
Would you think differently about Donald Trump if he were a woman? - nkurz
http://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/gender-bending-can-challenge-our-biases-5291
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nkurz
This is an interesting way of exploring the role that gender played in the
recent US presidential race: cast the actors in the reverse genders, repeat
the debates word-for-word and gesture-for-gesture, and see how our reactions
change.

 _By swapping gender but staying authentic to speech patterns and gestures, we
were able to shake the audience from their normal reaction. Trump was no
longer seen as a reality star or Hillary as a female icon. Free from their
preconceived biases, audiences found themselves seeing things differently and
gaining insight into how others saw these two very public figures._

 _It was an unusual experiment which sparked some surprising reactions in a
talkback session after the events. The expectation, held by myself and the
majority of people polled before the performance, had been that Clinton would
look “more presidential” as a man and Trump’s lack of respect for, and
aggression towards, his opponent would not be tolerated in a woman. Our
predictions were way off._

Here's the NYU press release: [https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-
publications/news/2017/march/...](https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-
publications/news/2017/march/trump-clinton-debates-gender-reversal.html)

And a New York Times review: [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/theater/he-
said-she-said-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/theater/he-said-she-
said-gender-bending-the-presidential-debates.html?_r=0)

The linked video of the entire performance seems to no longer be available,
but there is a short clip in the Guardian article:
[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/29/clinton-
trum...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/29/clinton-trump-gender-
swap-play-her-opponent).

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tropo
Another interesting way to consider the gender issue is to imagine that Carly
Fiorina (or perhaps Sarah Palin) and Bernie Sanders had faced off. So many
people expressed horror that America supposedly just wouldn't vote for a
woman... but what if that woman were the Republican? Would that horror go
missing?

