be criticized if she chooses to run in 2012, I think she is a strong candidate that could serve as a dynamic nomination by the Republican Party. She along with Senator Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro have paved the way for women in politics and in a time when people are able to look beyond race in a presidential election, America should look beyond sex to nominate the best candidate for president, which very well could be Governor Palin.
I think we could consider the Sarah Palin-Media relationship one step further...beyond just gender stereotypes and the constriants women face. While I in no way want to marginalize or downplay the existence of gender prejudice I think that we could broaden the problem--or at least expand our considertion--to include the role of image politics.
As we have discussed in class image politics is becoming increasingly prominent with the advent of television, etc. Along these lines we briefly touched on the trend towards politics as kind of a marketing or public relations campaign with consistent themes and messages. I think it is this consistency and in contrast inconsistency that gets the most attention. while gender stereotypes get mixed up in here, for my own sake, I want to be able to critique a problem in the system that applies to all candidates (equal opportunity criticism woo hoo!) When the media sees an inherent inconsistency or blatant contradiction they bring it to attention, and I think they in fact saw an inconsistency and between Palin's Neiman Marcus bill and hr image as just one of us (a, "joe six pack", to exhaust the term for the umpteenth time). Now I don't have an argument for the hair (but the woman does have good hair!) but I think that before the cynics jump on the media it is helpful to consider the broader influences such as, image politics.
There were seemingly arbitrary news stories about Barrack Obama's smoking habit, Why? Because it is all about image and image consistency...and for many of us our perception is "the president doesn't smoke"...or many of us just cant see the connection. Now while these inconsistencies might not be the most relevant when the pressures of 24-hour news coverage about a campaign that has lasted for almost 2 years...that is what you get. Again looking toward the issues that plague political communication as a whole. understanding political communications and it's issues in this way helps those who wish to fix it...do so on a more comprehensive level in my opinion.
I think this approach could also help feminists in being effective in eliminating gender stereotypes. to construct the issue as an institutional flaw of political communication my help harness a more diverse group of supporters and advocates. (some people just don't respond well to feminism...and if you want social change you have to have a strategy to overcome these things!)
Post a Comment
<< Home