from Part III - The Interactive Making of the Trumpian World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2020
Trump’s “grab ’em by the pussy” remark was an example of a communicative “routine”: an interactional pre-fabricated exercise, seemingly innocuous, and often experienced as fun. In the type of routine Trump participated in, an Alpha individual establishes a superordinate position with respect to other participants (the In-group) by targeting an individual or group of individuals (Targets) outside the interaction, often by identifying the victim or victims with a social stigma. The stigma extends beyond the duration of the routine, and so has consequences for the Targets that extend well beyond the seemingly innocuous duration of the routine, often (but not always) violently threatening their physical well-being. The routine is familiar to the participants and – as social routines do – recruits the Alpha (Trump) and the In-group (his interlocutors) to their respective roles in an automatized way. There are significant negative consequences for not participating as an In-groupie, including exclusion from the group of interactants or even becoming the next target. Trump’s “grab ’em by the pussy” exchange was thus not just some individuals blowing off steam, but an example of a widely recognizable social routine that enlists interactants into its patterns and hierarchy.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.