Her Body, Her Choice: Tough Girl Affect, Trump Support, and the 2020 Pandemic

IF 0.1 3区艺术学 0 FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION CAMERA OBSCURA Pub Date : 2023-05-01 DOI:10.1215/02705346-10278642

Jenny Stümer

{"title":"Her Body, Her Choice: Tough Girl Affect, Trump Support, and the 2020 Pandemic","authors":"Jenny Stümer","doi":"10.1215/02705346-10278642","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n When anti-lockdown protests erupted in the United States during the 2020 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many right-wing women crudely appropriated the feminist slogan “my body, my choice” in defiance of liberal fears and in support of Donald Trump. Looking at the widely shared image of a young woman holding a sign with the phrase at a rally in Texas, I discuss the communal charge of what I call tough girl affect—a politically saturated vibe, touting a notably youthful, right-wing femininity that is deliberately feisty, fun, and provocative, yet compliant with the hetero-patriarchal agenda of Trump’s neoliberal macho politics. I am interested in the way body and choice evoke white femininity as affective strategy, negotiating a public feeling of privileged belonging to the nation. The article works through the tenets of body, border, and nation as central to this investment, suggesting that the tough girl image mobilizes femininity to affectively strengthen conservatism, whiteness, and homeland in the face of the pandemic. Staging a fantasy of impunity, the tough girl intimates the invincible conservative body in opposition to the porous emotionality of feeble liberals. At the same time, the spectacle of white femininity necessarily fuels national fears of permeability and hence charges negative (even fatal) attachments to fantasmatic sovereignty. While mobilizing vulnerability to energize femininity, whiteness, and borders, the image ultimately exposes the compromised bargains of living and dying in (Trump’s) America.","PeriodicalId":44647,"journal":{"name":"CAMERA OBSCURA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"CAMERA OBSCURA","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-10278642","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

When anti-lockdown protests erupted in the United States during the 2020 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many right-wing women crudely appropriated the feminist slogan “my body, my choice” in defiance of liberal fears and in support of Donald Trump. Looking at the widely shared image of a young woman holding a sign with the phrase at a rally in Texas, I discuss the communal charge of what I call tough girl affect—a politically saturated vibe, touting a notably youthful, right-wing femininity that is deliberately feisty, fun, and provocative, yet compliant with the hetero-patriarchal agenda of Trump’s neoliberal macho politics. I am interested in the way body and choice evoke white femininity as affective strategy, negotiating a public feeling of privileged belonging to the nation. The article works through the tenets of body, border, and nation as central to this investment, suggesting that the tough girl image mobilizes femininity to affectively strengthen conservatism, whiteness, and homeland in the face of the pandemic. Staging a fantasy of impunity, the tough girl intimates the invincible conservative body in opposition to the porous emotionality of feeble liberals. At the same time, the spectacle of white femininity necessarily fuels national fears of permeability and hence charges negative (even fatal) attachments to fantasmatic sovereignty. While mobilizing vulnerability to energize femininity, whiteness, and borders, the image ultimately exposes the compromised bargains of living and dying in (Trump’s) America.

查看原文

微信好友朋友圈 QQ好友复制链接

本刊更多论文

她的身体，她的选择:坚强女孩的影响，特朗普的支持，以及2020年的大流行

2020年新冠肺炎疫情爆发时，美国爆发反封锁抗议活动，许多右翼女性无视自由派的恐惧，粗暴地挪用了“我的身体，我的选择”的女权主义口号，支持唐纳德·特朗普。看着一张被广泛分享的照片，一个年轻女子在德克萨斯州的一次集会上举着写有这句话的牌子，我讨论了我称之为“强硬女孩效应”的公共指控——一种政治饱和的氛围，兜售一种明显年轻的右翼女性气质，故意好斗、有趣、挑衅，但又符合特朗普新自由主义大男子主义政治的异性恋父权制议程。我感兴趣的是身体和选择如何唤起白人女性气质作为一种情感策略，谈判一种属于国家的特权的公众感觉。文章从“身体、边界、国家”的原则出发，分析了这一投资的核心。文章认为，女强人形象调动了女性气质，在新冠疫情面前有效地强化了保守主义、白人主义和家园主义。这个坚强的女孩幻想着不受惩罚，她将不可战胜的保守派身体与软弱的自由主义者多孔的情感联系起来。与此同时，白人女性气质的奇观必然会加剧国家对渗透的恐惧，从而指责对幻想主权的负面(甚至是致命的)依恋。在动员脆弱来激发女性气质、白人和边界的同时，这张照片最终暴露了在(特朗普的)美国生存和死亡的妥协交易。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文去求助

来源期刊

CAMERA OBSCURA FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION-

CiteScore

0.30

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Since its inception, Camera Obscura has devoted itself to providing innovative feminist perspectives on film, television, and visual media. It consistently combines excellence in scholarship with imaginative presentation and a willingness to lead media studies in new directions. The journal has developed a reputation for introducing emerging writers into the field. Its debates, essays, interviews, and summary pieces encompass a spectrum of media practices, including avant-garde, alternative, fringe, international, and mainstream. Camera Obscura continues to redefine its original statement of purpose. While remaining faithful to its feminist focus, the journal also explores feminist work in relation to race studies, postcolonial studies, and queer studies.