To cry or not to cry? Votes for or against weepy (fe)male politicians
Mon 12 December 2011
, Maurice Eykman, LEAP
Elsa Fornero, Italian's minister of Welfare, recently couldn't hold herself back . She broke into tears when explaining the harsh measures Italy had to approve to relieve its debt. Genuine tears, most people agreed. And out of concern for her people. Good for her. John Boehner, Speaker of the House, who repeatedly burst into tears talking about offering kids in the US the same chances he had had, was heavily ridiculed, even though his tears seem genuine as well. A case of reverse sexism?
Crying politicians are always creating discussions. The tears are fake, as they said about Hilary Clinton when she was running for presidency, just a trick to make her come across as more human than before. (Remember her sitting next to Bill after the Lewinsky-gate? Now there was a reason to sob and she didn’t, she kept her cool, so there’s your proof. )
Or the tears make them come across as weak, in the case of John Boehner tearing up about the American dream – who explained his crying saying: ‘I’m a very emotional man’. Yeah, right, who wants very emotional men sitting on chairs where they have to make important decisions? seemed to be the general reaction that. The fact that he is a man might play a role here though. Men don’t cry. Or was the cause of his tears not taking seriously? Implausible?
The seemingly genuine tears of presidents Bush’s jr. and Bush sr and Bill Clinton during wars and memorial services for American soldiers were all shed because of something that related to what happened to their fellow-countrymen or the world in general, not about something personal. Like Fornero who felt very sorry about the cut in pensions for the Italians. So it would seem that politicians shouldn’t cry about personal things, but can sniff and shed a tear in exceptional cases – for others. This theory does not go well when considering Richard Nixon, who according to the polls after his emotional Checkers-speech got more popular because of it. In 1952 - then Senator – Nixon defended himself against accusations of using political funds for himself and accepting personal gifts. He got all weepy when stating that he was not going to return one of those gifs: the dog Checkers, whom he didn’t want to lose.
For Ségolène Royal her tears about a personal loss came too late to increase the votes for her. Royal ran for president in France in 2007 and got close to winning (47% of the national votes). She would have tried again but last October only got 7% of the socialist party "primaries", which meant she had to give up the candidacy in favor of the winner, Francois Hollande, who also is het former live-partner with whom she has 4 children. A huge blow for the woman who has a reputation as being very unemotionally strong. We do understand she cried though. Do we also like her more because of it? If it was Hollande who had lost and cried would we have concluded he was a wimp?
We have seen a lot of discussions about women needing to behave more like men to be successful in their careers but getting punished for doing so too much. It now seems that men get punished too if they show ‘feminine’ behavior. What you think?
More tears? Watch the Clintons and the Bushes cry at:
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