Political Pugilists: Recuperative Gender Strategies in Canadian Electoral Politics

• In Event: 313 - Regular Session. Masculinities 2

Abstract

This paper examines a charity-boxing match between two Canadian politicians, Justin Trudeau and Patrick Brazeau. Trudeau is the current Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and son of former Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau. Brazeau is a Conservative Senator and former National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. Through a qualitative discourse analysis of 222 national newspaper articles published on boxing match, this paper chronicles Justin Trudeau’s transition from “precariously masculine” to “sufficiently masculine” and thus a suitable candidate for Liberal Party Leadership. While scholars in the United States have documented the masculinization of the presidency and the benefits reaped by politicians who strategically deploy characteristics of hegemonic masculinity, limited research of this nature exists in a Canadian context. This paper offers the concept “recuperative gender strategies” to describe how political leaders work to restore their public gender identities. For Trudeau, the boxing match provided the opportunity to recover from threats to his masculinity and fulfill the ideal gender requirements for a leadership position in electoral politics.

Author

• Elise Maiolino, University of Toronto