{"id":39152,"date":"2011-09-03T06:31:08","date_gmt":"2011-09-03T11:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=39152"},"modified":"2012-04-02T14:50:24","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T19:50:24","slug":"saturday-night-live-and-the-double-bind-dilemma-for-women-in-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/09\/03\/saturday-night-live-and-the-double-bind-dilemma-for-women-in-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"SNL and the Double Bind for Women in Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While America has taken great steps in recent decades toward gender equality, this progress seems lacking in politics.\u00a0No elected legislative body in the U.S. has ever come close to being half female\u2014the proportion we would expect if it were truly representative of the populace. R.W. Connell<\/a> argues patriarchy is replicated and reinforced partially through our individual gender practices that cumulatively make social institutions operate.\u00a0 In daily life, all men and women are socially pressured to embody the gender traits prescribed for their sex.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Hall Jameson<\/a> argues the ways we judge others\u2019 masculine and feminine selves creates a double bind<\/em> dilemma for women in leadership; a problem that is especially salient in politics, where winning is contingent upon candidates being both personally liked and thought of as competent leaders.\u00a0 Men have no problem being respected both personally and as leaders because acting strong, confident, and in-charge is expected of both males and authority figures.\u00a0 However, when women present themselves as leaders by acting dominant, they are likely to be judged as overly harsh, or even \u201cbitchy.\u201d\u00a0 Yet when women act feminine, they are often judged as unfit for authority because they lack leadership qualities.\u00a0 In electoral politics, it is very difficult for women to walk the tightrope between being a competent leader and also connecting with voters personally.<\/p>\n

We can see the double-bind at work in Saturday Night Live\u2019s now famous, or infamous, parodies of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin during the 2008 Presidential campaigns.\u00a0 Tina Fey\u2019s Grammy-winning depiction of Sarah Palin exaggerates femininity, often portraying the former Alaska governor as if she is competing in a beauty pageant.\u00a0 Amy Poehler\u2019s masculine portrayal of Hillary Clinton as overly-aggressive, combative, and filled with anger exemplifies the other side of the double bind dilemma.\u00a0 One skit bringing these characters together to speak out against sexism in the campaign is especially revealing:<\/p>\n

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Fey presents Palin as accommodating, saying \u201cI was so excited when I was told Senator Clinton and I would be addressing you tonight,\u201d to which Poehler-as-Clinton uncooperatively says, \u201cI was told I would be addressing you alone.\u201d Similarly, a capitulating Palin says \u201cHillary and I don\u2019t agree on everything,\u201d to which Clinton combats \u201cwe don\u2019t agree on anything.\u201d Later in the skit, Poehler-as-Clinton takes firm policy stances while Fey-as-Palin gives \u2018pageant\u2019 answers. After Clinton speaks out against the Bush Doctrine, Fey as Palin claims \u201cI don\u2019t know what that is.\u201d Clinton says \u201cI believe diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy;\u201d Palin responds \u201cand I can see Russia from my house.\u201d In the SNL skit, Palin tells political pundits to quit using words \u201cthat diminish us like pretty, attractive, beautiful \u2026\u201d while Clinton interrupts, \u201charpy, shrew, boner-shrinker.\u201d Throughout the skit Clinton becomes increasingly agitated and then rips apart the podium in anger. Poehler\u2019s masculine portrayal becomes literal when she says \u201cI invite the media to grow a pair, and if you can\u2019t, I will lend you mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The overly-effeminate portrayal of Palin reflects one side of the double-bind where many people judge feminine women as lacking the appropriate characteristics for leadership. On the other side of the double-bind, the unfeminine portrayal of Clinton illustrates how women who act powerful and confident are subject to character attacks. However, because leadership qualities are expected of men, male politicians are not subject to this critique when they act like leaders. For example, Poehler as Clinton describes her \u201croad to the White House\u201d as \u201cI scratched, and I clawed,\u201d\u2014words with negative connotations which would never be used to describe competitive men with ambition.<\/p>\n

While political comedy depicting our leaders as inept has been a mainstay of our electoral process since our country\u2019s founding; we should be cognizant that parodies of female politicians often draw upon very real aspects of gender that make it difficult for women to achieve positions of leadership.<\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

Jason Eastman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Coastal Carolina University who researches how culture and identity influence social inequalities.<\/p>\n

If you would like to write a post for Sociological Images, please see our\u00a0Guidelines for Guest Bloggers<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While America has taken great steps in recent decades toward gender equality, this progress seems lacking in politics.\u00a0No elected legislative body in the U.S. has ever come close to being half female\u2014the proportion we would expect if it were truly representative of the populace. R.W. Connell argues patriarchy is replicated and reinforced partially through our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23384,55,2096,2087,2098,85,283],"class_list":["post-39152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-social-construction-discourselanguage","tag-gender","tag-gender-femininity","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-gender-prejudicediscrimination","tag-politics","tag-prejudicediscrimination"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39152"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39157,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39152\/revisions\/39157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}