“Rhymes with Blunt”: Pornification and U.S. Political Culture

Abstract

In this essay, I contend that political culture and campaign journalism during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign was “pornified.” Examination of broadcast journalism, viral videos, online commentary, political pop culture, and get-out-the- vote campaigns reveals the ways in which pornographic metaphors, images, and narratives infiltrated U.S. political culture during the 2008 presidential primary and general election season. I assess the media framing of candidates Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, as well as that of female voters as a group, arguing that the emergence of the pornification frame signals a backlash against the gains women have made in the U.S. political system.

Gender and China's Online Censorship Protest Culture

“…Moreover, just as online humor generally has been found to reinscribe gender essentialism (Limor Shifman and Dafna Lemish 2011), so too does much user-generated content aimed at making a political point. For example, Karrin Anderson (2011) argues that some of the most popular viral videos during the 2008 US presidential election undermined women's political agency through relying on familiar sexist tropes.…”

Is It Personal? Gendered Mediation in Newspaper Coverage of Canadian National Party Leadership Contests, 1975–2012

“…However, that personalization may be differentially applied to women and men politicians is not generally acknowledged in the personalization literature, with the exception of Langer (2010, 2011) and van Zoonen (1998, 2005, 2006. Studies of gendered mediation offer valuable insights into the phenomenon of personalization by observing that women politicians are more likely than men politicians to have their bodies and personal lives profiled in news coverage, often in ways that de-legitimize their political ambitions.…”

Battleground Texas: Gendered Media Framing of the 2014 Texas Gubernatorial Race

“…This is experienced by many more women than just political candidates, but the effects can be especially pronounced in a high-profile campaign. Anderson (2011) asserts that the pornification of political figures, especially women, has become commonplace, and such pornification is a constant reminder of the backlash women have faced in exchange for their political gains. Carlin and Winfrey (2009) found that, in the 2008 presidential election, media outlets concentrated both on Palin's appearance to dismiss her as a serious candidate and on Clinton's mature image to characterize any show of femininity by her as out of place.…”