Tag: Authenticity

Polls Show Attacks on Bill Clinton May Only Help Hillary Clinton

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Kelly Dittmar

Alan Rappeport, New York Times – December 31, 2015

Shawn J. Parry-Giles, a communications professor at the University of Maryland, explained in her 2014 book about the role of gender in American politics that Mrs. Clinton was seen as more sympathetic and authentic as she endured the fallout from her husband’s affair. “As she showed a clear sense of marital fortitude by staying with her cheating husband, her poll numbers would rise,” Ms. Parry-Giles wrote. “As the scorned and sad woman attracting sympathy from others, Clinton would more closely resemble the traditional ideals of authentic womanhood.”

Saying Nice Things About Hillary Clinton Has Become a Subversive Act

Posted on December 23, 2015December 29, 2015 by Kelly Dittmar

Sady Doyle, Slate – December 23, 2015

Hillary Clinton is the impossible woman. The pressures she lives under, every moment of her life, are all-encompassing. She doesn’t have an inch of leeway, a single safe option; there is no version of Hillary Clinton that won’t be attacked. So the version of Hillary Clinton we get—this conflicted, conflict-inspiring candidate, the woman who has a genius-level recall of global politics but has to assure the world she’ll spend her presidency picking out flowers and china, the lady who books a guest spot on Broad City but can’t pronounce “Beyoncé,” the woman who was decades ahead of the curve on women’s rights but somehow thinks it’s a good idea to throw in a Bush-esque 9/11 reference at a debate—is the inevitable product of these pressures.

Hillary Clinton’s Experience a Plus, Donald Trump Has ‘Drunk Uncle’ Image, Voters Say

Posted on November 17, 2015November 21, 2015 by Kelly Dittmar

Ben Gittleson and Shushannah Walshe, ABC News – November 17, 2015

Twenty-six men and women from across the political spectrum spent Monday evening in Ohio’s capital with some explaining that they thought Hillary Clinton’s experience was a plus, to others Donald Trump seemed like a “drunk uncle” and nearly all said they worried Ben Carson was not ready to be president.

Why Christie’s Drug Speech Went Viral: Our Addiction to Authenticity

Posted on November 6, 2015November 11, 2015 by Kelly Dittmar

Howard Kurtz, Fox News – November 6, 2015

Every presidential candidate needs a moment that captures his heart, his guts, what he’s all about. And Chris Christie just had one. The New Jersey governor is struggling in the polls. He just missed the cut for next week’s prime-time Fox Business debate, along with Mike Huckabee, and that’s a major blow. It could start a cycle of reduced media attention that makes it hard to climb in the polls, which makes it hard to make the next debate.

Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Kiss Babies. That a Problem?

Posted on October 31, 2015November 20, 2015 by Kelly Dittmar

Patrick Healy, New York Times – October 31, 2015

For a candidate who has inspired the most impassioned followers since Barack Obama in 2008, Mr. Sanders is surprisingly impersonal, even uninterested, in one-on-one exchanges — the sort of momentary encounters in which a candidate can show warmth and humility by gripping every open palm.

Hillary Clinton and the Authenticity of her Feminism

Posted on October 27, 2015October 28, 2015 by Kelly Dittmar

Lakshmi Chaudhry, Al Jazeera – October 27, 2015

Authenticity has remained the great albatross of Clinton’s political career. In her book, titled “Hillary Clinton in the News: Gender and Authenticity in American Politics”, Shawn Parry-Giles argues that that the mainstream media’s judgement of her character is based on a gender double-bind: The press first positioned the “real Hillary” as a polarising feminist with “likability” issues, and then used that very image to question her authenticity over and again.

Would the Real Hillary Clinton Please Stand Up

Posted on October 8, 2015October 11, 2015 by Kelly Dittmar

Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg – October 8, 2015

Candidates do all kinds of things to relate to the folks Clinton used to call “ordinary Americans,” but relating is still harder for a woman than a man. A female candidate has to be tough but not too tough and do everything a man does, to paraphrase the quote about Ginger Rogers, only backward and in a pantsuit.

For Hillary Clinton, Funny is Hard

Posted on October 8, 2015October 11, 2015 by Kelly Dittmar

Joanna Weiss, The Boston Globe – October 8, 2015

Nobody works harder than Hillary Clinton — maybe not at anything, ever — and these days, no one’s working harder to be funny. You can barely turn on late-night TV without stumbling on Clinton, reading gamely from a comedy script: chatting up a faux Donald Trump on the “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” playing a bartender on “Saturday Night Live.”

Hillary Clinton’s Authenticity Problem, and Ours

Posted on October 1, 2015October 2, 2015 by Kelly Dittmar

Brendan Nyhan, Upshot – New York Times, October 1, 2015

Is Hillary Rodham Clinton not presenting her true self to voters? As with candidates like Mitt Romney and Al Gore, claims that she is inauthentic have fueled endless cycles of negative coverage of her campaign.

What Authenticity Really Means in Politics

Posted on October 1, 2015October 2, 2015 by Kelly Dittmar

Julia Azari, Vox – October 1, 2015

Authenticity can also act like a code word. This way of thinking about the presidency has some pretty significant gender implications: It’s all about power and dominance. It’s hard to test this empirically because there have been so few mainstream women presidential candidates, but it makes sense when we think about the double bind that Clinton has found herself in with regard to authenticity: It’s like her critics want her to be grittier and more forceful, but then that’s unfeminine and thus abrasive, so that won’t work either.

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