We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Political Wives, Scandal, and the Double Bind: Press Construction of Silda Spitzer and Jenny Sanford Through a Gendered Lens.
- Authors
Mandell, Hinda
- Abstract
U.S. media has paid significant attention to sexual transgressions of male politicians. Yet politicians' wives have also been under the media spotlight even when they did not engage in illicit activity. This study presents feminist textual analysis of 272 news articles covering Silda Spitzer, (then) wife of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, and Jenny Sanford, (then) wife of former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford. Findings indicate that the press placed these women in a double bind of presence/absence, criticizing Silda Spitzer for playing the “good wife” who stands by her husband and chastising Jenny Sanford for pursuing an independent path from her husband during his scandal. This analysis illustrates the hegemonic role of the news media, which both establishes an idealized role for wives whose husbands are in public crisis and criticizes a political wife when she attempts to fulfill that role.
- Subjects
UNITED States; SCANDALS; POLITICIANS' spouses; MASS media; DOUBLE bind (Psychology); SANFORD, Jenny; SPITZER, Silda; MASS media &; society
- Publication
Women's Studies in Communication, 2015, Vol 38, Issue 1, p57
- ISSN
0749-1409
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/07491409.2014.995327