The contained citizen: first ladies, public memory, and the rhetoric of visual containment

ABSTRACT

This essay suggests adopting containment as a lens to read the material and spatial dimensions of sites of public commemoration. Specifically, after investigating six presidential museums and the “First Ladies” exhibit at the Smithsonian, I argue that narratives of containment cast first ladies as outsiders, a threat to be contained, while upholding male rule/agency as the norm. In particular, women are relegated as “outsiders” through their contrast with the president-as-common-citizen; their power and influence are further contained through narratives of circumstance, as well as visual strategies of dissociation. Furthermore, appeals to normalization, masquerading as more “political” enactments of the first lady role, bolster the presidency as inherently masculine. Ultimately, this article extends previous work on containment as a visual lens and offers the potential to expose how sites of commemoration uphold longstanding and problematic narratives of gender and citizenship.

KEYWORDS:

• Containment
• first ladies
• citizenship
• public memory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sara Rae Kitsch

Sara Rae Kitsch is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Monmouth College.