After watching the presidential debates, Professor Maria Guadalupe had an idea. What if the genders of the two candidates were swapped? How would Trump's aggressive demeanor have been viewed were a woman to have acted that way? Would Hillary's superior political experience have received more recognition when delivered by a man? She set out to test the theory. Actors were cast. A woman would play the Trump clone, Brenda King, while a man would play the Hillary clone, Jonathan Gordon. Watching and listening to the debates, each actor sought to mimic the tone, cadence, and mannerisms of the candidates. Finally, they gave a couple of performances. To the amazement of all, Brenda King came off surprisingly well while Jonathan Gordon came off stiff and overly reliant on rehearsed statements.
Though an interesting experiment, it doesn't look fair to the Hillary clone. Assertive and aggressive behavior in a woman is far more acceptable than effeminate behavior in a man, especially when looking at a potential president. One picture shows Gordon in a very awkward pose for a man that would be unremarkable of a woman.
Of note, in the first televised presidential debates in 1960, those who heard the debate on the radio thought Nixon had won while those who watched on TV chose Kennedy. The visual cues made a big impression.
For a future experiment, run the debate twice with the same actors but have them switch roles the second time around. Script remains unchanged. One actor should be George Clooney and the other can be Steve Buscemi. This sounds like an obvious sort of experiment and has probably already been done but the results could be instructive.
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