Pundette

A pundette is a female TV commentator or pundit in the US, often conservative. The term was coined in the 1990s to describe anti-Bill Clinton commentators who came to prominence on cable TV during the Lewinsky scandal. Bill Clinton was president of the United States at the time.[1]

Role

According to Stephen Klien, Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Communication at the University of Missouri, pundettes "seemed to capitalize on a combination of conservative identity, confrontational rhetorical style and sexual attractiveness in order to gain media attention"[2]

Susan Estrich, a self described pundette, said her success was not so much because she had "run campaigns and taught law for 20 years and thus might know what I'm talking about, but that I have blond hair and legs almost as good as those of the twenty- and thirty-something blondes with whom I am usually paired." [3]

The term is sometimes used dismissively by those that disagree with a pundette's position.[4] Women described as pundettes, however, often embrace the term.[3]

More recently the term has expanded to include women commentators in a variety of fields, political views and races.[5]

Notable women characterized as pundettes

In the arts

The Accidental Pundette is a comedy play by Nancy Giles based on an incident where she lost her temper during a panel discussion on Larry King Live.[5]

References
  1. Paul Farhi, "The Voice of Experience? Um, Not Exactly", Los Angeles Times, 27 May 2000
  2. Stephen Klien, "Ann Coulter's Inconvenient Gender: The Conservative Feminine Persona and Legitimate Public Agency", Proceedings of 2011 National Communication Association Convention
  3. Susan Estrich, Sex & Power, New York: Riverhead Books, 2001, ISBN 1-57322-893-1, page 207
  4. Hunter Baker, "Down Syndrome", The American Spectator, 19 August 2004
  5. Daniel M. Gold, "Mixing It Up With the Charmer, the Flight Attendant and the Pundette", New York Times, 1 September 2012
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