Gender, Politics and Media

This essay discusses the role of gender in the 2016 election in America and analyzes how gender norms and rules influenced the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It explores the ways in which gender was policed and the impact it had on the election.

Running head: GENDER, POLITICS AND MEDIA
Gender, Politics and Media
Name of the Student;
Name of the University:
Author note

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Gender has always proved itself to be significant player in the elections held in
America. It is set for playing a notable role gain in the election cycle of 2016, with Hillary
Clinton who became the first ever woman presidential nominees and Donald Trump, who
became a often accused individual of sexism (Du Bois). This essay shall elaborate on
discussing about the role played ‘by gender in the 2016 election and would analyse the
various different aspects of how gender rules have influenced the election of 2016 from the
way Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton announced their presidency to the manner
masculinity and femininity were policed all through the election. Some of the examples that
have been included in this paper are comprised of that of Donal Trump, Barack Obama, Gary
Johnson and Hillary Clinton. With the same, it would also take in consideration how some of
the women who supported Trump at those time, reacted to the allegations regarding sexual
harassment.
As mentioned earlier, gender had set to play a significant role in the election held in
American 2016’s election. On the side of the Democrats, President Hillary Clinton became
the first ever woman presidential nominees for one of the key political party in the history of
United States and on the other side of Republicans, President Donald Trump was often
accused for practicing sexism. He has engaged in several controversies against Hillary
Clinton, Megyn Kelly and Carly Fiorina (Valentino, Wayne and Oceno). This is why, being
potential of measuring the impacts of gender in proper manner became so important.
However, it must be noted that it would be wrong to claim that the election of 2016 in
America involved more general performance as compared to the earlier elections, although
the presence of Sarah Palin in the election as the Vice Presidential Pick of Republican
nominee in the year 2008 and the effort made by Hillary Clinton for the Democratic
Presidential nomination have captured the attention to gender in the politics. Still, it is the
American’s 2016’s election cycle that has presented with sufficient opportunity for seeing the

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role of gender in play (Carroll and Fox). It can be argued that gender as performed in the
2016 election has made the role gender actually plays in the American society very crystal
clear.
On 12th April, 2015, it was Hillary Clinton who delivered the announcement video by
putting herself in the fore front as the candidate for President of the United States of America.
In that video, she depicted herself and features the stories of different groups and
communities of Americans who were school going, had babies (an African-American married
couple), got a job after college years (one of the young Asian women), are studying in
universities, got married (the gay couple) and start a firm (a burly American). During the
promotions she said “I’m running for President. . . . Everyday Americans need a champion,
and I wanna be that champion. So you can do more than just get by. You can get ahead, and
stay ahead. Because when families are strong, America is strong. . . . I hope you’ll join me on
this journey” (Bock, Byrd-Craven and Burkley). It is to note that the images that started to
showed on the screen at those times include a lesbian couple and some of the American
families who used to seen previously in the part. It was a very clear image of inclusion,
defending and nurturing families and the campaign slogan of Hillary Clinton for next year
was also “Stronger Together” (Grebelsky-Lichtman and Katz).
On the contrary, on 16th June, 2015, when Donald Trump announced his nomination
for the president in his live speech, where he entered into a packed lobby through escalator
both smiling and waving hands. At that time, Ivanka Trump (daughter of Donald Trump)
introduced her father by saying that- “We don’t need talk, we need action. We need
execution. We need someone who is bold, and independent. . . . I can tell you that there is no
better person than my father to have in your corner when you are facing tough opponents or
making hard decisions. He is battle-tested”. Donald Trump then started talking for the next
forty minutes about what he consider as the problem faced by Americans in present days

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(Borchert). In his speech he first positioned the immigrants of Mexican as rapists and
criminals and at the same time, also acknowledged that there might be some who are good
though (Fiske and Hancock). With the same, it is also to note that it was also in this speech
where he introduced a theme that he had repeated all through the election and also into his
presidency and it was that- America has not been winning all these days, but with all his
(Donald Trump’s) skills and powers, America will start to do very well and start to gain
victory once again. The campaign slogan of Donald Trump for next year was also “Make
America Great Again” (Lee and Lim).
Now, it is to mention that these two announcements by Hillary Clinton and Donald
Trump set the tone for the then remainder of the 2016 election. The announcement by Clinton
performed the important aspects of feminity such as preparation and planning, defence of the
family, interdependence, social labour, emotional labour, asking instead of demanding and
serving as a champion by means of advocating for the people. According to Crenshaw,
women are taken seriously the most when they put themselves into their traditional masculine
roles like politics. However, he also added that, only one behalf of the traditionally feminine
roles and values comprising of the advocacy for the family and the concerns for the others’
welfare. All these themes were displayed very prominently in the announcement made by
Hillary Clinton. Notwithstanding this fact, it is also to mention that the toolset that was
required to make sense of about the 2016 election went beyond this notion and it needed very
careful examination of the rules and norms of both the masculinity and femininity.
When the election gradually started, Hillary Clinton was highly accused for how she
comported herself and looked like. For example, for her “masculine” pantsuits, for the way
she used to carry herself in the public, for the way she did not smiled enough during the
campaigns and interacting with the public, for the aged that she looked etc. In other words,
she was widely criticised for the ways she performed femininity. As claimed by Williams

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(2018), gender is natural but instead, it is manufactured by means of some repeated actions.
When people start to perform the gender in different ways that do not fit into the rules of the
gender, the existence of theirs starts to become socially unintelligible and therefore, human
beings police their actions for bringing them into the conformity. However, the alternative for
this is that to allow the norms and rules of gender themselves to get disrupted. It is likely to
make its artifice, its natures as performance and startlingly clear. This type of policing was
what happened in the case of Hillary Clinton. The populace, public and media went on for
demanding behaviours of Hillary Clinton that one can see as fitting into the double binds of
femininity (Dittmar). One of the other related and classic, double bind nature was revealed in
the process of constant policing of the impact of women gets completed with the injunctions
of smile in order to be pleasing to others who would instead find an unsmiling women to be
distressful. With the same, the comportment of women is also many of the time policed
through literal voices as well. Right from picking on the statements of upseak, like ending
with higher level of pitch in order to ensure that it sounds almost as if the speakers are asking
for questions for volume and the manner in which one speaks regarding the facts versus the
narratives, gender is enforced in multiple ways by means of even examining the voices of
women. However, after decades of criticisms of these type of policing, they were still levied
at Hillary Clinton.
On the contrary, the announcement made by Trump performed some significant
aspects of masculinity and they include independence, combativeness in the defence of what
is right, strength and virility and serving as champion by means of winning. In the
announcement Trump also went on saying that when he looked in the mirror, he sees himself
as a thirty five years old man playing golf with Tom Brady, he feels himself to be of the same
age as Brady. He also showcased general vitality and youthfulness. These are the classic traits
that Weinhold and Bodkin has termed as “hegemonic masculinity”. It is to note that this type

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of masculinity is not only a fixed type of character and not that each and everywhere the
same. It is, instead, masculinity occupy the hegemonic situation in a pattern equal to the
gender relations. It is a position that has always been capable of being contested.
It can be seen in this way that two significant men have responded to Donald Trump
in publicly manner and it is President Barack Obama and Gary Johnson. In the waning days
of the campaign, a tape was released about Trump discussing about the liberties that he had-
wealth and fame. It was said that Trump is wealthy enough and is also a very famous man
and this is why he has the potential of attracting attractive women. Wilz has discussed that
such rich vocabulary of abusing is often used for policing masculinity. It is precisely in this
sense that Johnson, the nominee of Libertarian Party deployed it. At the time of his first
debate he also said that Trump is a “Pussy”. However, later when he was given the chance of
explaining himself, he said it to be a misfire and moved on towards reinforcing his
masculinity over Trump, referring to a good deal of feats that also revealed his wealth. Again,
in one of the video, Barak Obama, just like Johnson, used languages that are basically used to
tell against the men. According to Crandall, Miller and White, a part of being male or
masculine is that he needs to be tough. These are the normative traits that Conroy is clearly in
against of. For accusing a man, is accusing him for not being able to showcase his
masculinity in much the same manner that boys are told while they grow up to not be “cry
baby”. It is also policing the masculinity. Donald Trump has enacted the norms of the
hegemonic masculinity as he took what he wanted and that he is antagonistic and hostile and
at the same time, is sexually successful. As claimed by Conroy, the males who harass and
assault women hardly thought of themselves as deviant natures. Wilz too have described the
ways in which the norms and rules of the dominants masculinity has structured the social
statues of men.

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Hence from the above analysis it can be stated that gender has played a notable part in
the 2016 election in America right from the very beginning of the announcement campaigns
led by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. On one side, Hillary was criticised by many of the
public as being less of femininity and more of masculinity and on the other side, Trump’s
announcement was regarded as showing some significant aspects of masculinity and they
include independence, combativeness in the defence of what is right, strength and virility and
serving as champion by means of winning. Hence it is clear from the analysis that when
people start to perform the gender in different ways that do not fit into the norms and rules of
the gender, the existence of theirs starts to become socially unintelligible and therefore,
human beings police their actions for bringing them into the conformity.

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