The Rise of the Role of the First Lady Essay Sample
Vibe magazine stated that. “Michelle Obama delivered one of the most affecting addresss in recent political history at the Democratic National Convention. ” With all the attending placed on the office of the president sometimes we forget about the function and consequence of the first lady. Often times. the First Lady takes a backseat to her hubby. and the jobs and policies that are of import to him. This is non Michelle Obama. While she is careful non to steal her husband’s boom. First Lady Obama is known to do a storm all her ain. She non merely plays a dynamic function in President Obama’s presidential term. but she besides heads her ain enterprise. Let’s Go. to acquire childs active to battle childhood fleshiness. Born Michelle Robinson. First Lady Obama was raised by her female parent and male parent on the South Side of Chicago. She learned to value difficult work. service. and household. She has carried these values with her into her function as first lady. As First Lady. Michelle Obama’s first truenesss are to President Obama and their household. In the address from the Democratic National Convention she said. “I see how these narratives. our aggregation of battles. and hopes and dreams. I see how that’s what drives Barack Obama every individual twenty-four hours.
And I didn’t believe it was possible. but today. I love my hubby even more than I did four old ages ago. even more than I did 23 old ages ago when we foremost met. ” First Ladies experience a immense forfeit when they have to give up their hubbies so that they can function the state. but with great forfeit great wages will come in seeing your hubby grow and falling more and more in love with him. Immediately following her truenesss to her household. First Lady Obama’s 2nd duty is to this state. She has to function the people. keep a positive image. inform. and back up her hubby even in times of convulsion. Because. First Ladies and their rhetorical significance were overlooked in our text edition. my proposal is for farther research on the function and significance of the First Lady. While being a First Lady is non an institutional function with a description in the fundamental law. there have been merely as many First Ladies as there have been presidents and they each played a function.
Our image of the First Lady. how she speaks and presents herself to the American people effects our political socialisation. If nil more it at least affects our position of the president himself. Besides. with First Ladies holding their ain enterprises. they can utilize their political position to put the docket. redefine issues. and persuade the American people to concentrate on certain issues. My specific proposal is to garner information on the transmutation of the function of the first lady. and through studies. polls. and analysis identify the rhetorical significance of the First Lady to the overall attitudes and efficaciousness of the American people. A batch of the research already done on First Ladies focuses on gender instead than political communicating and it’s effectivity. For illustration. Edwards article on how the first lady was portrayed in sketchs focal points on how she is portrayed as a adult female instead than a political figure. Besides Dulcie Straughan begins her article. First Ladies and the imperativeness: The unfinished partnership of the media age. with the words. “Calling first ladies the individual most seeable symbole of American womanhood…treats them as intelligence shapers in their ain right” ( Straughan. 2006 ) .
She ventures on to give the background of first ladies in the media. She acknowledges Eleanor Roosevelt as the first to hold a relationship with the media ( Straughan. 2006 ) . She besides notes further in the paragraph that First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy was the first to get down the first lady enterprises. She beautified the White House. while Nancy Reagan focused on merely stating no to drugs. and Barbara Bush focused on instruction. The chief focal point of this research was to demo how first ladies. though they do work hard in their functions. can be “lionized. trivialized. and on occasion demonized by the media” . because they are adult females ( Straughan. 2006 ) . Becklund’s intelligence article on Barbara Bush and her rhetoric toward the under privileged was a perfect illustration of how the media can concentrate on the negative and lose the large image. Maddux wrote a research article that was besides focused on gender. but it helped in my research. because it focused on one peculiar rhetorical event and how it’s intent was to alter the function of the first lady during the 2nd moving ridge of feminism.
President Jimmy Carter sent his married woman on a trip to talk in Latin states about foreign policy. The end was to do the function of the first lady more significant. While Maddux focuses her article on the women’s rightists reviews of First Lady Carter’s address. my focal point was on if it efficaciously changed the function of first lady. Maddux criticizes the function of first lady saying that it is equivocal and leaves ample room for examination ( Maddux. 2008 ) . Maddux does advert the power that the first lady has to utilize her political position to talk out against societal issues. but so notes that. that power is used more by or for her hubby ( Maddux. 2008 ) . All of these negative positions of the function of the first lady do me eager to carry on my research. I would wish to see if those positions have changed. In O’ Connor’s article. Wifes in the white house. there are more positive positions. She acknowledges that at a clip when most adult females did non hold a voice. the first lady ever had some type of political influence. There was significantly more scholarly information on first ladies that I thought. The authors of these article did good turn toing the function of a first lady even when utilizing one individual as an illustration. they were still focus on the broader range of the full function.
The spread in a batch of the research was that they focused so to a great extent on gender in the communicating of and about the first lady that they under addressed her political influence on people and policies. Besides. the methods used in these articles consisted of largely analysis of a rhetorical event. My proposal would make full in those spreads every bit good as add some informations to the research along with theories and analysis. The research inquiry that this undertaking will concentrate on is. How do rhetorical events by the First Lady consequence political efficaciousness and positive attitudes in college pupils at the University of Central Arkansas. After researching old rhetorical events by First Ladies. for illustration. memoirs. addresss. and interviews. and the scholarly analysis already done on those pieces of rhetoric. I will choose certain pieces of rhetoric to expose to a diverse audience. I will so study them for responses. After which. I will expose them to selected pieces of political communicating by First Lady Obama. I will study them once more. this clip inquiring non merely the effects of the communicating. but besides a comparison and contrast to the old pieces of rhetoric that I exposed them to.
I will analyse the information that I collect and compare it to the limited old research done on First Ladies. What I plan to see in my research is usage of the designation theoretical account that is discussed in our text edition in chapter four. First Ladies are used to place with the female population that the president may non be able to place with every bit good. Addresss like the one given by former First Lady Hilary Clinton that addressed the Women’s Conference of the United Nations in Beijing specifically target women’s issues and allows the First Lady to turn to it with hopes that adult females who identify with her will take the same base on the issue and keep the same values. I plan to see that political linguistic communication from the First Lady has the same maps of all other political linguistic communication ; to inform. docket set. construe. reflect. undertaking. and stimulate action. When Nancy Reagan partnered with her hubby for the ‘Just Say No’ CNN presentation. she used her linguistic communication to excite action and to promote people to state no to drugs. There are many different manners of political linguistic communication.
I expect that the manner most frequently used by First Ladies is Hortatory. Hortatory linguistic communication is directed toward the mass populace and frequently First Ladies have to utilize their addresss to turn to the populace on a degree that they can understand and link with. I will derive these findings through carefully worded study inquiries. and scholarly. thorough analysis. I will be appraising a diverse group of college pupils that attend the University of Central Arkansas. These pupils will be selected through a showing procedure to see diverseness in the group. The group will hold different party associations. age. race. gender. and categorization. They will hold different big leagues and while some will be registered to vote. non all of them will. My end is to hold a group with all degrees of political socialisation. The pieces of rhetoric that will be presented may include. but are non limited to: the Carnegie Hall Speech by Eleanor Roosevelt. Jacqueline Kennedy thanking the populace after the Assassination of JFK. The Just Say No address by Nancy Reagan. Barbara Bush beginning address at Wellesley College. and Hilary Clinton’s address to the U. N. women’s conference in Beijing.
Michelle Obama’s Democratic National Convention address will be presented every bit good as her multiple CNN interviews. After the presentation the audience will be surveyed on the effects of those pieces of rhetoric. and I hope to derive insight toward replying my research inquiry and information to establish farther research off of. I hope that this survey reveals the lifting importance and significance of the function of the First Lady. No longer are they their husband’s soundless spouses. but they are now really of import pieces in this political mystifier. They are act uponing the American people through their usage of political communicating. If we pay attending to the addition of effectual rhetoric by First Ladies. we will detect that merely like the president. she excessively uses communicating schemes to inform. docket set. construe. reflect. undertaking. and stimulate action.
This survey would add to our wealth of cognition the redefinition of yet another function. the function of the First Lady. The same manner that the media redefined the function of the president. it has done the same with the First Lady. by doing them both more accessible. With this research we will be able to place new and improved outlooks for the First Lady ; we will be able to place the schemes that have worked in the yesteryear and still work when it comes to the First Lady turn toing the American people. Unfortunately as with every survey there are bounds to my undertaking. My survey sample is a bound. because it merely consists of college pupils. There is an full population of people that are losing. Besides I would necessitate to turn to the consequence of higher instruction on political socialisation since my full survey sample will be college pupils. Time would be another bound. Since we are unable to capture the effects of the audience at the clip these addresss were presented. we have to establish our research on how it would impact us now instead than how it affected them so.
This may suggest a job. An effectual piece of communicating in 1787 may non impact an audience in 2012 the same manner that it did so. To minimise that restriction I will concentrate my study inquiries on schemes instead than content. I hope this will trip farther research on different ages. income degrees. and instruction degrees. The function of the First Lady has been to do the president seem more relatable. She has worked as a affair between the president and the people. She has been used to unite people. and frequently we see her face merely every bit much or more than the president himself. Her occupation description is diverse depending upon the president in office. but with the rise of media the function of the First Lady has become more relevant. Research on the rise of the function of First Lady would decidedly profit anyone interested in or analyzing communicating
Mentions
Armentrout. J. A. ( 2011 ) . Sugar. salt. and fat: Michelle obama’s rhetoric refering the “let’s move! ” enterprise. binary resistance. weight compulsion. and the fleshiness paradox. ( Master’s thesis. Bowling Green State University ) . Available from ProQuest. ( 3464183 ) . Becklund. L. ( 1992. August 27 ) . First lady trials bush’s rhetoric in boyne highs. Los Angeles Times Blitefield. J. ( 2004 ) . Inventing a voice: The rhetoric of American first ladies in the 20th century In M. Meijer ( Ed. ) . Rhetoric and Public
Affairs ( p. 713 ) . Rowman and Littlefield. Edwards. J. ( 2000 ) . The first lady/first married woman in editorial sketchs: Rhetorical visions through gender. Women’s Studies in Communication. 23 ( 3 ) . 367. Lee. C. ( 2012. February 15 ) . First lady trades a run function. Wallstreet Journal Maddux. K. ( 2008 ) . Feminism and foreign policy: Public vocabularies and the conditions of outgrowth for first lady rosalynn Carter. Women’s Studies in Communication. 31 ( 1 ) . 29-55. O Connor. K. ( 1996 ) . Wives in the white house. Presidential Studies. 26 ( 3 ) . 835. Straughan. D. ( 2006 ) . First ladies and the imperativeness: the unfinished partnership of the media age. Journalism and mass Communications. 83 ( 2 ) . 447. Thompson. K. ( 2012. May 20 ) . As the run heats up. first lady looks to play it cool. The Washington Post. p. A1. Watson. R. ( 2001 ) . The “white baseball mitt pulpit” : a history of policy influences by first ladies. Magazine of History. 15 ( 3 ) . 9.
