Not (wo)man enough? Representations of gender stereotypes in political comedy coverage of presidential candidates

Author:
Caroline V. Leicht University of Southampton, UK

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Article Category:
Research Article
Copyright:
© Author 2024
Online Publication Date:
27 May 2024
Pages:
1–23
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Bristol University Press
Volume/Issue:
Early View
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1332/25151088Y2024D000000035
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Political comedy is an increasingly popular source of political information, making it important to understand how this media format presents politics to its audience and what kind of agenda it sets. However, there are still substantial limitations to the literature. The focus has often been on partisanship as a moderator for candidate representations in political comedy, while significantly less attention has been given to the role of gender. Combining frameworks from the subfields of political comedy and gendered media representations, this article adds to the growing research agenda by examining gendered representations of US presidential candidates in impressionist sketch comedy on Saturday Night Live. Content analysis reveals a persistence of gendered stereotypes in representations of candidates. Results of this study reflect the gender double bind in political leadership races and contradict recent findings on decreases in gendered media coverage.

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Caroline V. Leicht University of Southampton, UK

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