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midnightmarauder's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Does Your Mama Know? is a compilation of short stories and poems written by a host of many different lesbian and bisexual authors.
Being a black lesbian myself, I have been on the hunt for black lesbian literature. I came across this book, hoping to scratch that itch, but, I was a bit disappointed.
Most of the short stories and poems (like 90% to 95% of them), included women who referred to themselves as lesbians, even though they had sexual and/or romantic histories with men. I didn't enjoy that. It's listed as a book about black lesbianism, but it's comprised mostly of stories of bisexual women who don't seem to know what the word lesbian even means. There were also constant mentions of referring to lesbianism as a "lifestyle", which I felt was a big slap in the face.
There were a few stories that I did enjoy, such as: Class Reunion, which was about two former lovers from high school rekindling their romance at their high school reunion; Cleo's Gone, about a girl who falls for a popular female basketball player in her neighborhood; and Johnnieruth, a young girl who defied the expectations of her parents with her gender non-comformity, whosees two women kiss for the first time ever and realizes that she's a lesbian.
All in all, the book wasn't terrible, but I expected actual lesbians to be written about in the book, not a bunch of bi women who "get tired of dealing with men", have sex with a woman for the first time, and decide that they must be a lesbian because of it. That's annoying and makes up the majority of "lesbian" stories already.
Being a black lesbian myself, I have been on the hunt for black lesbian literature. I came across this book, hoping to scratch that itch, but, I was a bit disappointed.
Most of the short stories and poems (like 90% to 95% of them), included women who referred to themselves as lesbians, even though they had sexual and/or romantic histories with men. I didn't enjoy that. It's listed as a book about black lesbianism, but it's comprised mostly of stories of bisexual women who don't seem to know what the word lesbian even means. There were also constant mentions of referring to lesbianism as a "lifestyle", which I felt was a big slap in the face.
There were a few stories that I did enjoy, such as: Class Reunion, which was about two former lovers from high school rekindling their romance at their high school reunion; Cleo's Gone, about a girl who falls for a popular female basketball player in her neighborhood; and Johnnieruth, a young girl who defied the expectations of her parents with her gender non-comformity, who
All in all, the book wasn't terrible, but I expected actual lesbians to be written about in the book, not a bunch of bi women who "get tired of dealing with men", have sex with a woman for the first time, and decide that they must be a lesbian because of it. That's annoying and makes up the majority of "lesbian" stories already.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Outing, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Homophobia
Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual harassment
Minor: Rape, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Grief, Infidelity, and Addiction
blackgirlbookblog's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
ksparks's review
5.0
This book was really interesting for me because I do not know many African-American lesbians. It is a really excellent collection of stories.
traceyfromkc's review
4.0
a great compilation of fiction, non-fiction and poetry related to coming out stories.
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