Public Affairs: Politics in the Age of Sex Scandals

Collection of essays analyzing political sex scandals and U.S. political culture from a variety of theoretical angles, including feminism, cultural studies, Marxist critical theory, queer theory, and critical race theory Public affairs - or sex scandals - involving prominent politicians are as revealing of American culture as they are of individual peccadillos. Implicated in their unfolding are a broad range of institutions, trends, questions, and struggles, including political parties, Hollywood, the Christian right, new communications technologies, the restructuring of corporate media, feminist and civil rights debates, and the meaning of public life in the society of the spectacle. The contributors to Public Affairs examine, from a variety of perspectives, how political sex scandals take shape, gain momentum, and alter the U.S. political and cultural landscape. The essays in Public Affairs reflect on a number of sex scandals while emphasizing the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, certainly the most avidly followed and momentous sex scandal in American political history.