Given the prominence of women’s rights in the recently completed presidential campaign, it is a good time to take a look at the role that women play in the White House. In the timely new volume Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics, edited by Lilly Goren and Justin Vaughn, the authors investigate how the president and first lady exist as a function of public expectations and cultural gender roles. Using a series of studies, Goren and Vaughn explore the relationships among gender, popular culture and the presidency in a thoughtful, interesting way. These studies expose why and how popular culture reflects and shapes public consciousness about political life, and gender in specific. With a strong, multidisciplinary approach, Women and the White House opens a wider discussion about the possibility of a female U.S. president, the ways in which perceptions of gender would impact her leadership, and the cultural challenges a woman president would face.
Goren is a professor of politics and global studies at Carroll University and the editor of You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby: Women, Politics, and Popular Culture. She will speak at Boswell Book Co. on Tuesday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m.
Jeff Kinney, author of the popular children’s series Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is scheduled to speak at a ticketed event at Oconomowoc High School on Nov. 15 at 5 p.m. Books & Co. is sponsoring the event. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is an award-winning, best-selling series that follows the adventures of middle-schooler Greg Heffley. A film of the same name was released in 2010.
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