Gender, Heteronormativity, and the American Presidency

Aidan Smith

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351798792
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Gender, Heteronormativity and the American Presidency places notions of gender at the center of its analysis of presidential campaign communications. Over the decades, an investment in gendered representations of would-be leaders has changed little, in spite of the second- and third-wave feminist movements. Modern candidates have worked vigorously to demonstrate "compensatory heterosexuality, " an unquestionable normative identity that seeks to overcome challenges to their masculinity or femininity.

The book draws from a wide range of archived media material, including televised films and advertisements, public debates and speeches, and candidate autobiographies. From the domestic ideals promoted by Eisenhower in the 1950s, right through to the explicit and divisive rhetoric associated with the Clinton/Trump race in 2016; intersectional content and discourse analysis reveals how each presidential candidate used his or her campaign to position themselves as a defender of traditional gender roles, and furthermore, how this investment in "appropriate" gender behaviour was made manifest in both international and domestic policy choices.

This book represents a significant and timely contribution to the study of political communication. While communication during presidential elections is a well-established research field, Aidan Smith's book is the first to apply a gendered lens over such an extended historical period and across the political spectrum.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 “A White House that’s built for two”: Domesticity and gender performance in the campaign communications of the 1950s
• 3 The patriarch and the PT-109: John F. Kennedy and the construction of autonomy
• 4 “Unafraid, unashamed, and unsurpassed”: Retrieving American masculinity and national futurity in the presidential elections of the 1980s
• 5 An era of Eros: First Ladies as assets and liabilities in the late twentieth century
• 6 Moynihan, Michelle, and Dreams from My Father: Fighting otherness with gender
• 7 “Trump That Bitch”: Masculinity and backlash in the 2016 presidential campaign
• 8 Conclusion
• Index