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Leslie Knope of Parks and Recreation: Successful Communication in the Workplace November 28, 2016

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Introduction According to Genderlect Styles, a theory by Deborah Tannen, women traditionally communicate for relationship while men communicate for power. In order to work past oppression in the workplace, women have had to adjust their communication style to communicate for power vs. relationship, but often receive negative attention for it. Are male communication styles for power the only way to gain success in the workplace today? The television show, Parks and Recreation, shows a good example of a character, Leslie Knope, who exemplifies both types of communication: communicating for power and relationship. She takes a lot of time to invest in her friends and usually, as a comedic element of the series, wants everyone to like her and everyone to be happy, but this usually causes more harm than good. She learns throughout the series that her success comes from her care for her friends and her town while commanding power to stand out as a leader in order to rise in politics. Can success only be gained when we communicate for power instead of relationships? I will look to answer the question of how television series, films, and the media depict “successful” communication practices for women in the workplace by analyzing the character of Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation. My literature review will discuss how the media portrays women, and what truth these depictions hold for women in the working world. Literature Review A large portion of research done on this topic discusses how prominent female roles in our media are scrutinized, and how positive female roles of women in power are generally underrepresented. For women in positions of power, especially politics, women can come under fire by the media, and often struggle with competing identities. One qualitative study focused on a journalist’s photography session of a female Prime Minister of Finland. The photographer was trying to create a script of neutrality for each of the candidates, but the Prime Minister’s makeup artist tried to create a conflicting script of gentleness and beauty for the Prime Minister (Huovinen & Weselius, 2015, p. 11). As a woman, the Prime Minister felt conscientious about her appearance and how the media would scrutinize how she looked, but this conflicted with the photographer’s job of capturing an expression of neutrality, the same as her competitors. This Prime Minister knew that as a mother, even though she does not exploit her children as part of her political campaign, her audience knows she has children and that maternal quality can help her reputation. The Prime Minister and her makeup artist wanted to take advantage of the “motherly” gentle script for this photo shoot. It is not the Finnish Prime Minister’s fault that these qualities are focused on for female leaders. Television shows have also not exemplified an accurate representation of women in the workplace. A study of Dutch and American television shows revealed that “For every three men in fiction programs broadcast in the Netherlands, there were only two women” (Emons, Wester, & Scheepers, 2010, p. 44). Not only did they find women lead roles underrepresented in these television shows, but they were also underrepresented in the workplace in most shows. Age was also present in this study, showing a younger demographic of females and much older males in these shows. This reinforces the idea that women are to focus more on physical appearance and should be younger and more youthful looking than men. Leslie Knope 3

A comedic, mockumentary style television show, The Office, uses “excess of hyperbole” and the understanding of office culture to laugh at the overly heightened conflicts of race and gender that occur in the office (Birthisel & Martin, 2013). Although this show could be argued that it combats gender stereotypes using overly exaggerated examples as counterexamples for how we should act, it still seems to reinforce stereotypical gender roles for women on two opposite spectrums. It gives the one example of Jan, the only woman we see in the corporate structure of the company, who although is powerful and successful, due to her power-driven personality, she does not do well relationally. She suffers in this area, meanwhile Pam, a quiet and compatible secretary is physically attractive and kind, but shows very little drive to work up in the workplace. This is a woman who does much better relationally however, and receives attention from the handsome sales associate, and jealousy from her fellow females for her pleasant personality (Birthisel & Martin, 2013, p. 68-69). This example illustrates that our media is depicting that most successful women can either be accomplished socially or professionally, but rarely can they be successful in both areas; they can either be power focused or connection focused. One example of a woman who seems to have combatted these negative stereotypes and avoided focus on areas irrelevant to her accomplishments from the media is Daphni Leef. She is an Israeli social activist who led a social revolution as a student in 2011. Aside from a few exceptions, the majority of Leef’s success as a female leader was not overshadowed by her appearance, nor was she scrutinized for being a leader as a woman. “While criticized as a leader because of her lack of adequate knowledge of economics, she was also praised as someone advancing democratic values” (Liran-Alper & Tsarfaty, 2015, p. 72). She was occasionally noted as being overly emotional, but most of her followers sympathized with this. Most of the media and general public depicted her as a strong, assertive leader, while also having a caring personality for what she believed in. It was noted that many women joined in this tent revolution, but Leef did not dwell on this excessively. She presented herself confidently, despite having little experience in the political field, and the media tended to focus more on the social changes she was creating. Genderlect Styles This theory, written by Deborah Tannen, examines female and male communication styles as two different goal-oriented approaches to communication. She observes that men usually are focused on independence, or power when they communicate, while women are focused on intimacy, or connection. She took many examples of men and women in conversations who would have different understandings of the same situation, based on their style of genderlect. This theory also analyzed men and women’s traditional approaches to conflict, personal communication vs. public communication, listening, and dominance. Although both men and women convey mixtures of both styles of communication, Tannen argues that most men and women are either goal oriented around one of the two: independence or intimacy. She says in her book that no style is necessarily better, although her approach may slightly favor women. This theory does not necessarily apply to every individual, but it does provide a renewed understanding of male and female constructed forms of communication. Parks and Recreation Parks and Recreation is a television show that aired from 2009 to 2015. It reflects modern day government work culture in a comedic setting. The main character, Leslie Knope, is Leslie Knope 4 portrayed as a strong, passionate feminist, who not only has a slight obsession and joy for government work, but puts the same amount of passion and care into her relationships. Each season, Leslie works hard to do good work for the town she loves, and has a comical love that not many today have for government work. The show’s main focus is on Leslie and her relationships with her co-workers, who are also very close friends and eventually become like family to her. Through her kindness and care, Leslie forms positive relationships with her co- workers, who help her to be successful in her career, as well as enrich her personal life. Leslie Knope is a helpful, modern day example of a woman portrayed in our media who uses some elements of both male and female genderlect styles to be successful in her personal and professional life. Application: Genderlect Styles & Leslie Knope According to genderlect styles, feminine communication is usually focused, or goal oriented around connection, while masculine communication focuses on opposition, or power (Tannen, 1990, p. 24-25). In the television series, Parks and Recreation, Leslie Knope is constantly caught in between these two forms of communication. One of the main characteristics of Leslie Knope is that she enjoys making connections and doing wonderful things for her friends, hence her form of communication is usually focused on connection. However, she also works to communicate a sense of power as a leader in politics to the media and her publics. I will examine Leslie Knope’s interactions and how she communicates for connection to her friends, communicates for power to the media, and combines the two styles of communication to become a strong and effective leader. Each episode is usually focused around Leslie working for her city, and her struggle to do good work for a fickle town. In season four, Leslie Knope tries to run for city council in her town of Pawnee, Indiana, and receives a lot of scrutiny from the voters. In one episode, Bowling for Votes, Leslie becomes fixated on one voter who says he will not vote for her because he does not see Leslie as personable to him. As a comedic element to the plot, Leslie becomes solely focused on winning the vote of this man, because she sees his disagreement as a threat to not only her election, but to connection, which is what Tannen argues to be the main goal of women’s communication (Tannen, 1990, p. 150). Her attempts at connecting backfire and the voter insults her by calling her “a bitch.” At the end of the episode, Leslie realizes that she needs to focus on the bigger picture. In the end, she tells the media that this man was rude and crass to her, therefore she would not apologize to him. She created a power up move to show she did not care any more about pleasing everyone. In another episode in season seven, Leslie’s husband, Ben, runs for Congress, and Leslie, as the wife of a politician, goes under even more scrutiny. She struggles between the roles assigned to her of a woman, a politician, and the wife of another politician. She tries to talk with the media to communicate power in her own position, but receives discrimination as a woman that she is not caring enough for her family. The women’s group in the area is even against her and seems to think Leslie does not do enough to assert herself in a powerful female role. According to Stewart, the working world has been dominated by men for so long, that the work sphere has started to form values around independence and competition (2001, p. 177). More often than not, a woman with maternal instincts tends to threaten those values and that culture. Overall, the episode supported the values that everyone can make their own choices, whether they would want to work, be a homemaker, or have both. Leslie Knope 5

In Leslie’s role as a politician, she also references her work associates as family. In order for Leslie to be successful in her line of work, the story makes it clear that she could not do it without her co-workers, who are also her friends. According to Tannen, “People feel their closest connections at home, or in settings where they feel at home… in other words, during private speaking” (1990, p. 77). Tannen’s theory says that women are most comfortable using rapport talk, or talking in private. Leslie, feeling that her co-workers are like family, has many comedic conversations with her co-workers where she holds nothing back. This is especially interesting to see with her co-worker Ron, a quiet man who hates conversation. Being a woman who loves it, she constantly pesters Ron to engage, talk with her, and reveal information about himself. Although Ron despises her nagging for conversation, her pushiness for communication helps them to become closer as friends. This is especially prevalent in one episode in season seven, Leslie and Ron, in which Ron and Leslie try to repair their relationship after having a feud with each other for a few years. Leslie pursues a dialogue while Ron retreats. In the end however, Ron gives in to Leslie’s request for a conversation, which repairs not only their personal relationship, but they also come together as work associates to defeat a greater enemy. Not only are Leslie’s co-workers like family, but one of her co-workers actually becomes family. In her relationship with Ben, a fellow co-worker turned lover, Leslie finds a lifelong partner of a husband and co-worker. Once Ben and Leslie officially start their relationship, Ben becomes Leslie’s campaign manager. This reinforces the idea that Leslie’s connection-seeking personality, and kindness towards her friends ultimately helps her career, as her romantic partner is also willing to help her professionally. Most of her close relationships help to advance her career, showing a refreshing mixture of a successful woman in both the personal and professional realms. Tannen’s analysis of women’s ultimate goal for connection seems to be reflected in Leslie Knope’s character, but this is reflected positively to viewers. Leslie’s connections are often what holds her up to be successful, and she is often noted for her caring attitude towards her friends to be a positive aspect to what makes her a good political leader. There were examples when communicating for power became more prevalent when she came across opposition from the media or the townspeople. In an episode in season two, she did not mind becoming confrontational with a talk show host after being criticized for her accidentally marrying two male penguins at a zoo. She became frustrated and started to yell out and made defenses for herself. She did not take Tannen’s idea of a feminine approach to conflict by trying to disseminate the tension, but recognized when the talk show host was uncomfortable and called her out for it. “Oh no, what did I do?!” she asked sarcastically. She made it clear that she was not afraid of this conflict, and she was not about to back down. In the political field, her goal can often be focused on attaining that power to let others know that she has control of the situation, which is necessary in her role of leadership. However, she also seems to communicate for relationship in the political sphere when she reminds her audience how passionate she is for her town. In an episode in season four, when she is debating for the city council position, she lets her caring and maternal side show to communicate how much she cherishes the town in her closing statement: “I love this town, and when you love something you don’t threaten it, you don’t punish it; you fight for it, you take care of it, you put it first.” She understands it is acceptable in this situation for her to communicate a softer loving side to let the town know she will work to serve them. She needs both connection and power in her career to be successful, and this show recognizes that both styles of communication are necessary. Leslie Knope 6

As a woman, the research has shown that the media and society still uphold men as independent leaders, whereas women are seen as caretakers. Research has even been found that women would be rated more negatively when they communicated more aggressively, whereas men would also be seen as less attractive when they communicated more passively (Lindsey & Zakahi, 2006, p. 286). Leslie often has to take on the role as an independent leader however, which goes against Tannen’s traditional view of women downplaying themselves and having difficulty boasting about themselves (1990, p. 219). In order to campaign, Leslie has to promote her own positive qualities as a leader, and state the facts of why she can do better. Even when communicating with her adversaries, Leslie recognizes she needs both feminine and masculine forms of communication. There was at least one example that showed Leslie taking the role of a powerful leader too far in season four when Bobby Newport, her opponent in the election, loses his father. In order to live with herself morally, and to gain a positive image in the media again, she has to take the time to give her condolences to Bobby Newport, and apologize for insulting his father. She tries to do this without cameras so as not to look like she is only doing it for the publicity, but has trouble going back to a caring mindset after being so focused on the election. In the end, her communication for care pays off, as Bobby Newport, her opponent, actually endorses her as a candidate, saying what a nice person she is. Being a comedic show, Leslie Knope is often rewarded for her actions, and has an overall positive life. She continues to rise in her career, but this is also due to her work ethic which is very positive, and nonstop. She is never afraid to have an open disagreement with someone, and according to her husband “has an opinion on everything.” This character looks up to other powerful women in the world of politics, and sees herself as a very strong feminist, but never is shy to have “girl time” with her friends and invest herself fully in caring for every person she comes into contact with. This “universe” of the television show rewards her powerful personality, and her caring attitude towards others. It is through her connection of the two that she is able to be so successful in her life. Parks and Recreation is one of the few shows that seems to encourage a positive female role model amongst a world that scrutinizes and downplays female leads. Despite popular media that has mostly depicted women as only being successful either professionally or relationally and never both, Leslie breaks this mold. She is a character that is created to embody a successful woman of both career and relationships, and despite her flaws, is able to create successful lifelong relationships with people in her work environment. Conclusion Overall, the close analysis of Parks and Recreation character Leslie Knope, conveys a refreshing change of female roles and their rewarding communication styles. The show rewards positive communication behaviors that supports the genderlect styles theory to an extent. Leslie Knope follows many of the feminine characteristics laid out in Tannen’s theory, but this character also actively goes against these characteristics in certain situations to be successful with her publics. Her goals of communicating for connection are often rewarding to her both relationally and professionally throughout the series. More forms of media seem to exemplify unsuccessful forms of communication for women rather than successful ones. This series appears to emulate that Tannen’s communication characteristics for women are positive ones, but that masculine forms of communication are also required for success, at least professionally. Understanding this necessity of combining styles helps us see the media’s moving focus towards equal communication. We can hope to experience more positive reinforcement from the media of Leslie Knope 7 positive, non-stereotypical communication styles for successful women both professionally and relationally.

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