As the 2008 presidential election nears, the Democrats get closer and closer to supporting one of two presidential nominees—a Black man or a White woman—both of whom represent demographic groups that have yet to be seen occupying the White House. This creates a unique opportunity for observing the process of transformation and the fluidity of one of some of our most fundamental concepts (i.e., `president' and `woman') through the print media. Therefore, this thesis examines the process of transformation by analyzing the role of Hillary Clinton's gender performances in TIME Magazine.This thesis examines Hillary Clinton's thirteen appearances on the cover of TIME and the corresponding articles, between 1992 and 2008. Through a qualitative content analysis, this analysis combines Judith Butler's theory of gender performitivity and the concept of subversion with more traditional conceptions of male and female gender roles, a in order to assess the subversive potential of Hillary Clinton's mediated gender performances. Specifically, this thesis addresses the following research questions:RQ 1: In what ways does Hillary simultaneously embody both male and femalegender performances?RQ 2: How do mediated gender performances differ from immediate gender performances?RQ 3: How do these performances work to produce her public identity?RQ 4: Do Hillary's gender performances subvert the heterosexual matrix? Or do they reinforce it?This analysis contributes to the theory of gender performance by demonstrating the potential for a methodological application based on the logical consequence of reconstructing gender—even if such reconstruction is based on false pretenses. Furthermore, it contributes to the communication discipline by offering practical guidelines for analyzing and predicting subversive potential. / Department of Communication Studies
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/188512 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Pye, Danielle R. |
| Contributors | Rutter, Jon D. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | v, 92 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
| Coverage | n-us--- |
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