Shared identity endorsement narratives: a framework for studying celebrity endorsements of minority political candidates in the US

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of shared identity endorsement narratives (SIENs), or celebrity endorsements of political candidates that intentionally highlight shared social identities between the endorser and the endorsed. Scholars of celebrity endorsements in political contexts have primarily focused on the efficacy rather than the rhetorical content of these endorsements and what latent social structures make them effective. Through close readings of two SIENs of Vice President Kamala Harris by American celebrities of Indian descent, I draw upon social identity theory to elucidate the ways in which these endorsements create valuable networks of support for Indian Americans, but simultaneously create homogenizing articulations of Indian American identity that exploit caste, ethnolinguistic, and racial differences. Analyzing how Indian Americans and other minority groups present themselves/connect with their community provides insights into what it takes to succeed in America’s diversifying political and media landscape.

Embodied Political Influencers: How U.S. Anti-Abortion Actors Co-Opt Narratives of Marginalization

“…As Reddi (2023) points out, even in cases where shared identity narratives build community, such rhetoric can be damaging as it homogenizes and "essentializes" identity. In the case of embodied political influencers, we find that such narratives are damaging not only because they homogenize and essentialize (Reddi, 2023) and reproduce dominant power structures of White supremacy, patriarchy, and Christian nationalism (Reddi et al, 2021), but also because those who mobilize such rhetoric do so not necessarily to build community, but to manufacture false consensus (Woolley, 2023) on the topic of abortion.…”

“…As Reddi (2023) points out, even in cases where shared identity narratives build community, such rhetoric can be damaging as it homogenizes and "essentializes" identity. In the case of embodied political influencers, we find that such narratives are damaging not only because they homogenize and essentialize (Reddi, 2023) and reproduce dominant power structures of White supremacy, patriarchy, and Christian nationalism (Reddi et al, 2021), but also because those who mobilize such rhetoric do so not necessarily to build community, but to manufacture false consensus (Woolley, 2023) on the topic of abortion. While this could be understood as identity propaganda, we argue that anti-abortion political influencers' propaganda constitutes embodied propaganda (Martin et al, forthcoming) given that it co-opts the embodied experiences of and discrimination enacted against these marginalized communities to manipulate these communities' opinions of abortion from within the marginalized communities themselves.…”