Leadership is performed and gendered. There are impossible performances of "the leader” and failings in such performance that play out in mass media representations. These representations accumulate into spectacle that re-inscribes leadership as masculine and reconstitutes gendered and minority difference and consequent disadvantage in attaining leadership positions. Because of the vast circulation of liberal democratic rhetoric, idealistic belief in equal opportunity for anyone who uses the tools of liberalism such as independence and perseverance is espoused. Media spectacle plays a transnational role in articulating and reinstating these impossible performances of women leaders through repetition of normative masculine leaders and restating the preponderance of liberal opportunity. Using Butler’s theory of performativity and Debord’s discussion of spectacle and society, I locate within the spectacular production the performance expectations that work to undermine women’s leadership potential. I show how the media representations, in their urgent, rapidly- produced present, work against the discourse on gender equality and inclusion.