Hillary Clinton Sarah Palin And Michelle Obama Performing Gend
Scholarly Commons @ UNLV Law
Scholarly Works
Faculty Scholarship
2009
Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Obama:
Performing Gender, Race, and Class on the
Campaign Trail
Ann C. McGinley
University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School of Law
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub
Part of the Law and Society Commons, Politics Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons, and the Women Commons
Recommended Citation
McGinley, Ann C., "Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Obama: Performing Gender, Race, and Class on the Campaign Trail"
(2009). Scholarly Works. Paper 171. http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub/171 This Article is brought to you by Scholarly Commons @ UNLV Law, an institutional repository administered by the Wiener-Rogers Law Library at the
William S. Boyd School of Law. For more information, please contact david.mcclure@unlv.edu.
HILLARY CLINTON, SARAH PALIN, AND MICHELLE
OBAMA: PERFORMING GENDER, RACE, AND CLASS ON THE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ANN C. MCGINLEY'
INTRODUCTION
In Our First Unisex President?: Black Masculinity and Obama's
Feminine Side,1 Frank Rudy Cooper posits that President Obama consciously performed a feminine identity2 in order to navigate the tricky waters of race and gender in the presidential election. 3 Cooper notes that white popular culture perceives black masculinity as bipolar: there are
"good blacks" and "bad blacks. ' A According to white popular culture, the "Bad Black Man is animalistic, sexually depraved, and crimeprone."5 His counterpart, the "Good Black Man distances himself from black people and emulates white views."6
Because of the image of the Bad Black Man, black men must take care not to show excessive anger.7 Obama is known for his "cool," a somewhat feminine identity performance that comforts white citizens and distances him from the "dangerous" Bad Black Man. His conciliatory empathic style and willingness to negotiate with "evil" foreign powers made him appear more
Scholarly Works
Faculty Scholarship
2009
Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Obama:
Performing Gender, Race, and Class on the
Campaign Trail
Ann C. McGinley
University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School of Law
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub
Part of the Law and Society Commons, Politics Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons, and the Women Commons
Recommended Citation
McGinley, Ann C., "Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Obama: Performing Gender, Race, and Class on the Campaign Trail"
(2009). Scholarly Works. Paper 171. http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub/171 This Article is brought to you by Scholarly Commons @ UNLV Law, an institutional repository administered by the Wiener-Rogers Law Library at the
William S. Boyd School of Law. For more information, please contact david.mcclure@unlv.edu.
HILLARY CLINTON, SARAH PALIN, AND MICHELLE
OBAMA: PERFORMING GENDER, RACE, AND CLASS ON THE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ANN C. MCGINLEY'
INTRODUCTION
In Our First Unisex President?: Black Masculinity and Obama's
Feminine Side,1 Frank Rudy Cooper posits that President Obama consciously performed a feminine identity2 in order to navigate the tricky waters of race and gender in the presidential election. 3 Cooper notes that white popular culture perceives black masculinity as bipolar: there are
"good blacks" and "bad blacks. ' A According to white popular culture, the "Bad Black Man is animalistic, sexually depraved, and crimeprone."5 His counterpart, the "Good Black Man distances himself from black people and emulates white views."6
Because of the image of the Bad Black Man, black men must take care not to show excessive anger.7 Obama is known for his "cool," a somewhat feminine identity performance that comforts white citizens and distances him from the "dangerous" Bad Black Man. His conciliatory empathic style and willingness to negotiate with "evil" foreign powers made him appear more