The Blueprint and the Mirror: Richard Nixon's Presidential Rhetoric and American Masculinity
Open Access
- Author:
- Camacci, Lauren Rose
- Graduate Program:
- Communication Arts and Sciences
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 28, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Stephen H. Browne, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Stephen H. Browne, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Michele J. Kennerly, Committee Member
Kirt H. Wilson, Committee Member
Michelle Rodino-Colocino, Outside Member - Keywords:
- rhetoric
Richard Nixon
masculinity
masculinities
Cold War
Vietnam
Kent State
Apollo 13
Watergate - Abstract:
- This dissertation examines the intersections of presidential rhetoric and American masculinity. The Richard Nixon presidential years were a time of immense social change that carried high stakes for American hegemonic masculinity. Drawing on the growing literature of critical studies of men and masculinities and using theories of civic republicanism and doxa, I analyze three moments pivotal in renegotiating a position of dominance for mainstream masculinity in the United States. My main argument is that Richard Nixon’s presidential rhetoric was metonymic of the changes mainstream (white) American masculinity was undergoing during this period of U.S. history. By studying Nixon’s presidential discourse, we can see the rhetorical resources on which he—and by extension, the average, white American man—relied to maintain a status of dominance in a changing social landscape. The Apollo 13 crisis, tensions between Vietnam veterans and Black and student protestors, and the Watergate affair cracked the hard shell of hegemonic masculinity; Nixon’s rhetoric shows how mainstream men attempted to repair those cracks. Studying the Nixon presidency and its crises illuminates a timely historical and rhetorical antecedent for the state of the U.S. presidency in 2017. Richard Nixon was a mirror for American masculinity, reflecting the status quo, and was a blueprint, offering alternative paths to retain a dominant social status in the United States.