“To all the little girls watching” : Hillary Clinton’s self-presentation as a feminist on Twitter

Abstract

This paper analyses how Hillary Clinton presented herself as a feminist on Twitter from her Twitter debut in 2013 until November 9th, 2016. It does so through a mixed method of discourse analysis and content analysis. The research question of this thesis is as following: How does Hillary Clinton’s transformation from explicit to more reserved online feminist demonstrate contradictions within arguments of online spaces offering uniquely empowering tools for feminist expression? It is argued that by toning down her feminist self- presentation on Twitter while campaigning in 2016, Clinton demonstrated contradictions to popular beliefs among cyberfeminists about the internet being a positive and empowering platform for women. These findings, based on the feminist self-presentation of one of the most powerful female politician in the world, are a small but enriching contribution to the scholarly debate on whether the internet is a positive or negative platform for women and feminist in particular.