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Viewing report
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The Split Subject in (Neo)Liberal Context. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, May 2009, Pages: 76
Leadership is performed and gendered. There are
impossible performances of 'the leader” and failings
in such performance that play out in mass media
representations. These representations accumulate
into spectacle that re-inscribes leadership as
masculine and reconstitutes gendered and minority
difference and consequent disadvantage in attaining
leadership positions. Because of the vast
circulation of liberal democratic rhetoric,
idealistic belief in equal opportunity for
anyone who uses the tools of liberalism such as
independence and perseverance is espoused. Media
spectacle plays a transnational role in articulating
and reinstating these impossible performances of
women leaders through repetition of normative
masculine leaders and restating the preponderance of
liberal opportunity. Using Butler’s theory of
performativity and Debord’s discussion of spectacle
and society, I locate within the spectacular
production the performance expectations that work to
undermine women’s leadership potential. I show how
the media representations, in their urgent, rapidly-
produced present, work against the discourse on
gender equality and inclusion.
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