Monster metaphors in media coverage of the 2016 U.S. presidential contest

ABSTRACT

This article offers an exploratory look at the use of the monster metaphor in the political rhetoric surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential race. Drawing on a unique qualitative archive of online media from the primary and general election period, I document monstrous characterizations of the candidates and offer an interpretative analysis of the narrative functions the monster metaphor serves in the political discourse at this point in time. For the most part, monster metaphors convey narratives that center on attributions of blame and responsibility and raise questions about the moral standing of one’s political opponents. Literature from political science on the use of metaphors in social cognition and literature from social psychology on dehumanization are employed to offer theoretically grounded speculation about the possible impact of monster metaphors on American voters and provide direction for further, more systematic work on the use of metaphor in political campaigns.

KEYWORDS:

• Metaphor
• monstrosity
• presidential rhetoric
• dehumanization
• negative campaigning

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Kjersten Nelson and Heather Silber Mohamed for their comments on an early draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 A trope is a conceptual figure of speech that characterizes a candidate through comparison or analogy. A metaphor is one kind of trope.

2 But see Howe (1988) on the use of guerrilla warfare metaphors in political rhetoric.

3 Late-night political comedy, such as John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, is one area where these characterizations may be common, as these programs tend to present candidates in cartoonish and exaggerated ways (e.g. Young 2006).

4 This cartoon cross-references historical visual rhetoric; for instance, compare Image B with the US Army enlistment poster “Destroy This Mad Brute.” This comparison highlights that monster metaphors are not a new facet of political rhetoric, but an existing metaphoric device.

5 While there are gendered connotations to the term, it is not used exclusively to target women. Use of the witch hunt metaphor was popularized in American politics during the McCarthy era, in which suspected communists, including men, were the targets of the witch hunt. It has also been used frequently in the post-election period by President Trump to discredit the efforts of the Muller investigation, as well as negative coverage from the mainstream media.

6 Claims of monstrosity do not come exclusively from the opposition party, as this example illustrates. Another key example occurred during the 2008 presidential campaign, when Obama’s aid Samantha Power referred to Clinton as “a monster” in an interview with The Scotsman.