I analyzed archival data of commentors on YouTube videos that focused on Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin during the 2008 Presidential election. The YouTube videos focused on Sarah Palin’s physical appearance, looks, and clothing. In order to have a greater selection of videos that relate to this topic, I selected seven videos uploaded during the September to October 2008 time-frame, leading up to the presidential election. The YouTube videos chosen are user-created montages, Saturday Night Live episode clips, and national news clips.
The first video, “Paper Planes Spoof: ‘Trophy Vice Sarah Palin” was a user-created montage that was uploaded October 27, 2008. This video can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNvwRJqyXm0.
The second video, “Tina Fey and Sarah Palin on SNL,” was a clip of the SNL skit on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News show, The O’Reilly Factor; this video was uploaded October 18, 2008. This video can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owT_BNutAU8.
The third video, “Sarah Palin Hot Pics – One Hot Mama – Trace Adkins,” was a user-created montage that was uploaded September 3, 2008. This video can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbb3PxYrMcs.
The fourth video, “Carly Fiorina Calls SNL Video Sexist,” was a news clip in response to Tina Fey’s impersonations of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live; it was uploaded on September 15, 2008. This video can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owT_BNutAU8.
The fifth video, “Elisabeth Hasselback on Sarah Palin’s Wardrobe,” was a response to the wardrobe controversy where the Republican National Convention spent $150,000 on Palin’s wardrobe; it was uploaded on October 26, 2008. This video can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrP1m5cCrnY&feature=related.
The sixth video, “FOX Irate Over Un-Retouched Sarah Palin Photo” was a Fox News clip where news anchors reacted to Newsweek’s publication of an un-retouched cover photo of Sarah Palin; it was uploaded on October 9, 2008. This video can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yStRlkHyFrE.
The seventh video, “Own Sarah Palin!” was a user-created montage of a fake infomercial selling a CD of themed songs played by Sarah Palin on the flute, such as “Drill Me Baby One More Time” and “It’s Rainin’ Babies.” This video was uploaded on October 6, 2008. This video can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOCmTUd_iAE.
I chose these videos because I was interested in whether or not YouTube commentors portrayed a “hypersexualized” or “iron maiden” depiction of Sarah Palin in response to YouTube videos that focused on Palin’s physical appearance, looks, and wardrobe. I was interested in the link between YouTube comments’ and the dichotomous portrayal of Palin as “hypersexualized” and an “iron maiden.” The “hypersexualized” portrayal includes the stereotypes of “sex object,” “mother,” and “pet or child,” while the “iron maiden” portrayal includes the stereotype of “overly masculine for a woman.” These stereotypes of sex object, mother, pet, and iron maiden are adopted from the book Men and Women of the Corporation written in 1977 by Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Julia T. Wood. Kanter argued that these were prevalent stereotypes directed against women in the professional workplace (Diana B. Carlin & Kelly L. Winfrey 327).
The sex object, mother, and pet or child stereotype are used to code for “hypersexualization.” The sex object stereotype references a woman’s sexuality and describes her explicitly in sexually-charged terms. Moreover, this stereotype can perceive the woman as an object to be either praised or criticized for her physical appearance, including wardrobe and overall physical attractiveness. (Diana B. Carlin & Kelly L. Winfrey 327-328). The mother stereotype emphasizes Palin’s motherly role as a mother of five children, including an infant with Down Syndrome and a daughter, Bristol Palin, who was pregnant when she was seventeen-years-old. This stereotype may emphasize that Palin’s place is “in the home” and may reference traits often associated with motherhood such as “compassion” and “kindness” (Diana B. Carlin & Kelly L. Winfrey 327). Furthermore, this stereotype includes references to Palin as a “hockey mom” and member of the PTA. Scholars Carlin and Winfrey describe the negative aspect of this stereotype, “The second application is less positive and occurs when a woman’s ability to perform a leadership role is questioned because of her maternal responsibilities. Next, the mother role causes women to “‘be indentified with emotional matters’” (Diana B. Carlin & Kelly L. Winfrey 328). The “pet” or “child” stereotype refers to Palin as a “young girl” who needs protection. Julia Wood describes how “…being seen as too week, naïve, or unprepared to handle a difficult task without a man’s help results in childlike treatment and diminishes a woman’s capacity to fulfill leadership functions” (Diana B. Carlin & Kelly L. Winfrey 328). Wood also writes how this stereotype portrays one as a “mascot” and “cheerleader” who acts like a puppet for a particular cause (Diana B. Carlin & Kelly L. Winfrey 328).
In order to code for the “iron maiden” stereotype, one looked for comments that portrayed Palin as “too masculine,” displaying traits typically associated with men, such as assertiveness, outspokenness, aggressiveness (Diana B. Carlin & Kelly L. Winfrey 328). For example, references to Palin as a member of the NRA and a passionate huntress and subsequent “murderer” could fulfill the “iron maiden” stereotype.
It is important to note that I excluded from my analysis and did not code comments that did not relate to the “hypersexualization” and “iron maiden” dichotomy. It is beyond the scope of my present analysis to analyze comments that do not relate to this dichotomy; therefore, I excluded those comments that expressed support for the Obama/Biden 2008 ticket and McCain/Palin 2008 ticket as well as comments that expressed positive, negative, or indifferent comments to the video itself. For example, the poster expresses positive attitudes and negative attitudes when he or she praises or criticizes the creator of the video by claiming that it is humorous or not. I also excluded those comments that were completely irrelevant and off-topic. However, I coded comments as “ambiguous” if they were unclear whether or not they fell exclusively under the “hypersexualization” or “iron maiden” categories.
Moreover, the sample, or population, of my study includes commentors on YouTube. One cannot generalize the results of this study that codes for “hypersexualization” and “iron maiden” stereotypes to online posting groups; however, this may be an avenue for future research. Also, since the speakers in my study are posting to the United States YouTube site, one may suggest that the speakers are American; however, one cannot make that assumption. I have controlled for language as well by only analyzing comments written in English. Also, I am treating online data as provided to me; identifiers such as race, gender, and country of origin are unavailable to me. Commentors on YouTube do not explicitly provide these identifiers. Also, in relation to the time frame, as discussed earlier, I used videos posted between September 2008 and October 2008. Initially, I wanted to analyze archival data, or comments, specifically posted within two weeks after the videos were posted; however, YouTube does not list the month and year when a comment was posted after an extended period of time. Therefore, I coded all comments listed as posted “2 years ago.”
I then coded the comments. Here is my coding scheme that I developed in reflection of the above discussion:
Coding Scheme I:
1) I define a comment of “Hypersexualization” as employing the stereotypes of sex object, mother, and pet or child in his or her comments.
2) I define a comment of “Iron Maiden” by employing language that depicts Palin as “too masculine [for a woman]” and “unfeminine” (Diana B. Carlin & Kelly L. Winfrey 328).
3) I define a comment of “Ambiguous” as potentially employing both “hypersexualization” language and “iron maiden” language; since it is unclear, I code it as “ambiguous.”
Also, I did not need to ask for informed consent because the YouTube videos and comments were posted to a publically accessible venue. However, I have replaced all usernames with pseudonyms to protect the commentors’ identities.
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