Hillary Clinton Is Not a Planet: The Dangers of Objectifying America's Most Powerful Woman

Disclaimer: This isn't about television. I just felt the need to address it.

I keep a March 2011 issue of Newsweek on my desk. It’s devoted almost entirely to “150 Women Who Shake the World” and features countless stories about what women around the globe are doing to improve the lives of women and children everywhere. Among those women is Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State. A photo of her, in all the dignity and authority of the office she held, is featured on the cover bearing the title “Hillary’s War: How she’s shattering glass ceilings everywhere.” It’s hardly a remarkable cover, but for me it’s a remarkable magazine issue. I still keep it for two reasons. One is for the inspiration I can find by flipping through the stories of all 150 amazing women, but the more important reason is to remind me that, like former Secretary Clinton and these women, I am the subject of my own story.

In recent weeks, a spate of interesting magazine covers has made headlines. If you have been paying a lot of attention to the news, you probably know that I’m referring to TIME’s portrayal of Hillary Clinton as apantsuit-clad leg crushing a tiny man with a high heel and New York Times Magazine’s depiction of the same woman as a planet. Of course, these representations of one of the world’s most powerful women were offensive on a few levels. Whether you love Clinton or hate her, you have to acknowledge that this trend is disturbing. For me the issue boils down to the fact that in each instance Secretary Clinton was portrayed as an object rather than a person. This is objectification of women at its worst. Objectification of women has long been documented as detrimental to women’s self-perception and confidence. Furthermore, the objectification of women in political roles leads to the perception that they are more incompetent and less human, a phenomenon documented by Nathan Heflick and Jamie Goldenberg in their case study of Sarah Palin in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The case of Hillary Clinton’s most recent magazine cover representations serves to point out that this objectification is not always sexual as it often was in the case of Palin. Objectification is so dangerous because it tells us that women are not subjects, or actors, but objects to be acted upon. By repeatedly portraying Hillary Clinton as an object rather than a subject, the media is making her less threatening and formidable as a candidate and less human.

The real problem with magazine covers like TIME’s and the New York Times Magazine’s is not simply that it is offensive to Hillary Clinton to be portrayed as a planet, but that it is dangerous to all women to see each other portrayed as things instead of people. I hope as the 2016 presidential race closes in on us that we will see fewer magazines like those and more like that of my treasured copy of Newsweek where women are just women, not things. 

Notes: 

The article about the objectification of Sarah Palin can be found using this citation: 

Heflick, Nathan A, and Jamie L. Goldenberg. "Objectifying Sarah Palin: Evidence That Objectification Causes Women to Be Perceived As Less Competent and Less Fully Human." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 45.3 (2009): 598-601. Print.

I Love You, Leslie Knope

Parks and Rec returns tonight and I could not be more elated. I am absolutely thrilled that Parks and Rec returns from a relatively long winter hiatus because I absolutely and completely love Leslie Knope. I know am not the first person to say this and I certainly won’t be the last. That’s because Leslie Knope is awesome.

Leslie is exactly the kind of heroine we need more of on our screens. She is determined, she is funny, she is fearless, and she is flawed. Leslie represents a female protagonist who is neither broken beyond repair nor too perfect to be attainable. She is strong in her convictions and still a little silly. Her unbelievable dedication is matched by a propensity to overreact. It is exactly this balance that makes her real and believable. Even in her eccentricities there is something intrinsically relatable about her. Between that and the general hilarity of the show it is nearly impossible not to tune in each week to see what our favorite Pawneean is up to.

Leslie is one of the best examples of a feminist TV has to offer right now. She is proud of her feminist roots and unafraid to call people out on their sexist behavior. She talks the talk and walks the walk. From starting the Pawnee Goddesses, a scout like organization, when girls were shut out from the Pawnee Rangers to becoming a trash collector for a day to prove that women are just as capable as men, Leslie is a warrior for equality (which she has stated would be her stripper name if she were a stripper). Furthermore, Leslie’s belief in equality does not just crop up once a season like it might in other shows; rather, it represents a major theme of the show. Parks and Rec has not just blessed us with a female protagonist but has gifted us with one who proudly proclaims and lives her feminist beliefs and is not demonized for it.

Leslie is without a doubt my favorite TV character, but she is not the only strong point Parks and Rec has to offer. In addition to Leslie, the show offers us one of the most diverse casts on television in race, ethnicity, and body type and, for the most part, does not make cheap jokes about these aspects of identity. Instead it often uses comedy as a vehicle to call people out on everyday mishandlings of identity. A great example is when Leslie repeatedly asks Tom, her Indian-American coworker, when his answer of South Carolina doesn’t satisfy her curiosity. Tom’s eventual answer of “my mother’s uterus” serves to highlight the absurd behavior of bombarding non-white people with the question “Where are you really from?” The show also demonstrates a strength in its portrayal of female friendships. Instead of focusing mostly on relationships between men and women the emphasis on Parks is usually given to the relationships among the women, particularly the relationships between Ann and Leslie and Ann and April which makes it even more of shame that Rashida Jones, the actress who plays Leslie’s best friend Ann, is leaving this season. Needless to say, a great majority of the episodes of this show pass the Bechdel test.

Overall, Parks and Rec is the best that comedy has to offer. While it tends to be rather ridiculous, it still manages to be meaningful. For as many moments as I have laughed over the course of the show, I have also been pleased to see various societal flaws, particularly regarding women in power, called out. I’m excited to visit Pawnee again starting tonight and if you’re looking for a hilarious half hour with a killer female protagonist, then I hope you’ll join me.