{"id":182,"date":"2008-10-03T19:17:05","date_gmt":"2008-10-04T00:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/?p=182"},"modified":"2008-10-03T20:14:15","modified_gmt":"2008-10-04T01:14:15","slug":"framing-female","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2008\/10\/03\/framing-female\/","title":{"rendered":"Framing Female"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"S\u00e9go<\/a>
S\u00e9gol\u00e8ne Royal-President of the Poitou-Charentes regional council (France)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bear with me with my French references. \u00a0First Bourdieu<\/a> and now S\u00e9gol\u00e8ne Royal. Last spring, I followed the Royal\/Sarcozy campaigns in the French Presidential elections, which was full of frames. \u00a0S\u00e9gol\u00e8ne wasn’t a folksy “hockey mom” type with (say) non-Parisian French and a homespun demeanor of \u00a0a country “girl” from Provence. \u00a0No, “S\u00e9go” was a “hottie” Socialist, who was the daughter of a general and a disciple of Fran\u00e7ois Mitterand in the 1980s. \u00a0She and her romantic male partner, Fran\u00e7ois Hollande (also a Socialist politician)\u00a0both won seats in 1988 and rose in the ranks of the party throughout the 1990s. \u00a0Despite having 4 children out of wedlock, S\u00e9go navigated the French culture wars. \u00a0I’m sure it helped she was deemed as sexy<\/a> and charming. \u00a0Her version of femininity resonated with many. \u00a0In early 2006, Salon.com, true to type when it comes to missing the point, had an article comparing S\u00e9go Royal to Hillary Clinton<\/a>. \u00a0The Salon.com similarities are superficial and incidental in my book, but the Salon piece did bring up two issues: \u00a0(1) the issue of credibility and (2) having an ideologically confused message\/platform. \u00a0In a post mortem <\/em>article on her loss<\/a>, these issues would sink her, along with Sarcozy’s “on code” messages tapping into the concerns and worries of many French citizens. \u00a0While her specific “femininity” frame may have helped her, it may have also been a dual-edged sword. \u00a0What are the “rules” for a woman be sexy and credible with the masses? \u00a0In the end, S\u00e9go’s credibility was hurt by her policies seeming improvised, as she was campaigning. \u00a0In addition, the socialist “code” wasn’t on track and failed to resonate with the fragmented left.<\/p>\n

How can this relate to McCain\/Palin? \u00a0I think that McCain was expecting to use Palin as a critical “selling proposition” to the ticket, in addition to having a “wow” factor<\/a>. \u00a0I think Palin was expected to mobilize the conservative base while still having appeal to the moderate “everyperson,” i.e.<\/em>, hockey moms and Joe Six-pack. \u00a0If Palin is going to be front-and-center and in the campaign trenches, I’m afraid the “credibility” issue will always be an albatross. \u00a0She has been framed in a certain way and now she has to expend so much energy to dispel that perception. \u00a0Think Swift Boat veterans<\/a> in 2004. \u00a0Was she framed this way due to her gender or her brand of femininity? \u00a0Even if she appears competent and knowledgeable, is the public primed to expect a gaffe from her and will this undermine the credibility of the entire ticket?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Bear with me with my French references. \u00a0First Bourdieu and now S\u00e9gol\u00e8ne Royal. Last spring, I followed the Royal\/Sarcozy campaigns in the French Presidential elections, which was full of frames. \u00a0S\u00e9gol\u00e8ne wasn’t a folksy “hockey mom” type with (say) non-Parisian French and a homespun demeanor of \u00a0a country “girl” from Provence. \u00a0No, “S\u00e9go” was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[680,682,686,681,683,684],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comparative-politics","tag-campaigns","tag-framing","tag-gendered-perceptions","tag-perceptions","tag-sarah-palin","tag-segolene-royal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}