ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two affective theories, affective intelligence and affective polarization, and does so recognizing the impact of culture on affect. It explores the role affective rhetoric played in meta-sexist discourses in the 2016 presidential campaign and its relation to affective polarization. Sexist and misogynist discourses are both grounded in and have the potential to evoke strong affective and emotional responses. Affective polarization is a theory that describes and explains the hostility felt by partisans toward members of opposing political parties and favoritism felt toward their own party members. The contentious feud between Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly constituted an important example of meta-sexist discourse within this political campaign. Both men and women, Republican and Democrat, participated in the meta-sexist discourse of the campaign. The circulation of negative affect related to sexism and misogyny stimulated affective solidarities on both sides, escalating political polarization.
