This article investigates the relation between science respectively nation, class and gender in the televised Nobel Banquet. The body of the Swedish Queen is used as a lens in order to analyse intersectional power dimensions.  Drawing on cultural, media, and gender studies, this article examines the mediated persona of the Queen in the televised Nobel Banquet via contextualised textual analysis.

The televised Nobel Banquet, like the awards ceremony preceding it, provides representations of both science and a social elite. But not all representatives of the Swedish elite equally attract the gazes of the cameras: the focus of attention is in particular on the Swedish queen, who since her debut in 1976 has received more TV time than anyone else – male or female, scientist or not. How is her body represented in the televised Nobel Banquet? And what are the consequences of these representations for the image of science?

The analyses shows that the body of the Queen signifies that heterosexuality, class affiliation, and nationality are important and normative factors in the discourse of science. In the televised Nobel Banquet, her body is a symbol of the aspired status of science, representing its desire to belong among the heterosexual and white elites as well as an acknowledging of a traditional, ideal femininity.