CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2008
| Author | Hamilton-Bick, Jeanne Lee |
|---|---|
| Title | The Split Subject in (Neo-)Liberal Global Context: Gendered Leadership in Media Spectacle |
| Summary | Leadership is performed, neither innate nor learned, and gendered. There are impossible performances of the “leader” and failings in such performance that play out in mass media representations. These representations accumulate into spectacle that re-inscribes leadership as masculine and reconstitutes gendered and minority difference and consequent disadvantage in attaining leadership positions. Because liberal democratic rhetoric circulates (and sometimes enforced) globally through transnational organizations, there is a ideal belief in equal opportunity for anyone who uses the tools of liberalism such as independence, perseverance, and choice. Media spectacle plays a transnational role in articulating and reinstating these impossible performances of women leaders through repetition of normative masculine leaders and restating the preponderance of liberal opportunity. I use Butler’s theory of performativity of gender and apply this to leadership. Through Debord’s discussion of spectacle and society, I locate within the spectacular production the impossible performance expectations and stereotypes that work to undermine women’s leadership potential. I show how the media representations, in their urgent, rapidly-produced present, work against the discourse on equality and international cooperation and inclusion. I conclude that, in order for equality of access to leadership to become a possibility, media representations and spectacle must enact a more nuanced approach to their representations. Because of the pressures of profit and consumer appeal, this proposition remains without incentive for media groups and companies involved. I also suggest reconceptualizing the nation-state and implementing educational reforms to foster media literacy. |
| Supervisor | Cerwonka, Allaine |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2008/hamilton_jeanne.pdf |
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