Response to "A Piece of the Action..."

In the reading, Judith Williamson talks about how people interpret images of people, women specifically, in relation to appearance and presentation. In images specifically, how a person presents themselves - how he or she dresses, for example – can falsely determine the identity of the person pictured. In support of this argument, I give the above example of current vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Much of the campaigning by her, or for her benefit, has been specifically meant to create a pleasing “image” of her to potential voters. From her inception as a vice-presidential candidate, an image of her as a tough, everyday “Hockey Mom” has been presented to voters to appeal, in part, to their apparent need for a “real” candidate in tune with small-town values and ideals. Even the above picture had a caption reading, “Tough as nails. That’s Putin, the bear.”

However, that “image” has been threatened by the recent revelation of her arguably expensive, not-so-small-town wardrobe. Ed Rollins, a Republican political consultant who ran former President Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign in 1984 said, "It just undercuts Palin's whole image as a hockey mom, a 'one-of-us' kind of candidate." That coupled with recent misconceptions by Palin of actual vice-presidential duties seem to fit Williamson’s statements of exclusive image representation; what is pictured is not necessarily representative of who is pictured.