Voting, Labels, & Love

In the article Politics and the Single Woman: The “Sex and the City Voter” in Campaign 2004, Anderson and Stewart discuss the mash up of pop culture, politics, and third wave feminism.  The authors address the issues surrounding women voters and the 2004 presidential campaign in a way that I am torn between being completely and utterly appalled at how our society has exploited women and the notion of consumerism, and wondering if it is an ingenious ploy to force Americans to open their eyes and place more importance on our political system.

While I do feel torn, it is disturbing the extent that the media and political parties went to in order to pursue the “Sex and the City Voter.”  It is offensive that so many women were willing to embrace that label.  While the HBO television show is a hit among many women, it is hard to ignore the underlying messages that the show distributes.  Viewers follow four women who, despite being successful in their careers in NYC, still yearn for more, and that more can only be fulfilled through shoes, designer labels, and men.  The show almost never highlights the success of the women, and if it does, it is only to illustrate how having a blossoming career is not enough for the characters. Why do women flock to this show? Why do we want to be placed into this suffocating stereotype of only caring about our looks and finding a man to sweep us away?

Although this is a troubling category, Anderson and Stewart articulate that this is a category that pop culture and media pounced on when the 2004 presidential election rolled around.  Single women were a target group to get the votes in and what better way to recruit than through a popular television show that women believed (or wished) they could relate to.  The rhetoric that surrounded this voting campaign is what is the most troublesome.  Phrases and words like husband, hottest date, wooed, young, white, and single are all words that bind women to a certain category.  Anderson and Stewart state that in the view of third wave feminism, many women found this to be liberating, however it is hard to see how this is freeing and not confining, especially when the products that were being marketed to this group of women included thongs and specialized martini’s.  Instead of breaking away from the notion of being easy to win over, women were demonstrating that they could be bought. 

The concept of votes being bought for labels that women love is an idea that has filtered through the years and to the Obama 2012 campaign.  While President Obama is not selling cute pairs of underwear or marketing cocktails after himself, he does have designer items for sale in his campaign store.  Tote bags that have been designed by Vera Wang and special t-shirts designed by Joseph Altuzarra.  While the t-shirt is listed as unisex, it is being modeled by a woman and is part of the “for runway to win” campaign.  Having high end designers support a presidential candidate subscribes to the notion of women band-wagoning behind a designer and therefore a candidate.

What is the most troublesome about this whole notion of making voting cute and sexy for women is the fact that politicians and the media think that it is the only way to get women interested in politics.  Instead of being progressive and forward, the marketing strategies are reverting back to mentality of the 1950’s.  If something is simple and pretty than a woman can understand it and want to participate.  Forget the fact that as an American citizen, voting is part of our civic duty.  That is a concept that apparently is too large for women to wrap their brains around.  Instead the media packaged this information and knowledge in an adorable little bundle and offered the prospect of being sexy like the characters on Sex and the City and the hope that by voting, you can find your dream man.  In the third wave of feminism we as women are aware that we are being objectified and marginalized and are okay with it, right?  As long as I get my prince charming all while wearing my designer heels with my designer bag draped over my arm.