Thursday, July 30, 2009

The 'Queerness' of sitting down for a beer at the White House.

Is it just me or does the idea of Obama, Gates, & Crowley sitting down for a beer today seem queer (in the broad queer theory sense of being outside socially constructed 'norms'). I am white and female, and my image of guys having a cold beer after work involves some kind of (safe, third space?) social setting (a bar) with some (safe?) reason/excuse for sitting down together (a game) so that you don't have to really go too deeply emotionally or solve problems any bigger than the Red Sox and steroid use. I like going for a drink after work to wind down and shoot the sh*t as they say. But if it means having drinks with people I don't know in the most power-drenched setting in the world, and then taking on some weighty, politically fraught subject like the Gates arrest I'm going straight home.

As an opener I suggest 'How 'bout them Sox?' Lots of luck guys but you can count me out.