PARASOCIALIZE
CROSSOVERPoliticsLAW 1 · Binding is public

AOC and the parasocial nature of politics

The Spectator asks whether a term coined in 1956 for soap opera characters works on a member of Congress. Yes, and that is the interesting part.

FILED 26 SEP 2026 · 3d ago ·Due back 26 OCT 2026 ·BY THE SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA
Official portrait, 116th Congress
Official portrait, 116th Congress · US House Office of Photography · Public domain

This is the one nobody in this field covers, because it is unfashionable to admit that a politician occupies the same place in a person's head as a character they love. Margery Kempe is my evidence for why this is not a modern degeneration. Binding is binding. If a stadium does it and a parliament does it, then the stadium and the parliament are the same room, and the only question left is who is holding it.

Notice, name, choose. That's the whole method.

The clerk's shelf - how this got here first

ESSAY

The Binding of Margery Kempe ↗Medieval binding as performance of self. EGSA 2011. Free to read.

Sources

AOC and the parasocial nature of politics ↗

The Spectator Australia · 26 SEP 2026

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