Theorizing the Flagbody: Symbolic Dimensions of the Flag Desecration Debate, or, Why the Bill of Rights Does Not Fly in the Ballpark

This paper analyzes American flag symbolism in public debate about the Supreme Court’s flagburning decisions in 1989 and 1990, and in related flag events. The connotated flag is systematically represented by champions of flag protection laws as a sacrificial body contrasted both to the bodiless text and the profane body of flagburning. What is at stake in the flagburning debate is a cultural fight between the body and the text, and a notion of the sanctifying drama of the American holy family.