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“There, seated upon the toilet, apparently in the midst of defecation, was the president of the United States” : Toilets and Elite Politics in the USA and UK

Nieuwenhuis, Marijn; Mcfarlane, Colin

“There, seated upon the toilet, apparently in the midst of defecation, was the president of the United States” : Toilets and Elite Politics in the USA and UK Thumbnail


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Abstract

What can we learn about elite politics from the humble toilet? How do the relations between toilets, bodies, and waste materially and discursively reveal, and become enrolled within, the summits of state political power? While there has been a growth in research on the political geographies of the body, including work on toilets, and a long history of research on elite politics, the two intellectual concerns and debates have not been brought together. Yet the toilet and the bathroom, in both their material and discursive reproduction, provide intriguing insights into the seemingly sanitised, even disembodied domain of elite politics. We explore the space, use, and meaning of the toilet in two powerful contexts: the White House in the United States, and Downing Street in the United Kingdom. Shaped by differences in cultural and political context, we study the ways in which toilets feature in the working of elite power, and how that connects to gender, sexuality, race, nakedness, humour, and space in the (re)making of the political. By making the toilet an object of study we aim to shed light on this often forgotten and silenced, yet inevitable geography of elite politics.

Citation

Nieuwenhuis, M., & Mcfarlane, C. (2024). “There, seated upon the toilet, apparently in the midst of defecation, was the president of the United States” : Toilets and Elite Politics in the USA and UK. Political Geography, 115, Article 103228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103228

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 9, 2024
Online Publication Date Oct 24, 2024
Publication Date 2024-11
Deposit Date Oct 11, 2024
Publicly Available Date Oct 25, 2024
Journal Political Geography
Print ISSN 0962-6298
Electronic ISSN 1873-5096
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 115
Article Number 103228
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103228
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2954125

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