18 August 2015, 17p
Department of Culture, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK
Abstract
The media play a very
influential role in our perceptions of our political leaders,
irrespective of where in the world they appear. Since the latter part of
the twentieth century, our leaders’ personalities came to play an
increasing role in their appeal, in particularly their gendered
performances. As Barack Obama's presidency draws to the end of its
second term, this paper will examine the representation of his persona
in the context of the election in 2008 when he became the first Black US
president. Much has been written of him being the first Black president
of the USA, however, if we explore his campaign through a gendered
lens, we can see that he is equally revolutionary. This contrasts with
the gendered construction of male political leaders in other parts of
the world, particularly that of Vladimir Putin in Russia.
Building on work carried out in relation to the mediatisation and
personalisation of politics in the last 50 years, this article shows how
gendered performances can be seen to mirror changes in society. © 2015
Taylor & Francis
Author keywords
Barack Obama; Feminism; masculinities; media representation; political leaders; Vladimir Putin
ISSN: 10350330Source Type: Journal
Original language: English
DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2015.1075293Document Type: Article in Press
Publisher: Routledge
This article has not been published yet.
If this article contains references, they will become available when the article is published.
© Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserve
