Making Her Fit the Mold: The Representation of Modern Presidential Candidate-Spouses

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2013
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Haverford College. Department of Sociology
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
During the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, the United States witnessed the strikingly unfamiliar qualities of African American race, Mormon religious faith, and female gender in front-running candidates Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Hillary Clinton, respectively. To address this unfamiliarity, the spouses of these candidates were called forth by the campaign to act as surrogates for their loved ones, validating their character and redirecting uncertainty about their socially charged identifying quality. While I had anticipated an expanding role of the spouses within these historical campaigns alongside the progressive expansion of women in American society, my investigation of election newspaper coverage quickly portrayed a restriction of the spousal image within the confines of conventional femininity discourse. Engaging sociological theory on collective representations and collective memory, I argue that the ingrained collective sentiments of the American electorate compels the media to frame Michelle Obama, Ann Romney, and Bill Clinton positively only if they portray traditional feminine images. I examine both the sacred and profane narratives of Michelle Obama, Ann Romney, and Bill Clinton to conclude that the expectation of feminine performance restricts the capacity of these spouses to bring new meaning to their highly public position. I explore the influence and importance of the candidate-spouse’s image (as traditional as it may remain) on the candidate’s image as well as give final comments on how the non-expanding role of the spouse discredits speculation about future “copresidencies” in the White House.
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