Photo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/15/hillary-clinton-drinking-colombia_n_1426739.html.
This post is in response to a photo posted of Hilary Clinton drinking a beer in Cartagena, Colombia. This photo depicts Clinton in a Colombian bar, with a table of women, drinking a beer—nothing more. Why is this photo receiving attention by bloggers and news sources, such as the Huffington Post? The reason for the attention can be attributed to the patriarchal paradigm where, as stated by Marysia Zalewski in the Roundtable Discussion: Reflections on the Past, Prospects for the Future in Gender and International Relations, that there is a “belief, historically supported philosophically, that women cannot make fully rational, reasonable, acceptable decisions. Because of this, there is pressure on women by society to follow the patriarchal construct where women rely on men in order make proper and “good” decisions. The photo depicts a woman, even though a world leader, participating in behavior that deviates from the patriarchal construct as well as a behavior that (if over done) impairs one’s judgment. Additionally, drinking beer, which is often considered a “masculine drink”, shows Clinton deviating from the gender constructs and therefore is reason for the public’s attention. Would a photo of Barak Obama or Mitt Romney drinking a beer attract the same sort of attention? Would a photo of one of them drinking a Cosmo attract similar attention?
Alcohol use is still often considered a symbol of deviance in women. It is more complicated than this though. Society's expectations for women and alcohol are much like society's expectations for women and sex; dichotomizing, constrictive, and utterly unrealistic. Just as women are allowed to be sexual only on society's terms, women are allowed to drink only on society's terms. Of course women are expected to drink, we see images of young women sipping cocktails all the time. These are the same women we expect to be sexualized. The little black dress prototype, let's call it. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is a symbol of the pants suit prototype, which is totally devoid of any space for sex or alcohol. It's as if society makes a bargain with women: you can be successful, respected, and taken seriously, but you can't have any fun. And at the moment that a woman crosses the line (or steps out of the box—to use language from our class discussions), the bargain is broken. I really like this picture because it is a direct prototype violation, and as such challenges the oppressive assumption that a serious, powerful woman cannot 'indulge' in [alleged] anomolous behavior.
ReplyDeleteLevi! loved that you addressed this story in your blogs. i read about it on the internet and thought some of the same things. I think the whirlwind of attention can absolutely be attributed to the "out of the box" nature of the picture in terms of the depicted setting and behavior existing outside the normative social ideals about women, especially women in power. I think a picture of Obama or Romney caught candidly drinking a beer out at a public bar would, too, attract attention, but not because it deviates from the perception of male roles but more so because it deviates from the public image Americans have of people in power in general, as we tend to see mediated (staged, etc) images of such public figures. Also, I think there's something to be argued here about the symbolic representation of beer, not just in its gendered form but perhaps also in terms of class (or maybe as an equalizer in this case, to bring a public figure down to a common or perceived 'just like us' kind of level). As for Romney or Obama pictured drinking a cosmo.... I think that would be super interesting to see how the public would react, because while I think a lot of people (obviously not justly) tend to paint Hillary Clinton with very 'masculine' attributes, I would guess few do the same (associate female attributes) with Obama or Romney, which might make the public react in an even more extreme way.
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