By Jason J. Marchi, Courier
Correspondent:
Nowhere—not even in
the Constitution of the United States—is there a written definition of the role
of the nation’s first lady, yet as East Haven resident Lisa Burns, an associate
professor of media studies at Quinnipiac University, notes in her first book,
that role has become an institution unto itself that is both praised and
criticized by the media.
In the book, First
Ladies and the Fourth Estate: Press Framing of Presidential Wives, Lisa
examines specifically how U.S. first ladies, as portrayed in press coverage,
became prominent and recognized figures in American politics. A former reporter
and news anchor at the National Public Radio affiliate station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
Lisa chose several major publications from which to base her studies: The New
York Times, The Washington Post, Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and McCall’s.
The Aug. 1
publication of First Ladies and the Fourth Estate couldn’t have been timed
better. After eight years, the White House will get a new first couple in
January 2009, and that means a new first lady will fill one of the most
venerable of roles the U.S.
has to offer.
It was during the
2000 election while looking at the press coverage of the candidate’s wives that
Lisa became “amazed that the articles weren’t about Laura Bush or Tipper Gore,
they were about how they weren’t like Hilary Clinton. That piqued my interest.”
After Lisa compared
this information with a project she’d done on Ellen Wilson, Woodrow Wilson’s
wife, she became interested in how the press talked about Martha Washington,
Edith and Eleanor Roosevelt, and other first ladies through the years.
“Beginning with
Martha Washington, first ladies have performed a variety of public and private
roles, from hostess, escort, and social advocate to advisor and policymaker.
They’ve also served as role models for American women,” Lisa said.
Not all first ladies
have been treated equally by the press, Lisa notes.
“Some first ladies
became symbols of fashion and motherhood, like Jackie Kennedy, and others are
seen as being silent and supportive of their husbands, like Nancy Reagan, and
still others are remembered for their social advocacy, like Betty Ford.
“There were still
these expectations, for example, that first ladies were very traditional,” Lisa
continues, “so they were still expected to be hostesses while being supportive
wives and mothers, yet there were all these extra duties added on. And the role
of first ladies keeps expanding.”
We learn about that
role, Lisa notes, from what reporters write about them.
“Eleanor Roosevelt
is a good example. Sometimes there were two or three articles about her each
day in the New York Times or the Washington Post. One article would be about
the speech she gave last night, another article would be about the speech she
was going to be giving to a group today, because she was so incredibly active.
People really revered her. But she also got a lot of criticism from people who
thought she was doing too much,” Lisa says. “That’s the same critique we see
today. There is a fine line between [a first lady] being too active and not
active enough.”
Lisa said she is
looking forward to the day when a woman is elected president and how that
woman’s husband while fit into the gendered role of being a first spouse, since
the role of the first lady “has contracted and expanded based on women’s
roles,” Lisa says.
“Is he going to be
expected to oversee state dinners? Right now there is a very lady-like
expectation to the role of first spouse,” she add.
As this is Lisa’s
first book, she says she’s learning a great deal about the book selling process
and the work and time involved in getting the publication into bookstores, in
addition to scheduling signings and talks around her teaching responsibilities.
Lisa is already at
work on her second book.
“It will be on
presidential museums,” she says, a subject with which she became fascinated
while researching the first book.
Pictured: Surrounded by memorabilia in her windowless office tucked behind the registrar’s
office at Quinnipiac University, East Haven resident and associate professor of
media studies Lisa Burns has a clear view of the history of the U.S. first lady
institution as examined in the popular press.
Photo by Jason J. Marchi