"Luke" of 2 Live Crew, one of Berlant's unlikely allies in the fight to be treated like an adult in America
Berlant, Lauren. The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1997. In chapter 2, "Live Sex Acts," Berlant looks at the work of feminists like Andrea Dworkin, religious rightists like Jerry Falwell, and morality advocates from the left like Tipper Gore. It is perhaps no real surprise that these disparate agents share an unrealistic, idealized view of how citizenship and culture work. From a cultural perspective, all of these forces work to create nested parental publics that treat Americans by and large as vulnerable young people, and they hope to censor out any obscene culture. But they can't tell very well what "obscene" means, and this brings us to a strong political point: the close links between citizenship and a vague fantasy of moral behavior meant to protect a populace modeled loosely as a group of vulnerable children violates the equal protection rights of sluts and queers. And that is wrong.
Notes in my main file. Under the cut, quotes coming when I get back to the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment