Anderson, K. V., & Stewart, J. (2005). Politics and the single woman: The "sex and the city voter" in campaign 2004. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 8(4), 595-616.
In this article, Anderson and Stewart (2005) examine the “Sex and the City Voter” in the 2004 Presidential campaign and the way in which this construct was meant to convey third wave feminism but in actuality was more problematizing to the theory. Anderson and Stewart discuss how the media enjoys placing a label on female voters, referring to them as the “elusive groups of swing-voting women”. By giving such labels as “Soccer Mom”, “Security Moms” and the “Sex in the City Voter” it allows for candidates and their campaign committees to create campaigns that pay notice to these women and potentially bring in their votes.
Hollywood photographers, producers, and actors created “The Sex in the City Voter”, but pundits, pollsters, and journalists dubbed the term. This new label was supposed to target a new population of women. According to Anderson and Stewart she was, “the young, unmarried, upwardly-mobile women primed to vote on domestic issues such as choice, the economy, and the environment” (p. 596). However these women were more likely to be, “white, middle- to upper-class professionals as consumers rather than citizens, and as sexually appealing and available” (p. 597).
The authors continue on in the essay discussing how this attempt to get the vote of young unwedded women actually did not influence voters as it hoped. There was only a 4% increase of unmarried women that voted during the 2004 election. Anderson and Stewart contend, “this result is not surprising, insofar as the design of the image created a desire for a certain lifestyle more than it motivated its subject toward political involvement” (p. 597).
From here, Anderson and Stewart discuss third wave feminism as it relates to the Academy and popular culture and the ways in which the definition differs depending on the context the theory is placed. This was by far one of the best things about this essay in that the reader was able to understand what third wave feminism initially tried to do which was to, “incorporate the insights of poststructuralism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism into contemporary feminist theories” (p. 598). As well the ways in which popular media and culture of the 1990s moved passed young women opposing feminism and focus more one’s self which goes against the first two waves of feminism where women were seen working collectively and collaboratively in order to better the whole. Scholars believe that third wave feminism as discussed in popular culture illustrates the concern for self-only, sexual assertiveness, and a concern for the body and not social change. Moreover third wave feminism becomes compared to a thing for sale rather than a movement. Shugart, Waggoner, and Hallstein posit, “ certain tenets of third-wave feminism are appropriated, commodified, reinscribed, and ‘sold back’ to audiences” (p. 196).
After discussing how the media jumped on board with the “Sex in the City Voter”, Anderson and Stewart discuss the way in which this label clumped all women together in one category. The name “Sex in the City Voter” was created based off the much popular series Sex in the City, which showcased the lives’ of four well-to-do single, white, financially stable women living in New York. However, the problem with this title is that it did not fit the 18-64 year old women whose annual income was less than $30,000, whom had children, and were not single or highly educated. To make matters even worst ads to get women to vote starred high paid female celebrities as if they could influence the common everyday woman to actually vote.
I would have to agree with the arguments presented by the authors as they discussed single women as homogenous voters. The use of high paid actresses rather than common everyday women to sell voting was a poor choice by the media. Jennifer Aniston, Helen Hunt, and Christina Aguilera were poor representations of “young, unmarried, upwardly-mobile women primed to vote on domestic issues such as choice, the economy, and the environment” they were very much “white, middle- to upper-class professionals, as consumers rather than citizens, and as sexually appealing and available”. There is no obvious connection between these women and the intended target of the “Sex in the City Voter” concept.
I found it troubling that the concept wanted to channel third wave feminism yet it was stuck in more of the second wave era where white, middle to upper class women were the one’s gaining privileges and leaving women of color and women in a lower socioeconomic class behind to fend for themselves. This lends to the reason why minorities show up to the polls far less than any other because campaigns don’t feature people that look like them or shows how the election will make a difference in their lives’. In a sense it becomes a means of silence and illustrates how their votes really don’t matter anyway.
From here, the authors then discuss how single women were more like consumers than citizens. This arose from the fact that the “Sex in the City Voter” was more fashion forward and cared more about her outwardly appearance than which candidate she planned on voting for. The election became more of a new shiny thing to buy, as manufacturers began to promote the election on fingernail files, underwear, and drinks. Even more interesting is the way in which single female voters were characterized as sexually appealing and available. This group of women was depicted as if they were looking for a relationship rather than a president. Taglines such as ‘Single women, prepared to be courted’, ‘attractive resource’, ‘Ladies’ Choice: Presidential Hopefuls Might Want to Woo Sex and the City Single Females’, just to name a few made the election more like a dating service and the candidates were the escorts.
All of these instances made the “Sex and the City Voter” label void of any connection to third wave feminism if anything it set us back several years. Anderson and Stewart wonderfully put it, “women are seen as primarily sexual rather than political beings-a stereotype women have been combating since the first wave of feminism” (p. 609). All in all I think it would be safe to say that the authors saw the “Sex in the City Voter” successful in that a few more of the single women voted but for what reasons exactly. Was it because they used high paid celebs and gave drinks new names or was it because these women actually had a sense of what was going on in the election? The answer is pretty ease to guess.
This reading references the second reading for this week by Shugart, Waggoner, and Hallstein (2001) and adds to the idea that anything created with third wave feminism in mind can easily be altered and put back in the media as a blow to third wave feminism, the reason for this is partially due to postmodern culture. Postmodern culture thrives of media and thrives on multiple explanations for things and because of this what was meant to gain female empowerment was appropriated and was made a mockery and by doing so highlighted all the problems women still face. This leads me to ask just how successful were the first and second wave of feminism.
References
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Bronstein, C. (2005). Representing the third wave: Mainstream print media framing of a new feminist movement. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 82(4), 783-803.
Fixmer, N., & Wood, J. T. (2005). The personal is still political: Embodied politics in third wave feminism. Women's Studies in Communication, 28(2), 235-257.
Lotz, A. (2003). Communicating third-wave feminism and new social movements: Challenges for the next century of feminist endeavor. Women & Language, 26(1), 2-11.
Maddux, K. (2009). Winning the right to vote in 2004. Feminist Media Studies, 9(1), 73-94. doi: 10.1080/14680770802619516
Renegar, V. R., & Sowards, S. K. (2003). Liberal irony, rhetoric, and feminist thought: A unifying third wave feminist theory. Philosophy & Rhetoric, 36(4), 330-352.
Shugart, H. A. (2001). Isn't it ironic?: The intersection of third-wave feminism and generation x. Women's Studies in Communication, 24(2), 131-169.
Sowards, S. K., & Renegar, V. R. (2004). The rhetorical functions of consciousness-raising in third wave feminism. Communication Studies, 55(4), 535-552.