Relatability as a Gendered Political Script

Modern politics increasingly demands that candidates perform intimate, quotidian 'humanity'—sharing breastfeeding, exhaustion, family moments—to establish trust. Women politicians face a double bind: they must perform a polished ordinariness to avoid being read as aloof while their policy decisions receive less rigorous scrutiny in audiences primed to respond to sentiment. — This shifts where public attention and accountability fall—toward crafted persona and emotional access rather than policy effects—and reinforces gendered double standards in democratic evaluation and media framing.