The role of bodily experience has been consistently underscored in cognitive linguistics, which leads one to assume that gender might constitute a promising research area for cognitive linguists, particularly those working within the framework of culturally-oriented discourse analysis. To be more specific, the paper argues that a cognitive linguistic examination of the notion of persuasion in political speeches is facilitated if the analysis is conducted within the theory of conceptual metaphor since it is through a cognitive projection that gender perception and representation can be duly highlighted. Apparently, Lakoff’s definition of ‘idealized cognitive models’ makes the connection between metaphor and gender particularly productive since gender constitutes not only a source domain in metaphor systems but also provides new perspectives for political discourse analysts. To illustrate the latter, the authors suggest that ‘Woman’ vs. ‘Man’ categories are of use while investigating the discourse of persuasion, which is exemplified by G. W. Bush Jr.'s ‘preventive war’ persuasion strategy revealed in his political speeches. Author Affiliations: