Gendered Mediation

Despite decades of women’s participation in politics and the increasing number of LGBTQ individuals who are seeking and winning political office, the gender identities of Canadian politicians continue to attract media and public attention, revealing the role that heteronormative gender expectations continue to play in defining images and expectations of political elites. Gendered Mediation takes an original, intersectional approach to these issues by examining how politicians, journalists, and voters deploy notions of gender, sexuality, race, age, and class in Canadian politics. The contributors, all leading scholars in their fields, build upon the gendered mediation thesis, arguing that political communication and reporting reinforces impressions of politics as a masculine domain that privileges men. Organized into three sections, the book investigates politicians’ gendered strategies for shaping their own and others’ public image, the gendered characteristics of media coverage of women and men politicians, and voter reactions to these self-presentations and media depictions. By examining how sexuality, race, age, and class intersect with gender to produce differing political identities and responses, the contributors make new theoretical and empirical interventions in the research on gender and political communication. Their findings have profound implications for democracy not only in Canada but for democratic political systems elsewhere.