Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: In late October 2008, politico.com reported that the Republican National Committee had spent $150,000 of donations given in support of the McCain presidential campaign on clothes and make-up for the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. Primary expenditures were made at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, high-end department stores far outside the price range of the "working-class hockey mom" that Palin billed herself as being. Though supporters argued that she needed a new wardrobe to compete on a national stage and that gender bias made it critical for women to cut a stylish figure, neither Palin nor the McCain strategists could answer why her new wardrobe required such financial largesse. More broadly, we might argue that Palin was merely participating in the form of image transformation we see celebrated on reality TV, where style and self-hood coalesce to make one worthy of citizenship in Makeover Nation. These narratives depart, however, in who pays for such changes (a television show or donor dollars) and the degree to which the makeover is a means to an end or the end in itself.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the impact of protest-related arrests on future willingness to engage in protest based on data drawn from qualitative interviews with 27 randomly selected protesters who were arrested during the 2004 RNC. The paper begins by discussing the length and detention conditions for arrestees, which situates the reactions of arrestees to their confinement experiences. The paper then examines interview data, identifying and explaining trends that exist between the likelihood of future protest participation, and: (1) whether the participant intended/expected to be arrested or not; (2) severity of arrest and confinement experience; (3) case disposition (found guilty, case dismissed, adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, etc.); (4) prior arrest experiences; and (5) prior protest participation. Findings show that surprisingly, not all of these factors shaped willingness to protest in the future, but some markedly affect stated intentions. Finally, theoretical implications are discussed and findings are situated in terms of their generalizability for all RNC arrestees and other protest arrestees using quantitative data on all 2004 RNC arrestees.