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The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship
In The Queen of America Goes to Washington City , Lauren Berlant focuses on the need to revitalize public life and political agency in the United States. Delivering a devastating critique of contemporary discourses of American citizenship, she addresses the triumph of the idea of private life over that of public life borne in the right-wing agenda of the Reagan revolution. By beaming light onto the idealized images and narratives about sex and citizenship that now dominate the U.S. public sphere, Berlant argues that the political public sphere has become an intimate public sphere. She asks why the contemporary ideal of citizenship is measured by personal and private acts and values rather than civic acts, and the ideal citizen has become one who, paradoxically, cannot yet act as a citizen—epitomized by the American child and the American fetus.
As Berlant traces the guiding images of U.S. citizenship through the process of privatization, she discusses the ideas of intimacy that have come to define national culture. From the fantasy of the American dream to the lessons of Forrest Gump, Lisa Simpson to Queer Nation, the reactionary culture of imperilled privilege to the testimony of Anita Hill, Berlant charts the landscape of American politics and culture. She examines the consequences of a shrinking and privatized concept of citizenship on increasing class, racial, sexual, and gender animosity and explores the contradictions of a conservative politics that maintains the sacredness of privacy, the virtue of the free market, and the immorality of state overregulation—except when it comes to issues of intimacy.
Drawing on literature, the law, and popular media, The Queen of America Goes to Washington City is a stunning and major statement about the nation and its citizens in an age of mass mediation. As it opens a critical space for new theory of agency, its narratives and gallery of images will challenge readers to rethink what it means to be American and to seek salvation in its promise.
As Berlant traces the guiding images of U.S. citizenship through the process of privatization, she discusses the ideas of intimacy that have come to define national culture. From the fantasy of the American dream to the lessons of Forrest Gump, Lisa Simpson to Queer Nation, the reactionary culture of imperilled privilege to the testimony of Anita Hill, Berlant charts the landscape of American politics and culture. She examines the consequences of a shrinking and privatized concept of citizenship on increasing class, racial, sexual, and gender animosity and explores the contradictions of a conservative politics that maintains the sacredness of privacy, the virtue of the free market, and the immorality of state overregulation—except when it comes to issues of intimacy.
Drawing on literature, the law, and popular media, The Queen of America Goes to Washington City is a stunning and major statement about the nation and its citizens in an age of mass mediation. As it opens a critical space for new theory of agency, its narratives and gallery of images will challenge readers to rethink what it means to be American and to seek salvation in its promise.
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 17, 1997
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862 people want to read
About the author
Lauren Berlant
29 books324 followersLauren Berlant was an English Professor at the University of Chicago, where they taught since 1984. Berlant received their Ph.D. from Cornell University. They wrote and taught on issues of intimacy and belonging in popular culture, in relation to the history and fantasy of citizenship.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
November 1, 2007
This book is described by the author as a series of essays on the intersections of sex and citizenship. It is surely more coherent than that. The entire book is concerned with the transformation of the relationship between sex and citizenship in the contemporary period in which heterosexuality becomes marked and visible. The discomfort with the visibility of heterosexuality (its marker as an identity) leads the conservative attack which is figured on protecting the nation from sexual and racial degeneracy. The first chapter examines the theory of infantile citizenship, and specifically dwells on an episode of the Simpsons entitled Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington. The infantile citizen is the innocent or naive citizen with the uncorrupted values of the child’s patriotism. The infantile citizen goes to DC and encounters the messiness and corrupt practicality of DC. This citizen then renews his or her faith in the nation. Protecting this innocence is a way of protecting the nation. The second chapter “Live Sex Acts” examines the debates within feminism about porn, pointing out the protection of the Little Girl from the Adult in both feminist anti-porn activism and right wing activities. She specifically examines the meaning of “live” in “live” sex acts. Chapter Three looks at the relationship between depictions of fat, depictions of the pregnant woman, and the imagery of the moving fetus. This includes a reading of several right wing anti-choice videos, the depictions of the “beginnings of life” in Time Magazine, the sonograms taken of her nephew, and the films Look Whose Talking and Look Whose Talking Too. Chapter Four written with Elizabeth Freeman provides a reading of the activism of Queer Nation. Chapter Five examines the “Changing Face of America” (Think Time Magazine and Michael Jackson’s “Black or White.”) Although I watched the premiere of “Black or White” on television, I did not realize that Jackson was bashing in car windows that specifically had racist graffiti on them. (Nor at that age did it seem significant to me that he entered the frame as a black panther). Apparently, when the controversial video was re-released the masturbation remained but the racist graffiti on the car windows disappeared. The sixth chapter did a comparative reading of Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harper’s Iola Leroy and the Anita Hill testimony (including the depiction of the testimony of the sitcom Designing Women). The Coda examines Berlant's theories of Diva Citizenship in relation to these three texts.
Throughout the book the textual readings are substantive. The book will definitely make you think, and it is very convincing. It isn’t useful as a work of history, in that as a reading or interpretation of cultural texts it involves a lot of conjecture as opposed to a broad range of evidence. But it is excellent cultural criticism. It was very readable and engaging.
Throughout the book the textual readings are substantive. The book will definitely make you think, and it is very convincing. It isn’t useful as a work of history, in that as a reading or interpretation of cultural texts it involves a lot of conjecture as opposed to a broad range of evidence. But it is excellent cultural criticism. It was very readable and engaging.
June 7, 2025
i just don't understand the use of the word diva throughout .. however the connections between body and citizenship, jaw dropped and appreciative to have something to really think about as i keep reading (QE)
May 3, 2025
Lauren Berlant's The Queen of America Goes to Washington City explores what it means to be a US citizen and the complexities involved with the notion of citizenship, particularly for marginalized communities. In a collection of six essays, which were published independently before they were compiled in this collection, Berlant looks at what it means to be a "good" citizen and how this notion has been coopted by the far right to promote a white, heteronormative, "pro-life" ("family values") agenda.
While these essays were published in the 1980s and 1990s, and some parts have aged better than others, Berlant also weaves in the history of the United States at least back to the period of slavery up to the time she was writing. Using pop culture - shows like The Simpsons and Designing Women, films like The Pelican Brief, Forrest Gump, Look Who's Talking and Gabriel Over the White House and Michael Jackson music videos - and weaving it together with political and cultural moments of importance (Anita Hill's testimony, Tipper Gore's censorship campaign, the neoliberal politics of Bill Clinton using the building blocks of Ronald Reagan) Berlant traces (sometimes with a great stretch, I think misreading certain texts) how the notion of citizenship has come to be individualized and privatized, and in many ways commodified. Just as Richard Wolff notes that we are positioned to identify as consumers before we are positioned to identify as workers, Berlant notes that model citizens are seen to fit into a certain mold: women should want to become moms; children should be sheltered from gay culture; immigrants should strive for assimilation and achieving the "American Dream".
As opposed to the "old, free America" of Kenneth Rexroth, or perhaps more so the "old, weird America" of Greil Marcus, in which eccentrics of the Walt Whitman variety and a collection of misfit blues and folk musicians, artists and poets propelled forward an artistic and cultural vision that was as bizarre as it was wonderful, Berlant's new US citizen is one of conformity and obedience, a private citizen who follows the rules and doesn't question the myths. The old and weird variety still existed at the time of her writing - think Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Michael Hurley, Swamp Dogg, etc. - but they are figures on the periphery. Zappa was famously at odds with Tipper Gore, who represented the new American moral majority. The others never attained more than cult status. Other "freaks" were dragged onto US talk shows to parade their freakish nature, the equivalent of a PT Barnum side show, to be ogled and ridiculed, examples of how not to be.
To be a respectable US citizen as defined by the culture industry and the political establishment, one must be quiet and obedient, privatized and individualized, commodified and consumer conscious. In those ways, I don't think terribly much has changed from the period Berlant was writing to the horrible present. The far right are experts of creating fear and sowing division and the mainstream on both sides of the political aisle (in the US, this means the right/far right and the center/middle right; as we have no leftist party) work within the framework created by the right, using the tools they have given us. The far right has long played all the greatest hits - immigrant bashing, anti-communist attacks, family values rhetoric, fear mongering, etc. - and the opposition, where and when it has existed and is not just a controlled opposition, has failed to change the narrative in any meaningful way. Until we manage to do so (and I think this extends beyond the US and into other nations, particularly Western nations), we are stuck in the same vicious circle and forced to promote change within the confines of a box, the limits which have been set for us. Any deviation from that is condemnable at best, criminal at worst.
While these essays were published in the 1980s and 1990s, and some parts have aged better than others, Berlant also weaves in the history of the United States at least back to the period of slavery up to the time she was writing. Using pop culture - shows like The Simpsons and Designing Women, films like The Pelican Brief, Forrest Gump, Look Who's Talking and Gabriel Over the White House and Michael Jackson music videos - and weaving it together with political and cultural moments of importance (Anita Hill's testimony, Tipper Gore's censorship campaign, the neoliberal politics of Bill Clinton using the building blocks of Ronald Reagan) Berlant traces (sometimes with a great stretch, I think misreading certain texts) how the notion of citizenship has come to be individualized and privatized, and in many ways commodified. Just as Richard Wolff notes that we are positioned to identify as consumers before we are positioned to identify as workers, Berlant notes that model citizens are seen to fit into a certain mold: women should want to become moms; children should be sheltered from gay culture; immigrants should strive for assimilation and achieving the "American Dream".
As opposed to the "old, free America" of Kenneth Rexroth, or perhaps more so the "old, weird America" of Greil Marcus, in which eccentrics of the Walt Whitman variety and a collection of misfit blues and folk musicians, artists and poets propelled forward an artistic and cultural vision that was as bizarre as it was wonderful, Berlant's new US citizen is one of conformity and obedience, a private citizen who follows the rules and doesn't question the myths. The old and weird variety still existed at the time of her writing - think Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Michael Hurley, Swamp Dogg, etc. - but they are figures on the periphery. Zappa was famously at odds with Tipper Gore, who represented the new American moral majority. The others never attained more than cult status. Other "freaks" were dragged onto US talk shows to parade their freakish nature, the equivalent of a PT Barnum side show, to be ogled and ridiculed, examples of how not to be.
To be a respectable US citizen as defined by the culture industry and the political establishment, one must be quiet and obedient, privatized and individualized, commodified and consumer conscious. In those ways, I don't think terribly much has changed from the period Berlant was writing to the horrible present. The far right are experts of creating fear and sowing division and the mainstream on both sides of the political aisle (in the US, this means the right/far right and the center/middle right; as we have no leftist party) work within the framework created by the right, using the tools they have given us. The far right has long played all the greatest hits - immigrant bashing, anti-communist attacks, family values rhetoric, fear mongering, etc. - and the opposition, where and when it has existed and is not just a controlled opposition, has failed to change the narrative in any meaningful way. Until we manage to do so (and I think this extends beyond the US and into other nations, particularly Western nations), we are stuck in the same vicious circle and forced to promote change within the confines of a box, the limits which have been set for us. Any deviation from that is condemnable at best, criminal at worst.
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May 20, 2021I really like Berlant. Where Benedict Anderson describes the way that communities (ie states) are structurally formed, Berlant describes the way that these communities are fleshed out (who gets to be a citizen, what the ideal citizen looks like, etc). It’s a good bridge to her later work in Cruel Optimism where she describes the way people form attachments to the state and their communities in light of the fact that the state will almost certainly fail them.
April 6, 2024
i’ve been wanting to read some of berlant’s writing and this brilliantly crafted collection of essays on sex and citizenship did not disappoint! the content of this book is still vastly relevant to today’s current political climate, and i would be interested to see how berlant has built on this work in her more recent publications. will definitely be checking out more of her work in the future!
October 1, 2022
how is this book as old as I am yet remains so radiantly relevant and GOOD!!!!! legend
October 8, 2007
i love lauren berlant--i love how she talks about monumental representations of americaness and how much i recognize my own wants and desires within the context of how these monuments have come to mean..
June 7, 2023
I've wanted to read this since I was first introduced to Berlant's ideas last summer, so I was excited to pick this up. And though it's just about 20 years old. Berlant's ability to identify the arguments the right are making about rights, public v private spaces, and fetal citizenship are fucking prescient. Like, really spooky stuff.
I did have some issues with the book, though, which maybe come from a place of genre misrecognition. A lot of her method is to interpret texts, especially ones that exist in pop culture-- so, Look Who's Talking and Innerspace alongside other things of that sort. And her ability to create a plausible sounding summary of these works is hilarious; she boils absurd things down till they seem inevitable. But I didn't find the readings plausible, at least from a literary direction. Instead, her readings seemed very motivated, and that kind of bothered me, especially when taken alongside her representations of what she was reading, which seem plausible but not true to the feeling of what she describes.
So what to do then, with a book that seems so spot on with what it describes, but which felt too driven to arrive at those conclusions? It left me suspicious of her conclusions.... It's a really fun book, but a little too wonky, with patches of writing that were needlessly unclear.
I did have some issues with the book, though, which maybe come from a place of genre misrecognition. A lot of her method is to interpret texts, especially ones that exist in pop culture-- so, Look Who's Talking and Innerspace alongside other things of that sort. And her ability to create a plausible sounding summary of these works is hilarious; she boils absurd things down till they seem inevitable. But I didn't find the readings plausible, at least from a literary direction. Instead, her readings seemed very motivated, and that kind of bothered me, especially when taken alongside her representations of what she was reading, which seem plausible but not true to the feeling of what she describes.
So what to do then, with a book that seems so spot on with what it describes, but which felt too driven to arrive at those conclusions? It left me suspicious of her conclusions.... It's a really fun book, but a little too wonky, with patches of writing that were needlessly unclear.
January 11, 2022
Some essays (or, rather, just sections of some essays) read easier than others, in particular a section on Forrest Gump, a hateful film for stupid people, but others I genuinely have no idea what her arguments were, for example an essay on MacKinnon and Dworkin, which cited large blocs of text from these two, presumably in order to critique, that I just read the quote and went "yep 100 emoji." Something about treating women as children?
The main thesis, and I only glean this from reading other reviews, seems to be that the ideal citizen is the infant (the PREinfant), forever hypothetical and innocent, but I don't know much beyond that.
Unreadable, and also have I mentioned I hate theory?
The main thesis, and I only glean this from reading other reviews, seems to be that the ideal citizen is the infant (the PREinfant), forever hypothetical and innocent, but I don't know much beyond that.
Unreadable, and also have I mentioned I hate theory?
December 2, 2017
The second book in Berlant’s trilogy on citizenship, The Queen of America Goes to Washington is less an example of easily accessible literary criticism that is equally theoretical and is more a cultural criticism that expands her construct of the national fantasy with more investigation in regard to the intricacies of what citizenship means in the United States.
August 21, 2024
i love berlant so much. the introductory essay of this collection has long been one of my favorites, and it was good to work through the entire thing for the first time. not all of it hit for me since we’re living in an incredibly different time than 1997, but i still appreciate the project as a whole.
January 14, 2019
One of the most insightful texts I've read.
April 14, 2020
Still confined within US ideology, but good critical reflection.
August 28, 2022
It would be interesting to see how Berlant would have written this book today. It was both so prescient and so outdated. A great title, I didn’t read the subtitle and was less interested.
December 27, 2022
puts the reagan era on BLAST without being a strictly political read. also quite dense though you gotta set some time aside
to-keep-reference
October 18, 2016Esta omni–crisis de las instituciones se ve muy distinta en diferentes casos. Por ejemplo, proporciones continuamente decrecientes de la población de Estados Unidos se involucran en la familia nuclear, mientras que proporciones crecientes son confinadas en prisión. Sin embargo, ambas instituciones, la familia nuclear y las prisiones, están igualmente en crisis, en el sentido que el lugar de su efectividad está cada vez más indeterminado. Y no debemos suponer que la crisis de la familia nuclear ha traído una declinación de las fuerzas del patriarcado. Contrariamente, los discursos y las prácticas de los “valores familiares” parecen estar en todo el campo social. El viejo slogan feminista “lo personal es lo político” se ha revertido de modo tal que se han quebrado los límites entre lo público y lo privado, desatando circuitos de control a través de la “esfera pública íntima”.
Imperio Pág.148
Imperio Pág.148
March 30, 2008
In this book Berlant develops her theory of 'infantile citizenship': that the Reaganite revolution furthered the tendency of democracies to create an ill-informed and Pavlovian electorate. Her bibliography ranges from high-concept plays, to Life magazine, from Audre Lorde, to Matt Groening, and is an intriguing look into a number of these works if you are familiar with the source material.
Without context, Berlant is little dry and wordy to keep this reader rapt-- a problem I would later encounter with Zizek, but her theoretical framework makes sense. It is unfortunate, though, that her argument comes across as very lumpy with incisivity compromised by big, bourgeois blind-spots.
Without context, Berlant is little dry and wordy to keep this reader rapt-- a problem I would later encounter with Zizek, but her theoretical framework makes sense. It is unfortunate, though, that her argument comes across as very lumpy with incisivity compromised by big, bourgeois blind-spots.
March 24, 2007
Lauren Berlant articulates one of those problems with America which I'd never been able to put my finger on: the government's infantilization of working adults. She makes sense of why abortion has been center-stage in our political arenas for so long, and gives a historical context for what brought about the conditions that perpetuate these problems. Even if you only read the introduction this book is well worth the price.
June 13, 2007
my vote for the best title of any theoretical text and Berlant's observations about our culture of intimacy is really smart!
November 27, 2007
Tried maybe five times to read this...I was in way over my head.
April 3, 2008
Queer Theory makes sense to me now
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October 25, 2013323.04209 B514 1997
January 16, 2025
roasting george bush and coining a cultural theory in one chapter… yeah girlboss
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews