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Popular Culture Review
response scenario that doesn’t make me think we are
just docking someone’s damn allowance.
The difference is that Bartlet is allowed to be visibly angry, to be visibly
frustrated, and even to shout at the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And while he later
settles for a proportional response, he wins the battle of perception because he is
angry, just as the viewers are, at the injustice of it. Even during his compromise
in accepting the proportional response that the Joint Chiefs recommended,
Bartlet is a president who commands the room and commands respect. Allen, on
the other hand, is all business when she demands a response strategy from her
advisers that is stronger than economic sanctions—also in an hour—but in her
dealings with the Joint Chiefs she doesn’t show anger or frustration, just
sympathy for the murdered drug agents, which is a soft and feminine response,
and satisfaction when Sanchez is ousted by his own countrymen. Her “strength”
is in her professionalism and quiet manner; Bartlet’s is in his passion and his
anger.
Conclusion
In setting out to give viewers a glimpse behind the scenes in the White
House, Aaron Sorkin created a noble vision of the presidency embodied in Jed
Bartlet. He is smart, he speaks Latin, he is issue-oriented, and he often leaves
family events or discussions in the hands of others while he tends to the affairs
of state. Rod Lurie created a very different presidency for Mackenzie Allen.
Hers is a presidency defined by its happenstance nature, by her keen focus on
trying to maintain a meaningful family life, and by her status as an independent
politician. “The problem is that by giving her no party, no positions, no
platform, it ends up defining her—like many strong women on TV—mainly by
her gender” (Poniewozik 90).
Commander in Chief also, despite the attempts to show Allen as a strong
woman, too often places her in roles that require her to be compassionate and
patient and understanding of all of those around her—husband, children, and
staff members—while few of those around her seem to be concerned about how
she’s doing in her job and how she’s holding up under the pressures of running a
nation and tending to her family. While Bartlet lives in the public sphere, Allen
is forced to dance between a full public and a full private life—to do it all and to
do it all very well. With existing research that shows that viewers learn about
gender-appropriate behavior from television portrayals, it is telling that Allen’s
presidency is one that still holds women up to a higher standard and one that
requires them to be feminine and nurturing, even while holding the highest
office in the land. Bartlet’s presidency does not hold him to the same standard,
and it even allows him to fail at times.
Rod Lurie set out to create a groundbreaking show when he envisioned the
character of Mackenzie Allen and the concept for Commander in Chief And
while he managed to come up with an innovative concept, the show did little in