Did We Mention She's a Lesbian? a Case Study of Newspaper Coverage
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Did we mention she's a lesbian? A case study of newspaper coverage of New Brunswick NDP Leader Allison Brewer, the first openly gay woman to lead a mainstream political party in Canada by Michael Camp B.A., Trent University, 1982 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Graduate Academic Unit of the Department of Political Science Supervisor: Joanna Everitt, Ph.D., Department of Political Science, University of New Brunswick, Saint John Examining Board: Leslie Jeffrey, Ph.D., Department of Political Science, University of New Brunswick, Saint John Don Desserud, Ph.D., Department of Political Science, University of New Brunswick Joseph Alba, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, University of New Brunswick, Saint John This thesis is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK May, 2007 © Michael Camp, 2007 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-49662-6 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-49662-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada Did we mention she's a lesbian? A case study of newspaper coverage of New Brunswick NDP Leader Allison Brewer, the first openly gay woman to lead a mainstream political party in Canada ABSTRACT This thesis is a case study of the way New Brunswick newspapers covered NDP Leader Allison Brewer, the first declared lesbian to lead an established political party in Canada. The study poses these questions: How did these newspapers chose to report on her activities? Was their coverage different from that accorded to other politicians in the province? And what possible effect did these news stories have on the public's evaluation of her as a politician? Through content analysis, discourse analysis and elite interviews, the study explores the manner in which the story of Allison Brewer was told to the people of New Brunswick in their three English-language dailies. It also investigates the process of impression formation, in the context of a political leader whose multi- layered persona emerged from several stereotypic frames, those of being a woman, a lesbian, an abortion clinic manager, a human rights activist and an "outspoken" feminist. The results verify that Brewer was portrayed in a manner that set her apart from the usual players in New Brunswick politics and that that ii damaged her political fortunes. The study also points to the conclusion that the political experiences of gay and lesbian political candidates are substantially different from those of other politicians, as are the stereotypical expectations that confront them when they enter electoral politics. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Joanna Everitt, for her constant guidance and insight, and most of all, for the inspiration she gave me to complete this project. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER TWO - HOMOSEXUALS IN CANADIAN POLITICS 15 Stereotypes and Homosexuality 24 Women and Lesbian Women in Politics 37 CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY 56 Content Analysis 56 Discourse Analysis 62 Elite Interviews 64 CHAPTER 4 - CASE STUDY OF ALLISON BREWER 71 The Framing of Allison Brewer: Leadership Selection to Resignation.... 75 CHAPTER 5 - ELITE INTERVIEWS 98 NDP Leader Allison Brewer 98 Mark Tunney, Former Editor of the Telegraph Journal 113 Elizabeth Weir, Former Leader of the New Brunswick NDP 119 Charles Fournier, NDP Candidate 124 CHAPTER 6 - DISCUSSION 132 BIBLIOGRAPHY 144 CURRICULUM VITAE v CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION Allison Brewer was elected leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party in September of 2005. Just 14 months later, after a poor showing in the provincial election campaign, she resigned. The NDP ran third in every riding in the province and Brewer lost her bid to win a seat in Fredericton. "I say with a certain amount of regret that that chapter of my life is over," she told a news conference {The Daily Gleaner, Nov. 7, 2006). Political commentators quoted in the province's three English- language newspapers offered several explanations for her weak performance. They said she lacked experience in mainstream politics, she could not speak French in an officially bilingual province, she was fidgety in the leaders' debate, and the NDP did not have enough money to run anything resembling a modern election campaign {The Daily Gleaner, Nov. 7, 2006). There was no mention of the fact that had so interested the media at the beginning of her experiment in electoral politics - her sexual orientation. According to observers in the media, her sexuality was apparently of little concern to the voters. This study will not attempt to challenge that view. Instead, it will examine the manner in which the newspapers in New Brunswick told the story of Allison Brewer and how that depiction resonated with stereotypical conceptions of women in politics - and more to the point - 1 lesbians in politics. While it would be impossible to determine the exact effect her sexual orientation had on the electorate, it would be irrational to argue that it had none at all. However, the focus of this study is not the degree to which Brewer's sexuality affected the voters, but the degree to which it affected the media's depiction of her. In that respect, it is the contention of this thesis that the media constructed the political persona of Allison Brewer, using as reference points the stereotypical conceptions of lesbians, activists and women in politics. A review of her newspaper coverage found that the stereotypic treatment of Brewer was most evident in the earlier reporting on her activities. By the end of her short career in New Brunswick electoral politics, her presence in the news came closer to reflecting the journalistic practices typically accorded to the more average or 'normal' players in New Brunswick's political scene. It may also be said, however, that first impressions are critically important in a political career - and they are only made once (Fisk, Neuberg, Beattie, and Milberg, 1987). Allison Brewer said she entered electoral politics because she believed in the mission of the New Democratic Party of New Brunswick and because she felt she could make a positive contribution to the political life of the province. While her sexual orientation was neither the inspiration for, nor the principle factor in, her decision to run for the leadership of the NDP, she believed she was making an important point 2 about inclusiveness when she entered the race (Telegraph Journal, Sept. 26, 2005, p. 1). It is certainly a reasonable objective for members of a minority to participate in the democratic process, especially if the minority has historically been under-represented. Estimates of the size of the homosexual population in North America range as high as 10 per cent (Golebiowska, 2002), but even if a much lower figure is used as a point, gay men and lesbian women are far from achieving anything close to proportional representation in the Canadian political process (Rayside, 1998). Their ability to express their views on issues of immediate self- interest is severely diminished, and so too is their participation in the wider political discourse of their country (Rayside, 1998). In Canada, women as well as racial and linguistic minorities have made significant advances in the past few decades, winning electoral races for local councils, provincial legislatures and Parliament. But of all the identifiable groups in Canada, homosexuals are among the most under- represented in the political sphere - and homosexual women are virtually absent. The number of declared lesbians elected provincially or federally can be counted on the ringers of one hand.1 It is a simple fact - they are all but invisible in the political life of Canada. While gay men have made incremental progress in the political arena in the past two or three decades, 1 There is one declared lesbian in Parliament (Libby Davis), one declared lesbian in the Senate (Nancy Ruth), an openly lesbian provincial cabinet minister in Ontario (Kathleen Wynne), and the former leader of the New Brunswick NDP is a declared lesbian (Allison Brewer), though she failed in her bid to win a seat in the provincial legislature.