Erotic worldmaking, class and national subjectivity

Alexander Stoffel’s Eros and Empire offers a historical-materialist account of why movements for sexual freedom in the United States emerged when they did, how they understood their place in the international political economy, and which dominant figure of “national subjectivity” they were contradicting. Applying its method to the present, this essay asks what figure succeeds the “Fordist consumer“and the “neoliberal child” as the anchor of national subjectivity. By doing so, it shows that Stoffel’s work is a valuable tool for understanding how “culture wars”, imperialism and the international political economy interrelate.