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Part of
Discourse, Politics and Women as Global Leaders
Edited by John Wilson and Diana Boxer
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 63] 2015
► pp. 195–216

Chapter 8. “Thank you for heckling me”

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s discursive management of her public persona, her political message and the “Iron my shirt!” hecklers in the 2008 presidential election campaign

| University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
This chapter analyses an exchange where hecklers interrupt Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) at a 2008 U. S. Presidential campaign town hall meeting. Analysis of video records describes HRC’s impromptu, embodied rhetorical response that repositions the disruptors onto the discursive margin and upholds women’s discursive rights as she sidesteps the trap of the “double-bind,” and consolidates audience alignment with her values. Studying how public speakers negotiate unplanned, complex, multi-party events can reveal more about a leader’s discursive skills and social intelligence than the study of planned, text-centric political discourse alone. This chapter analyzes emergent, multimodal interaction (linguistic and gestural), and visible contributions from social others addressed by the speaker, a methodological shift important for recognizing the depth of women’s public speaking skill and stylistic variety.
Keywords: double bind, embodied rhetoric, gender, heckling, political discourse, unplanned speech, women and power, women’s discursive style, women’s language
Published online: 30 October 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.63.09she
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