ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to clarify what eventually becomes blurred, namely the boundary drawn in American culture between homosexuality and homosociality. It suggests that the politics of the late twentieth century in the United States is a politics most concerned with cover-ups and that the politics of secrecy that have to do with cover-ups is the politics associated most clearly with the intense violence of making the body the site of hidden importance. The chapter aims to propose that Nichole's laughter is culturally continuous with the political dynamic that compelled George Bush to reveal his desire to have sex with Ronald Reagan. Bush, as the potential leader, performed a rite of self-abnegation in pursuit of ideal office. Bush becomes the man punishing the boy for wanting approval from a father who is never there when he needs him and is always judging him when he does not need judgment.
