Madam President: Streaming Transformativity II

Fall 2024 | College of the Alien Information Theory Book Club

Aug 20, 2024

President Lisa approves this feminist media studies framework for individual and group study

Let’s look at how creators and audiences have anticipated, imagined, scripted, and received women television characters serving in the office of President of the United States of America.

The Madam President framework is recommended for everyone involved in meme-based psychological warfare support operations for the Harris-Walz 2024 campaign.

Related: Introduction to Women’s Studies | Fall 2024

Actor Tony “‘President Fitzgerald Grant (R-CA)’ (Scandal)” Goldwyn of Shondaland remains so recognizable as America’s Obama-era TV President Boyfriend that Tony Goldwyn was able to deliver a well-received solo turn at the podium on the first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention telecast.

The American TV Madam POTUS Chorus

The Night Agent (2023)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13918776/

The Diplomat (2023- )
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17491088/

Motherland: Fort Salem (2020-22)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9900092/

Supergirl (2015-21)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4016454/

State of Affairs (2014-15)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3489236/

Madam Secretary (2014-19)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501074/

House of Cards (2013-19)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856010

Veep (2012-19)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1759761/

Scandal (2012-18)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837576/

Homeland (2011-2020)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1796960/

XIII: The Series (2011-12)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1713938/

Commander-in-Chief (2006)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429455/

24 (2001-10)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285331/

The West Wing (1999-2006)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200276/

The Simpsons (1989 - )
https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/President_Lisa

Hail to the Chief (1985)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088529/

See also:

A Different World (1987-1993)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092339/

Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112230/

Angels in America (2003)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318997/

Succession (2018-2023)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7660850/

On the 4th Night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in prime time, Tony “President Grant” Goldwyn fetched Kerry “Olivia Pope” Washington her smartphone

READING LIST

Adams, S., Moffit, K. R., & Jackson, R. L. [Editors]. (2019). Gladiators in Suits: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Representation in Scandal. Syracuse University Press.
https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/99/gladiators-in-suits/

Boland, T. (2024). “Transformativity: The malleable foundations of social theory.” History of the Human Sciences. First published online Feb 2, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951231224649

Faust, D. G. (2008). This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. Vintage Books; Penguin, Random House.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/48460/this-republic-of-suffering-by-drew-gilpin-faust/

hooks, b. (1994). Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203822883

Hartley, John (2004). Reading Television. Second Edition. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203356623

Littleton, C. (2012). TV On Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet. Syracuse University Press. https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/674/tv-on-strike/

McCabe, J. (2012). The West Wing. TV milestones series; Contemporary approaches to film and television series. Wayne State University Press.
https://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814334362/

Rollins, P. & O’Connor, J. [Editors]. (2003). The West Wing: The American Presidency as Television Drama. Syracuse Unversity Press.
https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/1142/west-wing-the/
Accessible via The Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/westwingamerican0000unse

Mankiller, W. [Editor]. (1998). The Reader’s Companion to U. S. Women’s History. Houghton Mifflin. Accessible via The Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/readerscompanion00mank/

MADAM PRESIDENT: OUR STORY SO FAR

OVERTURE

The Portrait Monument to Women’s Suffrage (left-to-right): Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the lump of stone representing American women leaders of the future, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott

As of 1997, The Portrait Monument (1921) sits in The Rotunda, United States Capitol Building, Washington, DC.

For reference:

Female United States Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidates (Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_United_States_presidential_and_vice_presidential_candidates

Women in Congress, 1917-2022: Service Dates and Committee Assignments by Member, and Lists by State and Congress (Congressional Research Service):
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30261

Female United States Cabinet Members (Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_United_States_Cabinet_members

Women on the United States Supreme Court:
https://www.representwomen.org/women_supreme_court

Act I

UNBOUGHT AND UNBOSSED? Women on the Move in American Electoral Politics during the 1970s and 1980s

Shirley Chisholm at the podium. She ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 1972, the first woman to seek the nomination of a major US party.

Shirley Chisholm (D-NY)
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisho

Shirley Chisholm: Unbought and Unbossed (2004)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388835/

The history of The National Women’s Political Caucus

Geraldine Ferraro (D-NY), 1984 Vice Presidential candidate
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/geraldine-ferraro-unprecedented-1984-campaign-vice-president-180975491/

2024 is the centennial of the birth of Phyllis Schlafly, founder of The Eagle Forum (US)

Act II

LOCK HER UP

The famous *Washington Post* photo of the pack of campaign photographers shooting Clinton cat Socks, circa 1992

Official White House Portrait of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton

The Age of Hillary Rodham Clinton (1992-2020)

https://www.c-span.org/person/hillary-clinton/19027/

Ann Coulter and Bill Buckley discuss the Clinton Impeachment and high crimes and misdemeanors, September 1998

SARAH PALIN SUPERSTAR

Governor Sarah Palin (AK-R) was the Republican Vice Presidential candidate in 2008

Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin with Meghan Kelly (2010)
https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/09/interview-with-geraldine-ferraro-on-fox-news-channel/

Official portrait: Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State (2009-2013). After her tenure as First Lady, she served as a United States Senator from New York (2001-2009)

Miss Representation (2011)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1784538/

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA), often shortlisted as a US Presidential candidate, is currently married to the producer of Miss Representation (2011), Jennifer Sibel-Newsom. Governor Newsom’s first wife was Kimberly Guilfoyle, the current intimate partner of record of Donald Trump, Jr.

Jennifer Sibel-Newsom talking Miss Representation (2011) via the American Embassy UK YouTube channel

The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vast_right-wing_conspiracy

The Hillary Clinton Hate Campaign Has Twisted America (2016)
https://www.ft.com/content/59791078-a512-11e6-8898-79a99e2a4de6

D’Antonio, M. and Zackman, G. (2020). The Hunting of Hillary: The Forty-Year Campaign to Destroy Hillary Clinton. Thomas Dunne Books.

Michelle Robinson Obama

Note popular persistence in wishcasting (and demonizing) former First Lady Michelle Obama as a second coming of a Hillary Clinton-type politician, even as Michelle Obama continues to define her public role outside the electoral arena.

Around the 12-minute mark in her address on the second evening of the 2024 Democratic Convention, Michelle Obama mentioned the torrent of insults the Obamas have withstood over the years, warning that the same firehose was about to be turned on the Harris-Walz campaign.

She reminded the audience, “Look, it’s his same old con. It’s the same con: doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better.”

Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway

Three images of Trump campaign mastermind Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conwway in her red, white, and blue Gucci coatdress walking alone on her way to the Trump Inauguration, close up speaking into a microphone, walking at Trump Inauguration with Steve Bannon — In 2016, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway became the first woman to head a successful campaign for President of the United States. Here she is attending the Trump Inauguration in January 2017.

Act II

GRAB THEM BY THE PUSSY

Review the official multimedia archives below

Cheney and Thompson worked together to get January 6 into the record

Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (2022)

Bernie Thompson (D-MS), Chair
Liz Cheney, (R-WY), Co-chair

Archives of the January 6 Hearing

https://www.c-span.org/liveEvent/?January6

View official Committee reports, printed hearing records, and other publications of the Select Committee at GovInfo.gov

View the NARA archive of the January 6th Select Committee website

View the NARA archive of the January 6th Select Committee Report

Congressman Bennie Thompson, Chair of the Select Committee, maintains an archival copy of the January 6th Select Committee website as part of his Congressional Member office website.

Related:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/key-facts-from-the-supreme-courts-immunity-ruling-and-how-it-affects-presidential-power (2024)

Act III

KAMALA HARRIS FOR THE PEOPLE: FORWARD

Check out the CSPAN archive to watch her tending the business of governance.

Kamala D. Harris: The CSPAN archive:
https://www.c-span.org/person/kamala-d-harris/1018696/

CSPAN Coverage of 2024 Democratic Convention
https://www.c-span.org/democratic-national-convention-2024/

Herndon, A. W. (2020, October 14). What Kamala Harris Learned About Power at Howard. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/us/politics/kamala-harris-howard.html

Official Harris-Walz campaign website

(includes link to purchase Official Harris-Walz “Madam President” stickers)

The Shepard Fairey poster for Harris 2024: FORWARD

Related:

Official Trump-Vance campaign website

Nikki Haley calling it in January 2024:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/haley-campaign-press-release-haley-predicts-we-will-have-woman-president-it-will-be-me-or

Coda

November 2024 - January 2025

(Under construction; TBD)

Reminder: Be sure to check your voter registration and resolve any issues before the voter registration deadline in your state