Prime-Time Television’s First White, Female U.S. President: Gender and Race Discourses of a Feminist Media Artifact

Abstract

Commander in Chief is the first prime-time television drama to have a protagonist and an entire plot dedicated to a female U.S. president. Through a transversal discourse analysis, we explain how the series is a feminist artifact that valuably contributes to contemporary discourses of gender—but also of race. First, the study unpacks the show’s publicity that exaggerates essentialist views of White femininity. Second, the study considers ways that Commander in Chief offers protean but insufficiently intersectional representations. Third, the study examines how President Allen provides a third-wave feminist account of women.