The Bitch and the War Hero Images of the 2008 Presidential Election

The Bitch and the War Hero

Images of the 2008 Presidential Election

Title/Approach

Language Offensive? There’s a point to it

Tropes, Stereotypes Deeply coded images The Guerrilla Girls work

Candidate Images

Official As sculpted and projected by candidate’s campaign

Unofficial As perceived by public As massaged and reinterpreted by supporters

As manipulated and projected by opponents

Why Is Image Important?

Isn’t politics about issues and interests?

Why should image matter?

US Politics Candidate centeredPresidential politics, in particular, about personae, trust

The Official McCain: The Hero

PatriotismFlagsServiceCharacterHeroism

The Official McCain

The Unofficial McCain: Cranky Old Man

The Official Hillary: Stateswoman

OptimisticConcernedExperienced

The Unofficial Hillary: Scary

The Unofficial Hillary: Demonic

The Unofficial Hillary: The Ball Buster

The Unofficial Hillary: Usurper of Male Power

The Official Obama: The Conciliator

The Official Obama

The Unofficial Obama: The Superhero

The Unofficial Obama: Racist Parodies

The Official Palin: Patriotic Professional

The Official Palin: Hockey Mom?The grown-up girl next door

The Unofficial Palin: The Bimbo

Too Hot to Govern?

The Evils of Photoshop

Does it make a difference? Affect or reflect what we think of

her?