Description
Most recently, several younger women such as Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand and Sanna Marin in Finland were elected as heads of government, which was widely praised as progress towards equality. This, evidently, is the case only to some extent. Women have held the highest offices in various countries over some decades, and yet each of them has faced particular challenges due to their gender. One of the implicit expectations concerns their assumed and highly gendered emotionality, which can be both an asset and ground for ridicule or contempt. Thus, female leaders have tried to tone down their show of emotions or employ it strategically. Yet, how, apart from speeches and other public appearances, can female leaders perform an emotionality that serves to underline but not undermine their position of power?
Fashion, as personal style, costume, etc., has been an important symbolic instrument for performing power, and also emotion. For instance, the newly elected female members Congress belonging to the Democratic Part all wore white tops to show their gratitude to the suffragette movement that paved the way. In the paper, I will explore the presentation of fashion in several cases of female leaders with regard to attempts to perform certain kinds of emotion. In the context of gender debates, affective registers of politics and cultural repertoires, each case may address a broader context of politics and emotion.
