Here is an ad put out by the McCain campaign that associates Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton:
What struck me about it is that associating Obama with some young women is a way to imply he’s not a serious candidate (see this post from yesterday on a similar theme). I mean, they could have used, say, Tom Cruise of one of the examples of overwhelming celebrity, but part of the image of the Obama campaign is that many of his followers are sexy but vapid young women. (Also, as far as I’m aware neither Britney Spears nor Paris Hilton have actually been connected to Obama, unlike Scarlett Johansson, who sent him emails; the media frenzy over the idea that he was her “email buddy” eventually forced him to distance himself from any association with her. Why this was such a big deal, I do not know, since there was no indication that the emails were inappropriate in any way.)
Also: Paris Hilton has now become part of our political discourse? Really?
NEW: Marc S. sent in a link to the humorous response from Paris Hilton. It might be a humorous intro to a discussion of the way that we assume that certain types of femininity (particularly the type associated with tanning and liking the color pink) are incompatible with being intelligent or politically aware.
Thanks, Marc!
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
Comments 10
aaron — August 1, 2008
For "sexy but vapid women," I would substitute "oversexed white women lured in by his animal charisma"; ads like this seem carefully crafted to sexualize (without quite saying it outright) Obama's popularity, thereby denying that one might prefer him on a basis of policy and raising the spectre of misceganation at the same time, like with the smear campaign against Harold Ford. The Scarlett Johannsson thing was exactly the same thing; if Obama sent an email to Tom Cruise, as you suggest, who would care? But the prospect of the black candidate exchanging an email with a white celebrity known for her sexuality, horrors!
XavierM — August 1, 2008
Also striking is the opposition between "the world" and "the usa". At the beginning, we find the underlying reproach that Obama care more about "the outside world" (i.E. everythig except the usa) than his own country. This opposition echoes with the one drawn later in the ad between national and "foreign" oil ( "more foreign oil, that's the real Obama"). Obama, candidate of the foreign world ; Mac Cain, the nationalist one ?
About Obama sexualization, i recommend a very interesting post french sociologist (specialist in american civilisation, actually) Eric Fassin wrote on his blog several months ago, wisely titled "Barack Obama est-il un homme ?" (Is Barack Obama a man ?). It's in french, of course :
http://www.mediapart.fr/club/blog/eric-fassin/070408/barack-obama-est-il-un-homme
היתוך קר למפגרים » תעזבו את אובאמה בשקט! — August 1, 2008
[...] הסרטונים החדשים בקמפיין של ג’ון מקיין שטוענים שברק אובאמה הוא סתם סלבריקה ומשווים אותו לבריטני ספירס ופריס הילטון, כריס קרוקר [...]
floored « In The Form Of A Question — August 1, 2008
[...] I clicked it naively thinking it would be a commentary on McCain’s ridiculous new ad, which Gwen has already discussed over at Sociological Images. No, instead it was just an article about McCain. Not very interesting to me except that in the [...]
Holly — August 1, 2008
I totally agree, aaron. The Harold Ford ad was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this ad.
Umlud — August 1, 2008
What do you think of what Josh Rosenau says over at Thoughts from Kansas?
http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/2008/07/lie_back_and_enjoy_it.php
XavierM — August 3, 2008
"Leave Barack Alone !", a virtual backlash by Slate which should remind you something ;=) :
http://www.slate.com/id/2196400/
JPop — August 9, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TLvH5OGYYc
Paris Hilton's response. Mockery is the sincerest form of telling John where to stick it.
Sociological Images » WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO BEHIND YOUR BACK (AUGUST 2008) — September 1, 2008
[...] added Paris Hilton’s humorous response to this post about John McCain’s campaign ad that associated Barack Obama with Hilton and Britney Spears [...]
Sociological Images » SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ROUND-UP! — November 4, 2008
[...] propaganda also included comparison with OJ Simpson, a monkey, celebrities, Osama Bin Laden, fascists and communists, a terrorist, a terrorist again, and a “half-breed [...]