The Gendering of Spectacle: Politics, Pink Shoes, and the Texas "Fillybuster"

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Paper Session: Feminist Scholarship Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Despite important inroads, women’s marginalization in the public sphere is still very real. From a feminist theoretical perspective, and informed by Guy Debord’s conceptualization of the society of spectacle, this study examines newspaper coverage of Wendy Davis’s filibuster to block an abortion-restricting bill in in the Texas legislature in 2013. Qualitative and quantitative assessments show that gender was particularly encoded and marked in the mediated discourse, with coverage focusing on Davis’ personal life and giving her celebrity status. The filibuster thus became a gendered spectacle that reified dominant gender values and norms.

Authors

• Dustin M. Harp, U of Texas - Arlington

• Jaime Loke, U of Oklahoma

• Ingrid Bachmann, Pontificia U Católica de Chile