Public image of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was the president of Argentina between 2007 and 2015. During her tenure of the Argentine presidency her government organized a media network for advocacy of her image. She has been parodied in the television programs Gran Cuñado and Periodismo para todos.

Personal image

Cristina Kirchner, wearing widow attire

After her victory in the 2011 presidential elections, she claimed that the elections were a triumph of love, implying that her voters loved her.[1] Her speeches include a large number of self-references.[2]

Kirchner is famously passionate about clothes.[3][4] She wears a mixture of textures, colors, and prints, and always wears makeup and high heels.[3] She wore widow's attire for a long time after the death of her husband, Néstor Kirchner. Andrea Rabolini, her personal image assistant, suggested that she do this, as it gave her the popular image of a widow in mourning who nonetheless was working hard for the benefit of the country. The acceptance of the widow image was higher among Argentine women.[5] Accordingly to Kirchner's detractors her condition of widowhood was accompanied by a cult of personality toward her late husband, who was treated as a religious figure.[6] Kirchner ceased wearing black clothes on November 20, 2013, after three years and a month.[7]

Political image

Cristina Kirchner is a highly divisive political figure in Argentina.[8] The Kirchnerite administration used its aligned media and the communication outlets of the state for advocacy of the figures of both Cristina Kirchner and the previous president, her husband Néstor Kirchner. This advocacy, which describes the Kirchners as leaders of a revolution, is usually called the "Relato K" (Spanish: K narrative).[9] The political life is described as a conflict between good and evil, in a manner similar to religious faith.[10] Under this perspective, the "good" side is comprised by the government and the Argentine people as a whole,[11] while the "evil" side is comprised by the non-aligned media (mainly the Clarín newspaper), the rural industries, the financial services, the vulture funds,[12] and the imperialism and local Argentines aligned with it.[11] Again accordingly to her detractors statements all the problems in the Kirchner administration are blamed on those sectors; Kirchnerism never engages in self-criticism.[12] Specific people or organizations may be placed on either the "good" or "evil" side according to the political needs of the time, and the propaganda network may shift the support or criticism accordingly.[11] Her speeches also resort to appeal to emotion.[8]

Cristina Kirchner also uses comparisons with historical events to support her policies. It has been stated that those comparisons are usually inaccurate and misleading, but most professional historians prefer to ignore them, and focus on her actual policies instead.[13]

A group of intelectuas that supported the Kirchner's presidencies, Carta Abierta created the neologism "Destituyente" (which does not exist in the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy), a synonym of "Destituidor", during the 2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector. It is used to describe someone or something that may be promoting a soft coup. The word has been used frequently since then to describe the opposition or criticisms against the government.[14]

The media that promotes the Kirchnerite propaganda is divided into three main groups. First is state-owned media, which is used solely by the governing party. Second is new, private media with very low audiences, which stays in business only due to the financial support of the government. Third is other private media that predated the Kirchnerite regime and that eventually got aligned with it, also receiving financial support for doing so.[15] Soccer broadcasting was nationalized in the program Fútbol para todos, and then filled with pro-government advertisements.[16] There are also a number of people hired to support the Kirchners at internet forums and other virtual communities.[17]

In 2008, Kirchner was ranked by Forbes magazine as thirteenth on its list of the 100 most powerful women in the world, being the second female head of government in the list below Angela Merkel.[18] In 2009 she rose to eleventh,[19] but in 2010 fell to sixty-eighth.[20] As of 2014, she is listed as the nineteenth most influential woman in the world.[21] In 2010, she was ranked by Time as fourth on its list of Top 10 Female Leaders of the World.[22]

Slangs

Cristina Kirchner frequently uses words in both grammatical genders, instead of using the standard male form. A common case is to replace the word "todos" (Spanish: "everybody") with the phrase "todos y todas". This style grew beyond kirchnerism and was adopted by people at other countries. When the only difference between the male and female form of a term is a character that may be "a" or "o", the @ may be used in written language. Those styles have been rejected by the Real Academia Española.[23]

Use of social media

Kirchner is one of the few Argentines with a Twitter account with over a million followers, along with Gustavo Cerati, Emanuel Ginóbili, Sergio Agüero, Luisana Lopilato, Zaira Nara, Jorge Rial, and Paula Chaves.[24] Her messages are written in an informal tone, and may be about criticisms and mockery of politicians or non-aligned media, or about her private life.[24] Her messages are usually written in second person singular, as if she is chatting with a trusted friend, but she does not use her account to actually chat with anyone. Her account follows only 50 others, comprising members of her cabinet, world leaders, and government institutions.[25]

In popular culture

Comedian Martín Bossi parodies the Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, next to TV host Marcelo Tinelli.

Martín Bossi made a parody of Cristina Kirchner in 2009 at Gran Cuñado (Spanish: Big Brother-in-law), a parody of the Big Brother reality show featuring parodies of Argentine politicians.[26] He had masks prepared by Andrés Parrilla and scripts from Nik and Pablo Semmartín. Bossio commented that he watched videos of Kirchner for some months to prepare the character, and that the main character trait of the parody was that she would say something while her face would suggest something completely different.[27]

Minister Anibal Fernandez criticized the parody of Kirchner, arguing that, "In some ways I think there were excesses, should be regulated because it is the President, and other things, was very successful: we must be fair to those things".[28] Shortly after, he recanted on the use of the word "regulate", but insisted that the presidential parody should be removed from the program.[29]

The program of investigative journalism Periodismo para todos opens with a humorous stand-up comedy in which Jorge Lanata comments on the political events of the week. Actress Fátima Florez appears in these portions of the program, making a parody of Cristina Kirchner. Florez began preparing her character in 2007, focusing on Kirchner's speaking style and hand movements. Florez uses a mask that takes three hours to apply. She became very famous with this parody.[30] She later made theater plays with the same character, focusing more on general humor than political satire.[31]

The Venezuelan animated series Isla Presidencial included a parody of Cristina Kirchner as well as other Latin American presidents.[32]

References

  1. ↑ Mendelevich, p. 33
  2. ↑ Mendelevich, pp. 375–376
  3. 1 2 "El estilo Cristina presidenta: vestido más sobrio y maquillaje más discreto". Clarin.com. 11 December 2007. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  4. ↑ "Argentina's new Evita Peron tangoes her way to power". The Times (UK). 21 October 2007. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  5. ↑ Mendelevich, pp. 220–221
  6. ↑ Mendelevich, pp. 132–134
  7. ↑ "Definitivo: el paso a paso de cómo Cristina abandonó el luto" [Definitive: the step by step of how did Cristina left her widowness] (in Spanish). Todo Noticias. November 26, 2013. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  8. 1 2 Stephanie Nolen (February 9, 2015). "Argentine President set to leave office and a divided nation". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  9. ↑ Mendelevich, p. 311
  10. ↑ Lucio Lapeña (August 17, 2012). "Kirchnerismo, un progresismo conservador" [Kirchnerism, a conservative progresism]. Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved October 29, 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 Alejandro Katz (July 18, 2012). "El progresismo reaccionario" [The conservative progresism]. La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved October 29, 2014.
  12. 1 2 Mendelevich, pp. 210–211
  13. ↑ Luis Alberto Romero (September 1, 2015). "Una curiosa interpretación del pasado" [A strange view of the past] (in Spanish). La Nación. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  14. ↑ Mendelevich, pp. 117–118
  15. ↑ Mendelevich, p. 296
  16. ↑ Mary Anastasia O'Grady (October 13, 2013). "Kirchner Moves Against Argentina's Free Press". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  17. ↑ Mendelevich, pp. 52–54
  18. ↑ "Cristina figura entre las más poderosas". Lanacion.com.ar. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  19. ↑ "Cristina, entre las 100 mujeres más poderosas". Lanacion.com.ar. 18 August 2009. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  20. ↑ "La Presidenta quedó en el puesto 68 del listado de mujeres más poderosas del mundo". Lanacion.com.ar. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  21. ↑ Howard, Caroline (2015). "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women". Forbes.
  22. ↑ "Top 10 Female Leaders". Time. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  23. ↑ Adrián Sack (March 5, 2012). "La Real Academia Española, contra el "todos y todas"" [The Real Academia Española, against the "todos y todas"] (in Spanish). La Nación. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
  24. 1 2 Mendelevich, p. 357
  25. ↑ Mendelevich, p. 358
  26. ↑ "Martín Bossi, el hombre que hará de la Presidenta en "Gran Cuñado", es el nuevo enemigo de los Kirchner" [Martín Bossi, the man who will play the president at "Gran Cuñado"] (in Spanish). Perfil. March 22, 2009. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  27. ↑ Fernanda Longo (May 22, 2009). "Martín Bossi y Freddy Villarreal, el doble comando del humor político" [Martín Bossi and Freddy Villareal, the double command of political humor] (in Spanish). Clarín. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  28. ↑ ""Gran Cuñado" sigue desvelando a los políticos" [Gran Cuñado stills concerns the politicians] (in Spanish). La Nación. May 13, 2009. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  29. ↑ "Aníbal Fernández sugirió sacar a la Presidenta del programa de Tinelli" [Aníbal Fernández suggested to remove the president from Tinelli's program] (in Spanish). La Nación. May 15, 2009. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  30. ↑ Agustina Andraia (June 2012). "Fátima Florez" (in Spanish). Para Tí. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  31. ↑ Daniela Pérez González (August 7, 2012). "Fátima Florez: "Si a Cristina no le gustase la imitación, me lo habrían hecho saber"" [Fátima Florez: "If Cristina did not like my imitation, they would have already told me"] (in Spanish). La Nación. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  32. ↑ "Maduro y su pajarito llegan a "La Isla Presidencial"" [Maduro and his little bird appear in "Isla Presidencial"] (in Spanish). Clarín. August 20, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2014.

Bibliography

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