The Mediated Communication of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Politics

This special issue arrives at a time of contradiction and challenge in the study of gender and politics. Progressive politics has begun to internalise the drive for equality of representation, with political institutions such as the Nordic states and devolved parliaments of Wales and Scotland increasing the proportions of women elected to office (Mackay and McAllister 2012). Yet, throughout political life women still confront variations of the dilemma between the exercise of power and conventions of femininity commonly referred to as the "double bind" (Hall Jamieson 1995; Campus 2013). In what Parry-Giles (2018, 315) has recently articulated as the “power paradox”, women are encouraged to pursue political office, but are routinely demeaned and treated with suspicion when they meet with cusses. Added to this is the rise of a new populism, laced with that toxic masculinity identified by some of our contributors below, where gendered abuse has become a tactical resource in a grotesque lexicon of "authentic" expression.