The Feminization of Democracy Under Siege: The Media, "the Lady" of Burma, and U.S. Foreign Policy

This study explores representations of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in three major U.S. newsmagazines—Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report—analyzing her symbolic role as arguably the most powerful feminine personification of besieged democracy alive today. The coverage examined here employs an Orientalist framework that underpins media representations of both a threat to democracy worldwide and a set of differing national competencies available to deal with this threat. Media representations of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma invoke a "protection scenario," which positions the United States as a comparatively mature, masculine form of democracy run by highly competent yet compassionate leaders working to promote freedom and democracy worldwide. This case study demonstrates that within a larger, Orientalist framework, enacting a protection scenario provides a great degree of flexibility for symbolically coding the complex geopolitical environment that has emerged in the aftermath of the cold war.