Political pornification gone global: Teresa Rodríguez as fungible object in the 2015 Spanish regional elections

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors examine the political pornification of Spanish politician Teresa Rodríguez and assess the rhetorical strategies she and her supporters used to respond to the controversy. The authors theorize a “fungibility frame” within which women candidates and citizens are treated as interchangeable, violable, and devalued. Rodríguez and her supporters resisted this frame, asserting women's individuality, agency, and inherent value. This case underscores the ways in which political pornification impacts not just candidates and public figures, but also private citizens. When pornified, women are presented not as individuals with political agency but as objects which may be manipulated for political and commercial gain. Additionally, this analysis reveals the ways in which the conditions that produce political pornification may be endemic to democratic culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Media framing
• women candidates
• Spanish politics
• Podemos
• fungibility

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2017 National Communication Association Convention, where it was selected as the Top Paper for the National Communication Association's Political Communication Division. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editor Mary Stuckey for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ignacio Moreno Segarra is a doctoral student in Periodismo III at Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Karrin Vasby Anderson is Professor of Communication Studies at Colorado State University.

Notes

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22. Ross, “Women Framed,” 63.

23. Ross, “Women Framed,” 63.

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25. Garcia-Blanco and Wahl-Jorgensen, “Discursive Construction of Women Politicians,” 435.

26. Garcia-Blanco and Wahl-Jorgensen, “Discursive Construction of Women Politicians”; Anderson, “‘Rhymes with Blunt’”; Caroline Heldman, Susan J. Carroll, and Stephanie Olson, “‘She Brought Only a Skirt’: Print Media Coverage of Elizabeth Dole's Bid for the Republican Presidential Nomination,” Political Communication 22, no. 3 (2005): 315–35, doi:10.1080/10584600591006564.

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29. Anderson, “‘Rhymes with Blunt’,” 335.

30. Anderson, “‘Rhymes with Blunt’,” 336.

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36. Sontag, Styles of Radical Will, 54 (emphasis in original).

37. Sontag, Styles of Radical Will, 53.

38. Nussbaum identifies the following types of objectification:

1. Instrumentality: The objectifier treats the object as a tool of his or her purposes

2. Denial of autonomy: The objectifier treats the object as lacking in autonomy and self-determination.

3. Inertness: The objectifier treats the object as lacking in agency, and perhaps also in activity

4. Fungibility: The objectifier treats the object as interchangeable a) with other objects of the same type and/or b) with objects of other types

5. Violability: The objectifier treats the object as lacking in boundary integrity, as something that is permissible to break up, smash, break into

6. Ownership: The objectifier treats the object as something that is owned by another, can be bought or sold, etc.

7. Denial of subjectivity: The objectifier treats the object as something whose experience and feelings (if any) need not be taken into account. Nussbaum, Sex & Social Justice, 218.

39. Nussbaum, Sex & Social Justice, 218.

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41. Nussbaum, Sex & Social Justice, 220.

42. After the death of dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975, Spain entered a tumultuous transitional period (la Transición). From 1975 to 1978, efforts were made to decrease the influence of Francoist politicians and to draft a constitution that would establish democratic parliamentary rule. The Union of the Democratic Centre party earned a plurality of votes in elections held in June 1977, and a new constitution was ratified in 1978. From 1978 to 1981, Spain experienced civil unrest and a failed military coup. Unable to maintain a functional coalition, the Union of the Democratic Centre's power was eroded, with the party suffering a major defeat in elections held in October 1982. That election transferred power to the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). It also made possible Spain's entry into the European Economic Community and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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80. Podemos Feminismos Madrid, “Comunicado Del Círculo Podemos Feminismos Estatal,” Facebook, February 19, 2015, https://www.facebook.com/PodFeminismosCM/photos/a.1536740579936081.1073741828.1532304713713001/1547905582152914/?type=1&theater.

81. Los Pensionistas, “#TodosSomosTeresa Todas somos Teresa Rodriguez. Con nuestro cuerpo no se juega Círculo Feminismos Estatal,” Twitter (tweet), February 19, 2015, https://twitter.com/podpensionistas/status/568527623015395328.

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83. Nussbaum, Sex & Social Justice, 227.

84. Anderson, “‘Rhymes with Blunt’.”

85. Ana Sánchez Juárez, “La Desafortunada Historia de la Chica Desnuda de la Foto de Teresa Rodríguez,” Vanitatis, February 24, 2015, https://www.vanitatis.elconfidencial.com/noticias/2015-02-24/la-desafortunada-historia-de-la-chica-desnuda-de-la-foto-de-teresa-rodriguez_717026/.

86. de la Gama, “La lideresa de Podemos.”

87. Javier Caraballo, “Día Tres – La Maja Desnuda de Podemos,” El Confidencial, March 8, 2015, https://blogs.elconfidencial.com/elecciones-andalucia/diario-impertinente/2015-03-08/dia-3-la-maja-desnuda-de-podemos_724116/.

88. The photograph was posted originally at the following location: Israel Greenshines, “La Foto de Teresa Rodriguez de Podemos Desnuda En La Playa,” Greenshines, February 19, 2015, http://greenshines.com/la-foto-de-teresa-rodriguez-de-podemos-desnuda-en-la-playa/. It has since been removed from the website. The authors retained a screen shot.

89. Landaluce, “‘Podemos Quemarnos Si No Damos.’”

90. de la Gama, “La lideresa de Podemos.”

91. Podemos Feminismos Madrid, “Comunicado Del Círculo Podemos Feminismos Estatal.”

92. Los Pensionistas, “#TodosSomosTeresa Todas somos Teresa Rodriguez.”

93. Podemos Feminismos Madrid, “Comunicado Del Círculo Podemos Feminismos Estatal.”

94. Landaluce, “‘Podemos Quemarnos Si No Damos.’”

95. Landaluce, “‘Podemos Quemarnos Si No Damos.’”

96. Imogen Calderwood, “Spain Political Candidate Teresa Rodriguez Furious at ‘Naked Pic’ on National TV,” Olive Press (blog), February 24, 2015, http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2015/02/24/podemos-junta-candidate-teresa-rodriguez-lashes-out-at-naked-pic/.

97. Calderwood. “Spain Political Candidate Teresa Rodriguez Furious.”

98. Calderwood, “Spain Political Candidate Teresa Rodriguez Furious.”

99. Podemos Motril, “Mensaje de Teresa Rodríguez.”

100. Podemos Feminismos Madrid, “Comunicado Del Círculo Podemos Feminismos Estatal.”

101. Calderwood, “Spain Political Candidate Teresa Rodriguez Furious.”

102. Caraballo, “Día Tres – La Maja Desnuda de Podemos.”

103. Caraballo, “Día Tres – La Maja Desnuda de Podemos.”

104. Landaluce, “‘Podemos Quemarnos Si No Damos.’”

105. Dominic Ridley, “Bloody Bequest,” The Guardian, April 20, 2001, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/apr/21/spain.weekend7.

106. Caraballo, “Día Tres – La Maja Desnuda de Podemos.”

107. Janis A. Tomlinson, “Burn It, Hide It, Flaunt It: Goya's Majas and the Censorial Mind,” Art Journal 50, no. 4 (Winter 1991): 62.

108. Tomlinson, “Burn It, Hide It, Flaunt It,” 63.

109. Tomlinson, “Burn It, Hide It, Flaunt It,” 63.

110. Tomlinson, “Burn It, Hide It, Flaunt It,” 63.

111. “El Consejo Audiovisual de Andalucía Reprueba La Difusión Del Falso Desnudo de Teresa Rodríguez,” Eldiario.es, February 25, 2015, https://www.eldiario.es/andalucia/Consejo-Audiovisual-Andalucia-Teresa-Rodriguez_0_360464982.html.

112. Prensa RTVE, “La Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia Desestima la Queja del Consejo Audiovisual de Andalucía por unas Imágenes de Teresa Rodríguez emitidas en TVE,” RTVE.es, April 23, 2015, http://www.rtve.es/rtve/20150423/cnmc-desestima-queja-del-consejo-audiovisual-andalucia-unas-imagenes-teresa-rodriguez-emitidas-tve/1134960.shtml.

113. Teresa Rodríguez, personal email to the authors, September 9, 2015.

114. Graeme Turner, “Celebrity, the Tabloid and the Democratic Public Sphere,” in The Celebrity Culture Reader, ed. P. David Marshall (New York: Routledge, 2006), 487.

115. Turner, “Celebrity, the Tabloid and the Democratic Public Sphere,” 491.

116. Asawin Suebsaeng, “Politicians Who Bared All in Playboy,” The Daily Beast, March 18, 2015, https://www.thedailybeast.com/politicians-who-bared-all-in-playboy.

117. Teresa Rodríguez, personal email to the authors, September 9, 2015.

118. Lola Duarte, “Teresa Rodríguez: ‘Si Alguna Vez Hice Pellas Fue Para ir a Una Asamblea,’” Interviú, July 28, 2014, http://www.interviu.es/reportajes/articulos/teresa-rodriguez-si-alguna-vez-hice-pellas-fue-para-ir-a-una-asamblea. The article's subheading includes the quotation “Me encanta el sexo, la experiencia más memorable la tuve en un cine de verano,” which translates as “I really love sex. I had the most memorable experience in a summer cinema.”

119. “Transcript: Donald Trump's Taped Comments About Women,” The New York Times, October 8, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html.

120. In contemporary Spain, as in other Western democracies, intersectional perspectives are also attacked from the Left by critics who deride identity politics as a distraction from resistance to neoliberal economic policies. This argument animated U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders's campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination and it informs the work of Spanish writer Daniel Bernabé in his book The Diversity Trap: How Neoliberalism Fragmented the Identity of the Working Class. See Daniel Bernabé, La Trampa De La Diversidad: Como el Neoliberalismo Fragmento la Identidad de la Clase Trabajadora (Madrid: Ediciones Akal, 2018).

121. Raphael Minder, “Spanish Women, Advancing in Politics, Still Battle Sexism,” The New York Times, March 8, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/world/europe/spain-women-sexism.html.

122. Minder, “Spanish Women, Advancing in Politics.”