Compared with other types of media channels, news media is the main channel for the public to obtain information in the modern society. The media, especially political news media, is the symbol of authority, authenticity, and seriousness. In the eyes of most people, news is the factual report, with the principle of objective and fairness being its principle. Thus, news carry messages that people have been used to receive in a non-defensive manner. In this essay, the discussion will focus on some of the less desirable and even negative influences of media in the US society: politics and sexism.
Centering around the case of Hillary Clinton’s run for the presidential candidate in 2008, the different ways women are portrayed by the media will be examined. 2008 was an extraordinary year for Hillary Clinton in her political career. From the announcement of her presidential campaign, to the defeat within the party, and finally to the nomination of Secretary of State by Obama, Clinton made frequent appearances on all types of media. It has been found that sexism was present no matter how Clinton was portrayed. It is almost certain that sexist media coverage contributed to Clinton’s failure, but with multiple factors involved in the campaign other than gender, the ‘net’ influence of her gender and sexist media coverage is definitely substantial, but not the dominant reason for her failures.
Objectification is the first way media coverage ruined things for Hillary Clinton in 2008. There were multiple references to Clinton by the news media as a woman in pantsuit (Farmer, 2009). This confined Clinton into a particular gender role. When it came to her other role as a presidential candidate, the media still referred to her with the way she dressed. Such coverage contributed to diminishing Clinton’s political image, by leading the audience to pay more attention to her external image rather than her political behaviors. This would result in diminished credibility and trustworthiness of Clinton among the public (Carlin & Winfrey, 2009). Compared to her male counterparts, Clinton was somewhat less of a human being and more of an object to be judged.
Her words seemed to matter less than her physical appearances, the way she dressed, and her voice when it came to judging her. Stereotypes about women in pantsuits also emerged with the sexist coverage of Clinton by the media. Her different colors of pantsuits became the target of mocking (Farmer, 2009). Again, this significantly diminished the seriousness of Clinton’s political claims. The objectification of her even went to an extreme, as she was compared to the demon and other demeaning figures (Farmer, 2009). This helped intensify the terrifying and undesirable impression of Clinton.
Clinton’s femininity was negatively portrayed and interpreted by the media and became a distraction for the public as a result. Although Clinton tried to build a strong, experienced, and competent image to make up for her lack of inexperience, the media still managed to capture several occasions when she became emotional and even fragile (Dowd, 2008). It is established in the social and cultural beliefs to associate presidency with masculinity and male dominance (Lawrence & Rose, 2010). Firstly, people tend to equate females with femininity.
As a sensitive person, it is quite normal for Clinton to deal with her frustration with some tears. However, femininity and tears seem to be placed in the exact opposite oppositions against leadership qualities (Lawrence & Rose, 2010). Therefore, the excessive focus on her crying may have made the audience feel that she was a vulnerable woman unable to handle the difficult political situations. According to the theory of Symbolic Annihilation (Tuchman, 1979), the most important characteristics and features of women tend to be overlooked by the media. The same has happened to Clinton. Despite the large amount of media coverage of Clinton, her active participation in both domestic and international affairs over the years, the media was being highly selective, focusing on much less important issues instead.
The balance between femininity and masculinity for Hillary was extremely tricky. For Hillary, being too male-like and dominant, showing aggression, and being more emotional would both fall into the sexism stereotypes and criticized by the media (Lawrence & Rose, 2010). The long-established strong independent female figure during the campaign made some females believe, that Hillary Clinton betrayed feminism. This also agrees with the image of a despicable militant who would do and say whatever to achieve her goals. This made it worse for Clinton to cry in public.
New York Times on January 9, 2008 published an article entitled Can Hillary cry her way back to the White House? (Dowd, 2008). The author used satirical language that made fun of Hillary Clinton’s tears, fragility, and lack of masculinity. Sexism did not always come in negative and attacking ways at Clinton. Female figures can be treated differently by sexism: to be considered sexual beings, to assume mother figures, to be petted, and to fall into the iron lady category (Carlin & Winfrey, 2009). Clinton also took advantage of her tears to construct the image of someone who truly understood the female Americans. Being the listener to the public, especially women’s voices, Clinton returned the role of a traditional female and regained support from females (Kantor, 2008). In this case, she was portrayed as the understanding and emotional mother figure in media sexism.
Due to the complex nature of a political campaign, it is difficult to calculate the exact extent sexist media coverage has influenced Clinton in 2008. However, it is certain that Clinton went through excessive media criticism and harsher comments due to her gender (Carlin & Winfrey, 2009). In addition to the sexism factor, the selection of Obama as the final candidate of the party had positive contributors as well.
The fact that Obama is African American may have significantly contributed to his win, aided by the young, passionate image. In comparison, Hillary Clinton had already been in the White House when she campaigned in 2008, as the First Lady of the US. This special identity and experience did provide her a boost to be the front runner in the early phase. However, it also made Clinton the target to be defeated (Lawrence & Rose, 2010). This background cannot be ignored, since it contributed to the media’s portrayal of Clinton as a power-craving woman sourcing her way back to the White House. if Clinton had a more similar background as her opponent, the exact scale of influence of sexism media coverage may be better measured.
In conclusion, the media coverage of Hillary Clinton in 2008 was totally sexist, through the means of objectification, attacks on femininity, and symbolic annihilation. This was true not only for smaller news press, but also for major news agencies such as the New York Times. The media in the US society was largely unable to treat strong female leaders with the objectivity and respect they deserve. Instead, a double standard was applied, exerting much stricter and rather irrelevant criticism on Clinton. Gender stereotypes in news media can be in disguise and amazingly persuasive to the audience (Lawrence & Rose, 2010). However, given the non-gender factors mentioned above (race and experience), it is safe to say that sexist media coverage had a substantial but not dominant influence on Clinton’s withdrawal.
Leave A Comment