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1920, 84, 23—only three of the many numbers that represent the position of women in America. For Katie Swimm, these numbers form a tightrope act of women in politics: from 1920, when women gain the right to vote through the 19th amendment, to 84 and 23, respectively the number of women in the house and in the senate. So how is it that women represent more than half of the American population, yet barely a fifth of our legislative power? By approaching the issue of women in politics through a performative lens, Swimm’s course, Power, Performance, Protest: Women and the American Political System, presents a surprising aspect of the American political system as a dialectic between drama and action, one in which the media particularly plays a crucial role.
As a graduate of the Tufts doctoral program in Theatre and Performance Studies, Swimm is keen to apply her performative knowledge to the American political scene: “Performance studies allows us to view human interaction and think deeper about what we can learn from it,” she posits. “It’s a way to look at all kinds of issues through a different lens.” This isn’t the first Tufts course to transfer performative studies to an outside subject: Drama Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Noe Montez, also teaches a course on performance in sports at Tufts. However, Swimm’s course will be the first to look at politics in a similar manner.
The class pulls on a variety of media for evidence, including videos and texts from the early women’s suffrage movement in America, to modern political articles and televised news. Most recently, the class reviewed the ways in which shows like “Saturday Night Live” can influence national politics. Dubbed the “SNL effect”, studies show how the comedic portrayals of politicians can impact viewer opinion, as when Swimm mentioned the “Katie Couric interview with Tina Fey—I mean, Sarah Palin!” Many SNL skits have become public discourse, such as Will Ferrell’s “Strategery” or Tina Fey’s iconic, “I can see Russia from my house.”
Swimm notes, however, that most of the comedic portrayals of politics occur in left-leaning environments, and the difficulty of trying to balance her own political views in the course. Still, the goal is always to maintain a level playing field: “It’s OK for educators to be human beings, but it’s important to know those [other perspectives] even if you don’t agree with them.” Taking this bipartisanship in stride, students are expected to investigate both liberal and conservative news feeds during the 2018 midterm election, providing a real-time opportunity for political analysis. But Swimm is not content to let their involvement end there—students will also participate in local political rallies to become a part of the performative process and experience firsthand the drama of the American political system.
While many women have risen to prominence in American politics, there is still plenty of room to grow. “Statistically women have not been equally represented in our political system,” Swimm remarks, “and it’s important that we do the intellectual labor to ask why.” She adds that “simply by naming women in politics is a fact that women in politics is in its own way a novelty... Eventually it would be good if there was no reason to teach this class!” While that may not happen in this election cycle, by taking courses like Power, Performance, Protest: Women and the American Political System, we can better understand our nation’s holistic perceptions of its own political structures, for “only by understanding that can we affect change.”
About the Author
Emma Hodgdon is a senior studying English literature. Apart from reading Gothic fiction, she can be found practicing cello for the Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, or dancing with the university’s ballroom dance team. She spends her free time experimenting with calligraphy, learning to speak Chinese, and caring for her succulents, Verotchka and Geraldine.
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