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Popular Culture Review
personality and family than to her qualifications for the job (Aday & Devitt 69).
Other research shows that women running for political office generally gamer
less issue coverage than their male counterparts, are perceived as less likely to
win than men, and have a harder time getting their issues on the media agenda
(Aday & Devitt 55). For those who get past the election and hold political office,
news coverage often pigeonholes them, typically covering women legislators in
relation to women’s issues (Carroll & Schreiber 145).
For women in fictional roles, the frames are no better. Women in television
commercials, for instance, are typically seen in private settings, such as the
home. They also are more likely to be shown in traditional gendered activities
and roles than their male counterparts in commercials, particularly for those in
the youngest and oldest age groups (Stem & Mastro 233). In television
programming, female characters who are well received by audiences fall into
four trait categories: determined, strong, and independent; professional,
intelligent, and skilled; realistic, nonstereotypical, and equal to males; and
traditional, caretaker, and feminine (Atwood, Zahn & Webber 97-98). The latter
category, which shows women as nurturing and kind, accounted for nearly onefourth of all of the positive portrayals of women. And even when a woman is
portrayed as a strong, tough leading character, her authority “is diminished by
the emphasis placed on her nurturing or maternal qualities” (Tolley 338). In fact,
in news and in fictional representations, producers assume that women are more
interested in personal relationships, home life, and emotions, which “continue to
be socially constructed as women’s responsibilities” (Aldridge 96). Commander
in Chief and Mackenzie Allen did nothing to challenge those assumptions.
The Contrast Between Jed Bartlet and Mackenzie Allen
In fact, the character created by Rod Lurie—the one who was supposed to
break new ground in television and in American homes—is undermined as an
authoritative and strong woman in the first minutes of the very first episode of
Commander in Chief even before the opening credits roll. After Allen is told
that the president is gravely ill, Blackston, the attorney general, and James
Gardner, the White House chief of staff, ask for her resignation. Again, she is
hesitant at first:
ALLEN: This is coming from the president?
GARDNER: This is the president’s intent.
ALLEN: I have no idea what that means. Did the president tell
you this directly?
BLACKSTON: There was no major discussion. He was being
wheeled into brain surgery.
GARDNER: Look, we’ve got hell on earth afoot. We’ve got
Korea, Syria, Iran. Things are too unstable. We don’t
need the world . ..