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An ‘attractive alternative way of wielding power’? : Revealing hidden gender ideologies in the portrayal of Heads of State during the Covid-19 pandemic
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Debray, Carolin, Schnurr, Stephanie, Loew, Joelle and Reissner-Roubicek, Sophie (2022) An ‘attractive alternative way of wielding power’? : Revealing hidden gender ideologies in the portrayal of Heads of State during the Covid-19 pandemic. Critical Discourse Studies . doi:10.1080/17405904.2022.2101499 ISSN 1740-5904. (In Press)
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2022.2101499
Abstract
This paper explores the gendered discourses of the – seemingly favourable – media coverage that certain Heads of State received for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking at media reports published in different English-speaking outlets in the US, the UK, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland, and using multimodal feminist critical discourse analysis, we identify and describe some of the strategies that on the surface appear to challenge hegemonic – and largely masculine – discourses of leadership. Upon closer scrutiny, these superficially complimentary reports rather reinforce and naturalise discriminatory gender ideologies, and, as we demonstrate, they do so to different degrees along a continuum of essentialising, contextualising, and problematising. We critically discuss the discursive and visual processes involved and show that complimenting these leaders on their performance compares them against a masculine norm to construct their leadership as ‘alternative’, exceptional, and hence marked. This gendered portrayal of political leadership in times of crisis illustrates how the discursive construction of identities, responsibilities, and relationships during Covid-19 largely hinges on power relations and political ideologies that systematically disadvantage and undermine women. The purportedly positive form in which this occurs makes it particularly difficult to challenge and subvert these discriminatory discourses and their underlying gendered ideologies.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman J Political Science > JC Political theory J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Language and languages -- Sex differences, Critical discourse analysis, Sex differences (Psychology), Political leadership, Women -- Political activity, Mass media -- Political aspects, Women -- Political activity -- Press coverage, Feminist theory | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Critical Discourse Studies | ||||||
| Publisher: | Routledge | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1740-5904 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 2022 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| DOI: | 10.1080/17405904.2022.2101499 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | In Press | ||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Critical Discourse Studies. Debray, Carolin, Schnurr, Stephanie, Loew, Joelle and Reissner-Roubicek, Sophie (2022) An ‘attractive alternative way of wielding power’? : Revealing hidden gender ideologies in the portrayal of Heads of State during the Covid-19 pandemic. Critical Discourse Studies . doi:10.1080/17405904.2022.2101499. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.” | ||||||
| Copyright Holders: | Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group | ||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 12 July 2022 | ||||||
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