{"id":763,"date":"2024-11-11T16:36:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T16:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/?page_id=763"},"modified":"2024-11-15T17:50:40","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T17:50:40","slug":"americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Dr. Caroline Leicht<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tutor in Media, Culture and Society at the University of Glasgow. Caroline\u2019s research focuses on the intersection of gender, media and politics, with a focus on U.S. politics and modern political communication. In her previous research, Caroline has explored the role of gender in political comedy coverage of U.S. presidential elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

E-Mail: Caroline.Leicht@glasgow.ac.uk
Twitter: @carolineleicht
BlueSky: @carolineleicht.bsky.social<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

U.S. Election 2024<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

78. Momentum is a meme<\/a> (Prof Ryan M. Milner)
79. Partisan memes and how they were perceived in the 2024 U.S. presidential election<\/a> (Dr Prateekshit \u201cKanu\u201d Pandey, Dr Daniel Lane)
80. The intersection of misogyny, race, and political memes... America has a long way to go, baby!<\/a> (Dr Gabriel B. Tait)
81. Needs Musk: Trump turns to the manosphere<\/a> (Dr Michael Higgins, Prof Angela Smith)
82. \u201cWooing the manosphere: He\u2019s just a bro.\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s digital transactions with \"dude\" influencers<\/a> (Prof Mark Wheeler)
83. Star supporters<\/a> (Prof John Street)
84. Pet sounds: Celebrity, meme culture and political messaging in the music of election 2024<\/a> (Dr Adam Behr)
85. The stars came out for the 2024 election. Did it make a difference?<\/a> (Mark Turner)
86. Podcasting as presidential campaign outreach<\/a> (Ava Kalinauskas, Dr Rodney Taveira)
87. Value of TV debates reduced during Trump era<\/a> (Prof Richard Thomas, Dr Matthew Wall)
88. America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates<\/a> (Dr Caroline Leicht)<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Political comedy has been found to have impacts<\/a> on candidate evaluations, voting intentions, and political beliefs in the U.S. context and beyond. Quite famously, during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, Tina Fey\u2019s impersonation of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin led to more negative evaluations<\/a> of the real Palin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from the 2016 U.S. election shows that 25% of Americans<\/a> rely at least partly on political comedy programs on television. This is underlined by data from the 2020 American National Election Study<\/a> (ANES) which shows that political comedy is one of the top media sources that U.S. voters interact with during campaigns. Indeed, Saturday Night Live<\/em> (SNL<\/em>), a sketch comedy show that has been particularly well-known for its political impressionist comedy, ranked higher<\/a> than many traditional news media programs such as CBS Evening News<\/em>, Meet the Press<\/em> (NBC) or Tucker Carlson Tonight<\/em> (Fox).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidates and political strategists are keenly aware of the power of political comedy<\/a>. Research has shown that candidates engaging with political comedy programs<\/a> and embracing the jokes about themselves can have positive effects<\/a> on candidate evaluations. In past U.S. election cycles, programs such as SNL<\/em> have thus become a key campaign stop for candidates from both sides of the political aisle, including Barack Obama<\/a> and John McCain<\/a> in 2008, Hillary Clinton<\/a>, Bernie Sanders<\/a> and Donald Trump<\/a> in 2016, and most recently, Kamala Harris<\/a> on the weekend before this year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond campaign strategy, political comedy can also have positive effects for democracy. Exposure to political comedy has been linked to political learning<\/a>, particularly among people who were previously politically uninterested<\/a>. The reason for the latter is simple: Some people will watch political comedy for entertainment but are nevertheless incidentally exposed to political information as a byproduct of that media choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if what audiences learn from political comedy is rooted in stereotypes and biases? As cultivation theory<\/a> explains, repeated and frequent exposure to biased media representations is associated with audiences developing similar biases, for instance related to gender and race. Previous research<\/a> has shown that coverage of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections on programs such as SNL<\/em> perpetuated gendered stereotypes, despite growing evidence of a decline<\/a> in gendered stereotypes in traditional news media coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Harris entered the presidential race this summer, a substantial proportion of the social media discourse<\/a> around the announcement was related to how SNL<\/em> specifically would cover the campaign and whether actress Maya Rudolph, who played Harris on the show in 2020, would reprise her role. Rudolph did indeed return, much to the joy of social media users. But what were audiences exposed to on SNL<\/em> this year? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the SNL<\/em> coverage remained highly gendered during this presidential campaign. In the five sketches SNL<\/em>broadcast about the campaign leading up to Election Day, there were stark differences in the framing of Trump and Harris. Trump was primarily framed through his role as a former president and SNL<\/em> relied heavily on real Trump quotes as opposed to original jokes and content. As such, there was very little satirical commentary about Trump. Rather, SNL<\/em> offered another platform to repeat his statements \u2013 albeit through James Austin Johnson who plays Trump on SNL<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Harris, on the other hand, SNL<\/em> got more creative, for instance imagining her private life on the campaign trail and showing her in domestic settings such as in her living room with her husband<\/a>. Furthermore, instead of being referred to as Vice President, she was more commonly framed through her familial role and referred to as \u201cfun aunt\u201d or \u201cMomala,\u201d an issue women candidates continue to face in media coverage. Some sketches also featured sexualization of the Vice President. For instance, in a sketch about Harris\u2019 Fox News interview, Alec Baldwin as Bret Baier asks whether Harris is aware that she is \u201cvery sexy when [she\u2019s] angry<\/a>.\u201d Beyond the issue of sexualization<\/a> of women candidates, this type of comedy writing also perpetuates gendered and racial stereotypes about the \u201cangry Black woman<\/a>\u201d in politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SNL<\/em> has previously engaged in more feminist comedy<\/a> to draw attention to gendered stereotypes and biases in media coverage. While this year\u2019s SNL<\/em> coverage relied heavily on gendered \u2013 and racial \u2013 stereotypes, there was also at least one element of feminist humor to be observed. When Rudolph-as-Harris was asked why she was not winning by a landslide given her range of qualifications, her response was a pained laugh followed by the comment \u201cThat\u2019s a question I scream into my pillow every morning<\/a>.\u201d While very little, particularly given the overall coverage, this use of feminist humor resonated with social media users, as did previous SNL<\/em> use of feminist humor in 2016 and 2020. This shows that there is a path toward comedy that relies less on stereotypes and biases and instead offers critical commentary of these very issues. Given the audience effects and relevance of political comedy as a news source in U.S. presidential campaigns, such a change in framing could have positive cultivation effects and contribute to decreases in biased perceptions about women presidential candidates in the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Caroline Leicht Tutor in Media, Culture and Society at the University of Glasgow. Caroline\u2019s research focuses on the intersection of gender, media and politics, with a focus on U.S. politics and modern political communication. In her previous research, Caroline has explored the role of gender in political comedy coverage of U.S. presidential elections. E-Mail: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1019,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-763","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerica\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates - Election Analysis - United States<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates - Election Analysis - United States\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Caroline Leicht Tutor in Media, Culture and Society at the University of Glasgow. Caroline\u2019s research focuses on the intersection of gender, media and politics, with a focus on U.S. politics and modern political communication. In her previous research, Caroline has explored the role of gender in political comedy coverage of U.S. presidential elections. E-Mail: […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Election Analysis - United States\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-15T17:50:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/Leicht-copy.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/\",\"name\":\"America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates - Election Analysis - United States\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/Leicht-copy.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-11T16:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-15T17:50:40+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/Leicht-copy.png?fit=455%2C455&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/Leicht-copy.png?fit=455%2C455&ssl=1\",\"width\":455,\"height\":455},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"U.S. Election Analysis 2024\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Section 7: Popular culture\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/\",\"name\":\"Election Analysis - United States\",\"description\":\"Election Analysis reports from the U.S. Presidential Elections\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates - Election Analysis - United States","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates - Election Analysis - United States","og_description":"Dr. Caroline Leicht Tutor in Media, Culture and Society at the University of Glasgow. Caroline\u2019s research focuses on the intersection of gender, media and politics, with a focus on U.S. politics and modern political communication. In her previous research, Caroline has explored the role of gender in political comedy coverage of U.S. presidential elections. E-Mail: […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/","og_site_name":"Election Analysis - United States","article_modified_time":"2024-11-15T17:50:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/Leicht-copy.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/","url":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/","name":"America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates - Election Analysis - United States","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/Leicht-copy.png","datePublished":"2024-11-11T16:36:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-15T17:50:40+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/Leicht-copy.png?fit=455%2C455&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/Leicht-copy.png?fit=455%2C455&ssl=1","width":455,"height":455},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/americas-fun-aunt-how-gendered-stereotypes-in-political-comedy-can-shape-perceptions-of-women-candidates\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"U.S. Election Analysis 2024","item":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Section 7: Popular culture","item":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/","name":"Election Analysis - United States","description":"Election Analysis reports from the U.S. Presidential Elections","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1183,"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/763\/revisions\/1183"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}