Mediated political masculinities: the commander-in-chief vs. the new man

ABSTRACT

The media play a very influential role in our perceptions of our political leaders, irrespective of where in the world they appear. Since the latter part of the twentieth century, our leaders’ personalities came to play an increasing role in their appeal, in particularly their gendered performances. As Barack Obama's presidency draws to the end of its second term, this paper will examine the representation of his persona in the context of the election in 2008 when he became the first Black US president. Much has been written of him being the first Black president of the USA, however, if we explore his campaign through a gendered lens, we can see that he is equally revolutionary. This contrasts with the gendered construction of male political leaders in other parts of the world, particularly that of Vladimir Putin in Russia. Building on work carried out in relation to the mediatisation and personalisation of politics in the last 50 years, this article shows how gendered performances can be seen to mirror changes in society.

KEYWORDS:

• Feminism
• masculinities
• political leaders
• Barack Obama
• Vladimir Putin
• media representation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Juan Orlando Perez and Michael Higgins for their advice in the initial drafting of this article, and to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive feedback.

Notes on contributors

Angela Smith is Reader in Language and Culture at the University of Sunderland. She has published widely in the areas of gender and media discourse, and is co-editor of the I.B. Tauris International Library of Gender in Popular Culture.

Notes

1. Brown's response to Sue Lawley's question “People want to know whether you're gay or whether there's some flaw in your personality that you haven't made a relationship?” was: “People have a right to know about politicians’ arrangements”. This failure to give a satisfactory answer led Lawley to ask whether he was irritated by questions about why he had never married. To this, Brown responded: “It just hasn't happened, and it's one of the things that I suppose I'm surprised hasn't happened, but it hasn't. I've always assumed I would be married”. This reply, which came without a pause and with some traces of laughter, implies he believes himself to be heterosexual, but did not completely end speculation about his sexuality. This was only ended when he married in August 2000. (Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 13 March, 1996.)

2. Quoted in Chivers in New York Times, 19 April 2008.

3. The Independent's VV Fan Club interviewees give an indication of just how different the Russian political and celebrity cultures are when they explained that the Kremlin website is the source of most of her information.

4. In comparison, Bill Clinton was also raised by a single mother, but his narrative positioned him as her rescuer from domestic violence.

5. The producers of Access Hollywood later released details of a survey they had conducted on viewers’ perceptions of the interview. 80% “approve”, 11% were “unsure” and 9% “disapproved”. www/accesshollywod.com Accessed 12 July 2008.

6. Available www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv-WYqYVaX8