assignment #7

The author of this article relies on traditional notions of masculinity and femininity to construct Hillary and Obama in contrast to one another in that he brings up the reversal of gender in these two presidential candidates. The author describes Obama as a more "nuturing" canditate, and Clinton as a more "masculin" "iron-fisted" candidate. I think it is very interesting how these two candidates choose what impresion they must make, to try and win peoples votes. It was clear to me that Clinton is trying to be much more iron-fisted because she is a woman candidate and as the author mentioned many people are skeptical of whether or not she is capable of "pushing the button." Obama, chooses to portray himself as a much more nuturing candidate. Displaying signs of affection, and "uniting people for a common purpose." This tactic is trying to make people at easy and feel comfortable with him, and this is a very female characteristic. This is very different from what we have seen in the past, usually leaders are always portrayed as very masculin people, who can "get the job done." Both of these tactics can, of course be criticized. I think that clinton's tactic is much more transparent. It really seems to me that she is using her attitude to make up for the fact that she isnt a masculin male leader, and so she has to have an even tougher personality so that no one will think that she is not capable of running the country. But even more interesting is that Obama seems to notice that she is very poingant and counteracts his compnent by being more compassionante and "soft." This raises problems again like i said because male leaders are supposed be be strong and "hard" because this is how masculinity is viewed.
Another interesting is idea is if these two candidates were to switch gender. Then i think that hillary's tactic would be much more steriotypical in that thats what most men canditates do, but mabye not to the same degree. But Obama on the otherhand his tactic would not work very effectivly because then the people would see him as weak and not capable of doing the job right. But then think of hillary as if she was like you said "uber-feminine." This would never work because the typical qualities of a leader are extremely masculine, and she would clearly not fit the bill. Its really interesting to see the roles of gender and gender qualities in political campaigns and i look forward to discussing it in class.