This years’ election has been one for the record books. Never have we had two candidates run for the Presidential Office with this amount of controversy enveloping both parties. I think that it is safe to say that the majority of voters this year are not one hundred percent satisfied with either candidate that they had to choose from.

However, many voters, especially women are taking a stand, declaring that Hillary is exactly what this country has needed for quite some time. This is an interesting statement, and one that should be thoroughly examined.

Women have been the biggest factor, I believe in this election. Women, especially Republican women, will have a large impact on what happens this upcoming Tuesday. Celebrities such as Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and the Kardashian family have given Hillary great publicity throughout her campaign. And finally, Michelle Obama has been a great surrogate speaker for Hillary, especially when trying to attack Trump’s weak points in an eloquent and strong feminine way.

These are all women that support Hillary and will keep supporting her through Tuesday. However, the question that goes through my mind at the end of the day, being a woman, is: Are women voting for Hillary because she is the right fit for office? OR are women voting for Hillary primarily because she is a woman?

With some of Hillary’s biggest supporters all being women, we must question ourselves and the true underlying reasons for our support, especially gender, in this election. This question in itself is extremely controversial, and I probably will receive backlash for asking it, but it is a valid point.

The women’s right movement has been growing and growing and truly come to a peak in this election. It is an incredible victory to have a woman on the ballot and have a true possibility of having our first female President. But it also the perfect time in our history for a woman to get elected to the ballot. This perfect timing is something to note especially when we consider the campaign rhetoric that has been used in Hillary’s camp.

The slogan, “I’m With Her,” is truly the first of its kind. It is revolutionary and historical and packs major punches from many different rhetorical angles. I think this is why it has been so popular and withstood throughout this campaign season. But this slogan has almost become a popular, and dare I say it,’cool’ thing to say and post on social media and other rhetorical realms. It has almost taken away from the character of Hillary and lent itself to gender alone.

 

This could be a hidden rhetorical strategy of sorts if we look at it in the perspective of a skeptic or Republican. Hillary has had many controversial and unsettling things come up in the past couple weeks in regards to her infamous email scandal. But people have steadily remained to post this slogan, without a thought. This makes me wonder, because the slogan refers, ‘her,’ do we forget about Hillary and focus on gender and that specific realm of her overall character? Because we gravitate towards women and their motherly nature. We are drawn to a nurturing and protective female figure. But Hillary has proven many times she does not embody this type of character.

Hillary has accomplished so much in her life. I would never want to take away from a female who has succeeded so much in a realm of work that is so male dominated. However, I want to bring to light the magnitude of the situation we are in and truly make people think about their reasoning behind their vote. There are so many successful women in politics and I am so excited about the possibility of this becoming a more steady trend in this area. But I want women to vote for women because they believe these women are truly worthy and up to the challenge ahead. I want us to be content with who are President is, regardless of their gender.

So are we voting for Her? OR for Hillary?

 

As this years’ Presidential election is coming to a quick close, many supporters and surrogates are coming out to convince and encourage undecided voters to sway their way. As we have talked about in class, October surprises have also been of a greater influence than we initially calculated with the new release of more emails and the FBI investigation. With these variable in mind, the media, and many famous and influential women have spoken out about their candidate of choice.

Recently, we have seen many videos of celebrities coming together to further in Hilary’s aid. Some of these celebrities include Demi Lovato, Katy Perry, and Miley Cyrus. In fact, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus were both filmed going into places such as college campuses supporting young millennials to get out and vote for Hilary. We even saw Katy Perry using the phrase, “nasty woman,” the unfortunate rhetoric Trump used in the last debate, to her advantage my putting it on her t-shirt.

Another extremely influential group of women that have come out and endorsed Hilary was the Kardashians. Even with the amount of controversy that follows this household name around, this support has most likely played somewhat of an influential role in swaying young millennials that religiously partake in their shows and smart phone apps.

The support of the female vote will be the deciding factor in this election. Although the more unpredictable vote will be that of the more conservative female, women have overall played a huge role in garnering support for Hilary.

And although we have already concluded that celebrities have traditionally tended to support the Democratic party, the importance of the famous female vote is more important than ever. With the introduction of smart phone apps and social media, women are far more influential than ever in getting their thoughts out to the public and their fans. Along with this idea, the women’s rights movement has reached a new peak and has almost become a trend.

So, with all of this being said, no matter the outcome of this election, I think it is safe to say that the 2016 election has proven to be the most female-influenced election the United States has ever had. This is a very exciting idea and notion, seeing how far we have come as a country. However, it will prove to be extremely interesting to see how this trend will influence future elections. Will future female candidates automatically get the female vote due to recent conflicts raised around Planned Parenthood? Or will women once again pull towards a more traditional male centered election? Only time will tell.

 

Melania Trump has been by Donald Trump’s side every step of the way in his campaign. She has defended him and explained his more extreme antics and aggressive language. Her and her family have been his best and most loyal supporters, through the thick and thin.

However, she was put into a tough corner when the sexual harassment tapes were leaked of Donald speaking very vulgarly about women. This is an extremely awkward position to be in as the wife of a man that you need to publicly support through and through.

Although she has not proven to be the absolute role model of a wife and caretaker that we tend to gravitate towards, she has remained in Trump’s corner and always provided words of encouragement and support, even when she may have copied a few from Michelle’s past speeches.

But when given the opportunity to speak out and give her opinion about the tapes, she admitted that the language her husband used was unacceptable. She said, “I said to my husband that, you know, the language was inappropriate. It’s not acceptable. And I was surprised, because that is not the man that I know.”

But later on she once again went on to defending her husband, claiming he was “egged on” by Billy Bush and that this was all just “boy talk.” This has been a controversial topic, along with the multiple women that have come out saying the Trump sexually assaulted them. Melania shut down these rumors stating that these women were in it for the money and fame and that they had claimed to have known herself as well when she had never met them before.

With all of this in mind, Melania has received a great deal of backlash because of her overwhelming support for her husband. In our progressive day and age when women’s rights have reached their pinnacle, it is more than ever imperative to be respectful and courteous. Melania did come out and scold Trump, but she also defended his actions, which has proven to be an interesting and controversial move.

But as tradition has shown in politics, women are taught to stand by their husband’s sides no matter the offense. So, has the new progression of women’s rights influenced a new change in the way that women married into politics should act when controversy arises? Or will past actions and traditions stand the test of time?

 

 

Michelle Obama has been an extremely effective speaker and supporter throughout President Obama’s eight years in office. Although she was initially frowned upon for her choice of clothing and a few misspoken words, she did a quick turn around and will most likely be remembered as on of the more influential and well-liked First Ladies we have ever had.

So, with this idea in mind, I began to look into the overall influence that Michelle Obama has had on not only her husband’s campaign, but also that of Hillary’s prior and present campaign, along with Trump’s current campaign as well. In all three of these campaigns she has been extremely effective framing her opponents, or the people she has supported, in a particular and manipulative light.

In the 2008 primaries, Michelle Obama would speak out against Hillary in order for her husband to clutch the Democratic party nomination. She has been recorded saying that Hillary is, “not fit to run the white house” and went on to bash her ability to run her own household. Because of the contrast between the overwhelming negative publicity around her husband’s affair, and Michelle’s unscathed record, America immediately sided with Michelle and her husband. As we have discussed in class, the way people and political candidates are framed by others is extremely important to the public’s overall opinion. Michelle was attacking Hillary’s ability to be an effective mother, which is an extremely important and traditional role of women in society, and a commonly discussed theme in political rhetoric. For these reasons, Michelle was extremely effective in her arguments against Hillary.

However, in our current election, Michelle and President Obama have chosen to support Hillary in her campaign. She has gone on to say that she is the only candidate that is fit to be President along with pointing out different positive qualities that Hillary posses due to her feminine touch and past experience. The people, and democratic public, immediately rallied around Hillary after Michelle’s speeches. This again exposed how important Michelle’s backing is considering that people are saying that these speeches were the most influential surrogate speeches of Hillary’s campaign.

Lastly, Michelle has been extremely outspoken about her dislike and overall disgust of Donald Trump. After the release of the sexual assault tapes, Michelle gave a speech in which she spoke out about how bothered she was by tapes and the fact that he was in the running for the Presidency. Because Michelle is already an incredibly persuasive speaker, and Trump has been criticized for his vulgar behavior and language, this was a large hit to Trump’s campaign.

So, after reviewing Michelle’s impact on all three of these campaigns, one can only infer that even though her speeches have not been called the most important pieces of rhetoric in campaign history, Michelle Obama’s rhetoric has been some of the more influential pieces in the past three elections.

 

If you have yet to hear about the release of a tape in which Trump sexually degrades women on multiple levels, then this post should catch you up. In this tape, Trump goes on to say extremely explicit words that I find overall disgusting and horrible and would prefer not to repeat. However, I would like to discuss how this new turn of events could play a part in how the rest of this election pans out.

WARNING THIS VIDEO INCLUDES ELICIT AND CRUDE LANGUAGE:

After listening and taking in this conversation, I was not shocked by the rhetoric of the conversation because Trump is known for his extreme language and profanity. However, the timing of the release of this video is crucial in how Trump will continue to do in concordance to the female vote.

Many women are disgusted and have gone to great links to discourage others to not vote for Trump. Hilary Clinton has already spoken out about this video and its content, and therefore capitalized on her platform that he is not fit to be President.

But many conservative females will continue to vote for Trump regardless of his elicit and volatile language and nature. This is a very interesting trend, because in a time where women are striving for equality, the majority of conservative women will cover their eyes and ears to problems such as this because they are so loyal to their party and traditional beliefs.

As we have discussed in class, Trump had done a great job relating and catering to the overall ideal of the traditional conservative voter. Because of this, his voters have and will continue to vote for him regardless of present and future problems his campaign may face.

This tendency raises the question: Ultimately, what would Hilary Clinton have to do in order to sway this portion of voters?

Throughout her political career, Hillary Clinton has been ridiculed and attacked for her more aggressive rhetorical style. Unlike some of her predecessors, whether they be other First Ladies, or other women of the Senate, she has chosen to take stronger and more, “masculine” stands on the topics she deems worthy of debate. This theme in her political career has stayed true, especially in her recent Presidential campaign against the Republican nominee Donald Trump.

In the first Presidential Debate of this 2016 election, the overall consensus showed that polls were tallying a higher positive response to the approaches and rhetorical strategies that Hillary took, rather than Trump’s. 

As we discussed in class, there are some very simple reasons as to why Hillary came away with a higher percentage of the polls after this debate. First of all, as stated previously, Hillary is not afraid to speak her mind and fight back against anyone. This has been the double edged sword of her career, if you will, because women’s roles in society, whether in politics or not, has been to be the overall, “mother figure” or, “care-taker.” Hillary has not always fit into this traditional role, especially because she has chosen a career that is still predominately male. However, this characteristic has allowed her the chance to have a the real possibility to be first female President America has ever had.

Before the debate, Hillary was expected to take a very calm and controlled response to whatever Trump had to say in the debate. She has been accused of being abrasive and “wishy washy” due to some of her past allegiances to different causes. For this and other reasons, she was supposed to maintain a calm and even demeanor in order to counter balance Donald Trump’s extremely controversial rhetorical style. This would hopefully make her seem more relatable and therefore fill the more traditional womanly rhetorical role. Hillary in the end did take a more laid back role, in which made Trump seem more hot headed than he has been trying to come off which only enforced her claims against him. This was an overall successful strategy that she must maintain in order to clutch the candidacy later on.