The topic I selected is the representation of political women in political dramas, namely the ABC show Scandal. I selected this topic because I am not only a fan of this show, but I am also particularly interested in the impact of political entertainment on society, and specifically its impact on women and its effect on the black community. Scandal relates directly to our in-class discussions about political entertainment and it relates to our discussions of gender and politics. It is a political drama with the political as the primary subject. Delli Carpini and Williams (1996) emphasized the importance of entertainment television and its relationship to public opinion by arguing that “Viewers interact with television in ways that are more similar to conversing than to other commonly used metaphors” (pp. 150-151). During her time on Scandal, actress Kerry Washington was the first and only black actress with a lead role in a hit prime-time network series since 1974 with Teresa Graves in a show called Get Christie Love.
In this paper, I would like to analyze a few specific areas. I will discuss the character Olivia Pope and her identity, including the positive and negative stereotypes her character portrays.These messages are important to be made clear in order to fully analyze what is being received by the show’s audience. I would also like to see how these stereotypes affect the black community and what time of impact they have made on black women in particular. This relates to class in regards to our discussion about representation and its effect on what people believe they can do. I think it would also be beneficial to project for the future what all of this might mean for who runs in our next election. We have already observed a dramatic increase in diversity and an increase in women being elected to office in the most recent election.
There are a few key stereotypes I would like to focus on. These are the beauty queen narrative and the Jezebel narrative. The “beauty queen” applies to women as a whole, and our examples for that are real life examples. As explained by Kristina Sheeler of Indiana University-Purdue (2010), the beauty queen framing “objectifies the female candidate and reinforces the notion that politics is a man’s game” (p. 47). During the campaign of Jennifer Granholm, Michigan’s first female governor, there was a focus on Granholm’s style and appearance instead of the substance of her political proposals. Ultimately, the beauty queen narration implies that “women can achieve agency by virtue of their appearance, that good looks are the way to public success, but not too much success” (p. 47). Another example of this from class was our discussion of how Sarah Palin was portrayed in the media during the McCain campaign from a gender role perspective. Her gender played a big part in the news coverage. She also took masculine stances on issues while simultaneously portraying the “trappings of femininity”, so the coverage of her from a gender perspective was a lot more complex.
In addition to women in politics, African American women have been negatively stereotyped. The “Jezebel” narrative is something that is applied to black women in particular, and it’s quite a bit nastier than the beauty queen is. Kerry Washington played the role of Olivia Pope, the head of a crisis-management firm called Olivia Pope & Associates, whose employees included three lawyers and a former hitman (The Guardian). Olivia both challenges and reinforces existing stereotypes of politically active African American women. Pope is educated, and very successful and powerful. This is something that isn’t a common portrayal in the roles African American women play on television. The one glaring negative stereotype that Pope’s character feeds into is her scandalous relationship with the president. This undermines a lot of her power in politics and invokes the “Jezebel” narrative. The Jezebel depiction establishes deceptive messages that are difficult to change about African American women and their sexuality. The Jezebel narrative comes from the Book of Kings in the Bible. Jezebel is understood to be a seductress who is not able to control her sexual desires. The Jezebel depiction is equivalent to a woman with a ravenous sexual craving and promiscuity (Ladson-Billings, 2009). With the Jezebel representation, African American women have been illustrated as “freaks, gold diggers, divas, and baby mamas” in mass media (p. 113). Because African American women are characterized as promiscuous and sensual, these understandings affect their credibility and image in politics. Olivia Pope’s character perpetuates this depiction in various ways on the show, the president sends American troops into war in order to save her from a kidnapping, retrieves documents for her illegally, and basically does everything she asks him to do whenever she calls. We see this in the discussion of former representative in the house from Georgia, Cynthia McKinney. McKinney was described as “a ghetto slut” because of the fact that she was an African American woman with “big hair” (Erin, 2006). The focus on McKinney’s appearances reinforces the “mythologized black women as ungroomed, uncouth, and hypersexual” . Therefore, the Jezebel narrative is prominent in the portrayal of African American women in politics.
This brings me to the show’s impact on society. If these are the messages that are set forward by the show, I wanted to know how these messages manifest themselves in real life. Fox and Lawless (2005) found that “if traditionally excluded groups are less likely to have [elected] role models to emulate, they may be less likely to consider running for office” (p. 646). Women become politically active when there are other publically involved women already in place. Politically active women are seen as spectacles and are undermined as leaders. This negative stereotype of women has contributed to the lack of women in politics. Women remain underrepresented in the world of politics in this country. With the most recent election, it seems that we have reached a turning point in changing that. At this time, 110 women hold seats in the United States Congress, comprising 20.6% of the 535 members; 23 women (23%) serve in the U.S. Senate, and 87 women (20.0%) serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. (CAWP). In an analysis of black women’s electoral strength on () they found that “black women are encouraged to pursue office by examples of successful black female candidates such as Stacey Abrams, who is running for Georgia governor; Ayanna Pressley, who bested a long-term incumbent in the primary race for Massachusetts’ 7th U.S. Congressional District seat; and Lauren Underwood who beat out six white, male candidates during the primary race for Illinois’ 14th U.S. Congressional seat in a majority-white district. These candidacies create a role modeling effect that will inspire the next cohort of black women to consider running for office or higher office, and also prompt them to consider offices previously believed to be out of reach.” (Perry). This report also found that “an active network of black women, allied supporters and advisors is key to a successful campaign for black female candidates, particularly early on.”
This brings me to a projection for the future of our government here in the United States. It makes me wonder what type of candidates we will see in the presidential race in 2020. The candidate that I have heard about and seen in the media a lot is Kamala Harris. In some articles, she is paralleled with President Barack Obama; but I see it a lot differently. President Obama was elected during a different time in our country. The political climate is more hostile right now, and I can only foresee it getting more difficult and more divided as we move forward with the current administration. When asked about the 2020 election she said Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) predicted in an interview over the weekend that the 2020 presidential campaign is "going to be ugly."
“Let’s be honest. It’s going to be ugly,” Harris told MSNBC's Mika Brzezinskiat an event in San Francisco on Saturday.
“When you break things, it is painful," she continued. "And you get cut. And you bleed.”