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bbqrplanting's review
2.0
When I picked up this book I was really excited (after all, just look at the cover!) I was really disappointed in this book. Someone recommended it to me and said it might help with my understanding of Femme-ness and help me evaluate my own shaky identity as a possible femme. It didn’t do this at all. Some of the articles tried to hard, others were just uninteresting. However, if you are going to pick up the book these articles worth reading:
-Whores and Bitches Who Sleep With Women by Kathryn Payne
-Drag Queens and Feminine Women: The Same but Kinda Different by Sky Gilbert
-Two Poetic Incantations by Karin Wolf
-Wheels Plus by Michelle Tea (although I’m not exactly sure why its in the collection)
-Fat is a Femme-inine Issue by Suzy Malik and Zoe Whitall (which is comic and one of the only things I identified with in the book)
There are a few more that aren’t so bad.
And the artwork throughout the book was also interesting/enjoyable. Maybe I just went into the book expecting too much.
-Whores and Bitches Who Sleep With Women by Kathryn Payne
-Drag Queens and Feminine Women: The Same but Kinda Different by Sky Gilbert
-Two Poetic Incantations by Karin Wolf
-Wheels Plus by Michelle Tea (although I’m not exactly sure why its in the collection)
-Fat is a Femme-inine Issue by Suzy Malik and Zoe Whitall (which is comic and one of the only things I identified with in the book)
There are a few more that aren’t so bad.
And the artwork throughout the book was also interesting/enjoyable. Maybe I just went into the book expecting too much.
yeahohyeahyeah's review
5.0
This book is amazing. As with Anna's other work, there is a lot of rape related stories, which I'm not so into, but the text that deals with identity is fantastic.
I read the intro and was hooked immediately. I felt better about myself and that I had the ability to be braver in my own identity.
I read the intro and was hooked immediately. I felt better about myself and that I had the ability to be braver in my own identity.
damsorrow's review
1.0
This went out in an email to my best friend:
"I tried to read the queer theory/lit anthology "brazen femme" but, well: "It has been this way for a long time, since they put a restraining order against my breasts and called it a bra." (pp29) back to the library you go little one"
"I tried to read the queer theory/lit anthology "brazen femme" but, well: "It has been this way for a long time, since they put a restraining order against my breasts and called it a bra." (pp29) back to the library you go little one"
oceanelle's review
4.0
As a queer femme, I absolutely loved this so, so much, such a radical and beautiful read. Nonetheless, I feel as though it's just the first foot in the door of femme discourse as separate from that of the femme/butch dichotomy. There are a couple of reasons why I didn't give it all five stars: 1) I wish it were longer, 2) I wish it included more critical analyses about femme as a radical identity, rather than just the intro (after a while I felt that the book became a little narrative-heavy, which is weird for me since I love narratives), and 3) I felt that so much more could be said about what it means to be a queer femme POC.
Also, since I feel relatively positive about the book as a whole, I should probably mention something I really hated. In Sky Gilbert's piece about being a gay man and a drag queen, one of his closing statements is, "But the man whose life depends on his team winning a football game or the woman whose sense of self-esteem rests on a perfect hairstyle both need one thing: a good therapist." Like, fuck that sweet little taste of misogyny. I'm not interested.
All in all, though, a really valuable read.
Also, since I feel relatively positive about the book as a whole, I should probably mention something I really hated. In Sky Gilbert's piece about being a gay man and a drag queen, one of his closing statements is, "But the man whose life depends on his team winning a football game or the woman whose sense of self-esteem rests on a perfect hairstyle both need one thing: a good therapist." Like, fuck that sweet little taste of misogyny. I'm not interested.
All in all, though, a really valuable read.
sp0ka's review
3.0
Like others have said, this book is not bad, but falls short in some areas. I did question the inclusion of some essays ("Wheels Plus" for instance, even though I enjoyed reading it), and I also questioned the manifesto at the end which sort of said, "If you date men you can't be in the club," which I found kind of off-putting considering I identified heavily with the rest of the book, consider myself queer/pansexual, and am currently in a relationship with a man.
But aside from that, I did enjoy it, especially some of the poetry, and I would recommend it as a general queer identity read.
But aside from that, I did enjoy it, especially some of the poetry, and I would recommend it as a general queer identity read.
becleighton's review
4.0
I really liked this book, and it's one I'd recommend. It covers a great cross-section of femme identity, and while not all the pieces are good, I found most of them at least thought-provoking. The mix of mediums throughout the book works really well, and it's one I can see myself referring back to.
There are some stellar pieces in this: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's 'gonna get my girl body back: this is a work in progress', which I had to take a couple of hours to get through because I kept wanting to cry, T.J. Bryan's 'It Takes Ballz: Reflections of a Black Attitudinal Femme Vixen in tha' making', which I couldn't put down, Zoe Whittall's great 'Fevers, Fall-Outs, and Fast Foods', and Debra Anderson's poetry (especially 'fading femme') were my favourites. I loved the variety, the perspectives I hadn't necessarily considered before, and their desire to push the boundaries of 'femme' - i.e. the inclusion of 'Blessed Be', Daniel Collins' chapter on the Radical Faeries and 'Wheels Plus', Michelle Tea's not-overtly-queer tale about her early teens. These were far from the only ones worth reading - most of the book is pretty fantastic.
There was, however, some pretty dismisal stuff: Sky Gilbert's cissexist and mansplainy 'Drag Queens and Feminine Women: The Same But Kinda Different', Lisa Duggan and Kathleen McHugh's ridiculous and wanky 'A Fem(me)inist Manifesto', Suzann Kole's (mostly) obnoxious and incoherent 'Rags and Reiterations: A Queer Story', Camilla Gibb's 'How Wide Is Our Circle' and Kathryn Payne's irritatingly-blind-to-her-own-privilege take on sex workers' rights, 'Whores And Bitches Who Sleep With Women'. That sounds like a fairly long list, but it was all interesting to approach critically and think about nonetheless - and the rest of the book more than made up for it.
The one criticism I did have of the books a whole was the glaring absence of trans women from a book that even included two different chapters by men: the only thing by a trans woman is one brief poem by Trish Salah. It's the second-last thing in the book, and it's not one of the book's strong points at that. This was made all the more glaring by the casual cissexism running through a couple of the pieces.
Nonetheless, I'd definitely recommend this one, and I'm glad it's one for the bookshelf.
There are some stellar pieces in this: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's 'gonna get my girl body back: this is a work in progress', which I had to take a couple of hours to get through because I kept wanting to cry, T.J. Bryan's 'It Takes Ballz: Reflections of a Black Attitudinal Femme Vixen in tha' making', which I couldn't put down, Zoe Whittall's great 'Fevers, Fall-Outs, and Fast Foods', and Debra Anderson's poetry (especially 'fading femme') were my favourites. I loved the variety, the perspectives I hadn't necessarily considered before, and their desire to push the boundaries of 'femme' - i.e. the inclusion of 'Blessed Be', Daniel Collins' chapter on the Radical Faeries and 'Wheels Plus', Michelle Tea's not-overtly-queer tale about her early teens. These were far from the only ones worth reading - most of the book is pretty fantastic.
There was, however, some pretty dismisal stuff: Sky Gilbert's cissexist and mansplainy 'Drag Queens and Feminine Women: The Same But Kinda Different', Lisa Duggan and Kathleen McHugh's ridiculous and wanky 'A Fem(me)inist Manifesto', Suzann Kole's (mostly) obnoxious and incoherent 'Rags and Reiterations: A Queer Story', Camilla Gibb's 'How Wide Is Our Circle' and Kathryn Payne's irritatingly-blind-to-her-own-privilege take on sex workers' rights, 'Whores And Bitches Who Sleep With Women'. That sounds like a fairly long list, but it was all interesting to approach critically and think about nonetheless - and the rest of the book more than made up for it.
The one criticism I did have of the books a whole was the glaring absence of trans women from a book that even included two different chapters by men: the only thing by a trans woman is one brief poem by Trish Salah. It's the second-last thing in the book, and it's not one of the book's strong points at that. This was made all the more glaring by the casual cissexism running through a couple of the pieces.
Nonetheless, I'd definitely recommend this one, and I'm glad it's one for the bookshelf.
garberdog's review
5.0
Fantastic, eclectic anthology of writing by persons who identify with and about queer femininity. Crucially, this collection treats "femme" as an identity of its own, rather than as a (subordinate) partner of "butch." While these is some diversity in this collection, it remains heavily white and cisgender; it would have been a more through treatment if the editors had included the voices of more trans and non-binary femmes. As other reviewers have noted, Sky Gilbert's piece was really out-of-place; frankly misogynistic at points, and really out of touch with the rest of the collection, My favorite piece was probably Kathryn Payne's "Whores and Bitches Who Sleep with Women," though Lisa Duggan's and Kathleen McHugh's "A Fem(me)inist Manifesto" is a close second. I found myself actually smiling reading this book. It's a good mix of personal essays, critical, essays, poems, and even some comics. Definitely worth a read, as it's short, and it felt really good to read in a way I can't really explain.
solovei's review
3.0
I think the only thing I didn't like about this book is how surprised I was to find out that it was, in fact, a collection of prose/poetry. Somehow I was expecting non-fiction. I didn't have time to finish it until a bunch of schoolwork set in, but what I did read was rather interesting.
yoominbean's review
5.0
After a few blah experiences recently with queer/gender anthologies, I wasn't expecting much. But this was amazing. The essays/poems/stories/etc were all incredibly nuanced and well-written and challenging. As someone who doesn't identify as femme, I wasn't really sure what my relationship to this material would be, but I hugely enjoyed reading this and got a lot out of it (even in regard to my own lack of/gender) and it was so refreshing to see stuff about gendered experiences that were super queer but not the same old AFAB/celebration of kooky gender narrative that seems to get published over and over and over.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.