TONE OF CARTOONS
Of the cartoons that we found, the overall tone was extremely negative. Naturally, political cartoons are meant to criticize and shed light on a specific idea, but we found that the amount of negative coverage of the two women was a lot higher than that of McCain and Obama. We had a much harder time finding positive cartoons for the women.
Why? Women have not always had the influence that they do now. It is still new to have a female running for high political offices, like vice president and president of a nation. Although women have run for these positions before, no woman has accomplished quite as much as Hillary Clinton. Even though the expectations of women are in the process of changing, it is still difficult to undo the cultivation that women should be submissive homemakers rather than take on male positions, like political leaders.
Our graph shows that in our research of political cartoons, we found slightly more negative cartoons of Sarah Palin. While the amount of negative cartoons for Palin was higher, the intensity of the criticism was not as harsh compared to the depictions of Hillary. There was only one positive cartoon of Palin, but we didn't find any positive cartoons of Hillary. Palin was mocked for lack of experience or for being too “cute” or “obliviously adorable." On the other end of the spectrum, Hillary was too masculine and received jabs of a much harsher nature such as being a "she-devil", as mentioned by Chris Matthews.
Why? One reason that the media criticize Palin on a lighter level is because she fits the stereotype of “feminine” better than Hillary does. So while they both have their “material” that cartoonists can work with, Palin’s flaws are more acceptable for a woman to have and don’t get the same level of brutality.
Another reason that Palin does not receive as harsh of criticism is because of the journalism ethics law. Palin was just recently brought into the public eye when she was announced as McCain’s vice president, while Hillary is the complete opposite because she has been under the scrutiny of the media for many years. She has had more experience with criticism as the first lady and a senator which places her in the position to be more harshly criticized. It seems that the media and cartoonists assume that since Hillary is a more seasoned politician, she truly understands the media and how to deal with the scrutiny. Since Palin is considered more of a young, average American, who is new to the political scene, she is treated less harshly and criticized on a different level.
Another comparison we found while completing our past project of McCain and Obama, is that many of the sources were more critical of the two women than the two men, especially in the area of physical attractiveness. While age played a large part in the comparison of Obama and McCain, the cartoons did not focus on the comparison of the two men's clothing or the condition of their hair. Hillary and Palin were constantly being compared physically, while the focus should have been more upon the political issues and qualifications.
This female-male comparison is proven by Rocky Mountain News in which a study found that female candidates need to appear more attractive if they want to be successful. It states that women running for office need to be perceived as competent as well as attractive while competency is the only requirement for the men. Palin and Hillary both receive more negative coverage than the men because they need to attain more requisites.
Also, it could be argued that the need for a woman to be attractive is even more important to voters than the latter since the cartoons we found are harsher of “competent” Hillary than “attractive” Palin.
When it comes to the criticism of different sources, we found that even though smaller markets need to be concerned with making a profit, they were still just as critical of Hillary and Palin as the the larger markets, such as Cagle cartoons. No matter which source our cartoons came from, the images of Hillary were most often much harsher than the depictions of Palin. Although there may be small differences in the tones of different sources, overall, we concluded that women were criticized on a different level than men, and Hillary was criticized most strongly.
