Cynthia Weber
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199795857
- eISBN:
- 9780190462055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199795857.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics, Comparative Politics
Chapter 5 traces how Western discourses of statecraft as mancraft address the question: Who is the ‘normal homosexual’ in international relations? It analyzes how the United States under the Obama ...
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Chapter 5 traces how Western discourses of statecraft as mancraft address the question: Who is the ‘normal homosexual’ in international relations? It analyzes how the United States under the Obama administration figures the ‘LGBT’ as the ‘gay rights holder’ and the ‘gay patriot’, particularly through Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s ‘Gay rights are human rights’ speech. Clinton’s speech maps the world into normal states versus pathological states according to the question: How well do you treat your homosexuals? What makes this ‘normal homosexual’ and the ‘normal’ and ‘pathological’ states possible is the way homonormativity has become nationalized and internationalized. The figure of the ‘perverse homosexual’ is a figure whose unruliness and irrationality threatens national patriotisms and national and international neoliberalisms. Thus, the ‘underdeveloped’, the ‘undevelopable’, the ‘unwanted im/migrant’ and the ‘terrorist’ continue to be excluded while the ‘gay rights holder’ and the ‘gay patriot’ are celebrated, included, and protected.Less
Chapter 5 traces how Western discourses of statecraft as mancraft address the question: Who is the ‘normal homosexual’ in international relations? It analyzes how the United States under the Obama administration figures the ‘LGBT’ as the ‘gay rights holder’ and the ‘gay patriot’, particularly through Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s ‘Gay rights are human rights’ speech. Clinton’s speech maps the world into normal states versus pathological states according to the question: How well do you treat your homosexuals? What makes this ‘normal homosexual’ and the ‘normal’ and ‘pathological’ states possible is the way homonormativity has become nationalized and internationalized. The figure of the ‘perverse homosexual’ is a figure whose unruliness and irrationality threatens national patriotisms and national and international neoliberalisms. Thus, the ‘underdeveloped’, the ‘undevelopable’, the ‘unwanted im/migrant’ and the ‘terrorist’ continue to be excluded while the ‘gay rights holder’ and the ‘gay patriot’ are celebrated, included, and protected.
Marleen S. Barr
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496808714
- eISBN:
- 9781496808752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496808714.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Marleen S. Barr’s “Hillary Orbits an Alternative Universe Earth: Interpreting the USA Network’s Political Animals as Science Fiction” concludes the section with an exploration of Sigourney Weaver’s ...
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Marleen S. Barr’s “Hillary Orbits an Alternative Universe Earth: Interpreting the USA Network’s Political Animals as Science Fiction” concludes the section with an exploration of Sigourney Weaver’s character, Secretary of State Elaine Barrish Hammond, as a fantasy figure. Weaver resonates contextually through the science fictional heroines she portrayed in Aliens and Avatar while her character in Political Animals (2012) echoes the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Through such parallels, argues Barr, the series exemplifies a power fantasy, recasting Clinton as an alternative history superhero.Less
Marleen S. Barr’s “Hillary Orbits an Alternative Universe Earth: Interpreting the USA Network’s Political Animals as Science Fiction” concludes the section with an exploration of Sigourney Weaver’s character, Secretary of State Elaine Barrish Hammond, as a fantasy figure. Weaver resonates contextually through the science fictional heroines she portrayed in Aliens and Avatar while her character in Political Animals (2012) echoes the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Through such parallels, argues Barr, the series exemplifies a power fantasy, recasting Clinton as an alternative history superhero.
