Margaret Thatcher : le maschere multiple del femminile

Taking its lead from Margaret Thatcher\u2019s enduring influence as a political marketing model for current women candidates worldwide, this essay explores the cultural meanings (and the current revisions) of her public persona for the British people. In particular, it takes issue with Thatcher\u2019s discursive and media constructions as a \u2018masculine\u2019 character, as her special grip on British public opinion and fantasies was never disjointed from her ability to don, exploit, subvert and redirect \u2018motherly\u2019 \u336\u336 or at least \u2018womanly\u2019 \u336\u336 performances at will. After a review of specialized literature, and addressing questions concerning this woman leader\u2019s negotiations with the fundamentally misogynist nexus \u201cpolitics/society/media\u201d, the essay focuses on the resurfacing issue of Thatcher\u2019s impact on women\u2019s aspirations, and on her current metamorphosis into a Twenty-first century cultural icon and celebrity. This trend has been apparent especially since 2009 (the thirties anniversary of her coming to power), when the BBC and other media helped to forward her transformation from \u2018mythical\u2019 leader into female icon, countermanding Thatcher\u2019s stereotyped representation as \u201cthe Iron Lady\u201d in an attempt to restore her \u2018femininity\u2019. Such \u2018re-feminization\u2019 (and \u2018re-humanization\u2019) of her persona could be understood partly as a consequence of an across-the-board, increasing \u2018feminization\u2019 of the current political domain. Thatcher\u2019s fresh image as a sexy, sophisticated, determined, and successful woman leader also betrays a yearning, in public opinion, for \u2018stronger\u2019 leaders to stave off what is increasingly felt to be a time of crisis and appeals to current popular opinion as an ambivalent, and yet empowering model of past power whose disciplinary subtext entails a nostalgic investment in national history