Getting Out the Vote on Twitter With Mandy Patinkin: Celebrity Authenticity, TikTok, and the Couple You Actually Want at Thanksgiving Dinner . . . or Your Passover Seder

Abstract

The research offers a critical examination of the social media activity of Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, the unexpected celebrity activist couple driving the effort to get out the vote during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Documenting the performed authenticity and intimacy of the couple’s Twitter feed, the analysis focuses on the couple’s ability to create a multisocial, engaged relationship with their followers, capitalizing on a platform collapse across various social media accounts. The couple’s advocacy is designed to encourage connective action and reflects a more democratic turn in celebrity engagement, where the boundaries that separate fan from star are diminished thanks to the affordances of social media platforms like Twitter and TikTok. A discussion of the subcultural Jewish political and cultural community Patinkin and Grody cultivate is advanced along with the couple’s status as America’s preferred relatives whom you would want at your Thanksgiving dinner or, for some, your annual Passover seder.