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Start Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
In entertainment media, the American president has been many things: an action hero, a romantic lead, a corrupt manipulator, an inept patsy, an inspirational leader. During the past twenty years, fictional television has offered a reinvention of this possible president: a woman. In this paper, I analyze 10 primetime American television shows that portray women in the executive seat (Commander in Chief, Scandal, Veep, House of Cards, Madam Secretary, State of Affairs, 24, Homeland, Prison Break, Battlestar Galactica). Although celebratory dialogue recognizes the historical significance of a female president, three recurrent narrative trends within these shows weaken the legitimacy of her leadership. I argue that these conflicted narratives of celebration and skepticism are Fredric Jameson’s “rudimentary expressions” of voters’ anxieties regarding the changing face of American politics. Through these characters entering and leaving office without voter participation, these narratives capture the tension embedded in the American citizenry’s willingness to “vote for a woman, just not that woman” (Amanda Hunter, February 2019).
The first subversion of legitimacy occurs when women come to power in moments of crisis due to someone else’s death, incapacitation, or resignation rather than through the electoral means of their male counterparts. Alternatively, female presidents who win elections do so through foreign interference, voter fraud, or unusual constitutional procedures. Finally, lost moral principles or outright corruption leads women presidents to resign before completing an administrative term. The double standards applied to female political ambition are so salient that multiple programs play out two or more of these scenarios.
The Undermined Legitimacy of Female American Presidents on Primetime Television
In entertainment media, the American president has been many things: an action hero, a romantic lead, a corrupt manipulator, an inept patsy, an inspirational leader. During the past twenty years, fictional television has offered a reinvention of this possible president: a woman. In this paper, I analyze 10 primetime American television shows that portray women in the executive seat (Commander in Chief, Scandal, Veep, House of Cards, Madam Secretary, State of Affairs, 24, Homeland, Prison Break, Battlestar Galactica). Although celebratory dialogue recognizes the historical significance of a female president, three recurrent narrative trends within these shows weaken the legitimacy of her leadership. I argue that these conflicted narratives of celebration and skepticism are Fredric Jameson’s “rudimentary expressions” of voters’ anxieties regarding the changing face of American politics. Through these characters entering and leaving office without voter participation, these narratives capture the tension embedded in the American citizenry’s willingness to “vote for a woman, just not that woman” (Amanda Hunter, February 2019).
The first subversion of legitimacy occurs when women come to power in moments of crisis due to someone else’s death, incapacitation, or resignation rather than through the electoral means of their male counterparts. Alternatively, female presidents who win elections do so through foreign interference, voter fraud, or unusual constitutional procedures. Finally, lost moral principles or outright corruption leads women presidents to resign before completing an administrative term. The double standards applied to female political ambition are so salient that multiple programs play out two or more of these scenarios.
Bio
Emily Saidel is currently the Howard R. Marsh Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan. She completed her PhD on fictional representations of American government on American television from the University of Michigan in 2021, and her MA in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University in 2011. In addition to the collision of entertainment and politics, she researches media paratexts, television and media history, and video/analog games. Prior to her doctoral education, she worked in performing arts administration and arts in higher education.