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jenamatic's review against another edition
2.0
Thankfully I didn’t have to read all of this for class but just a few select essays. They were not particularly good.
bastimapache's review against another edition
5.0
Colección de relatos de personas queer sobre sus vidas en torno a la búsqueda de sus identidades, o sus experiencias de vida relativas al género y la orientación sexual. Destaca justamente en el factor de la duda: la mayoría de les autores no está del todo segure de sí, o siguen buscando su propia paz. Varios textos son desgarradores, algunos registros de abusos terribles y cómo afectan la subsecuente vida de sus víctimas, otros son derechamente llamados de ayuda. Eso sí, me dio la impresión de que se habla mucho más de orientación sexual que de identidad de género, y que se sobre-representan identidades lésbicas y de hombres trans. Como plantea otra reseña acá, llega a aburrir un momento en que se repiten tres textos de lesbianas que coquetean con la identidad masculina. Pero discrepo conque el libro sea un testimonio del “clusterfuck” del género en los ‘80-‘90: hay que tener la altura de miras para comprender un texto de un momento histórico determinado, entender que se trata de personas queer que abren sus vidas y no tratados académicos que buscan la correctitud y certeza conceptual, y rescatar lo que sea útil en nuestros procesos sexo-genéricos. Siento que, a pesar de los años, es un libro que sigue siendo un aporte respecto a lo que son las vidas queer. El último texto reivindica el sobre-enfoque en la orientación sexual que tiene el libro al plantear que, si pensamos desde la perspectiva de la opresión que viven las personas LGBTIQ+, quienes ejercen la opresión no se interesan en tu identidad, sino en lo que expresas y lo que pareces: en este sentido, la orientación sexual se enlaza directamente con la identidad de género “desviada” de la heteronorma, haciendo la conexión entre LGB y TIQ. En este sentido, los textos sobre identidades lesbianas cobran nuevo valor. Otro detalle interesante es ver cómo se refieren a las identidades no binarias en un momento histórico donde no existía aún el término.
Páginas dobladas: 11
Páginas dobladas: 11
caedocyon's review against another edition
5.0
Probably the best gender book I have found. (And I have scoured the HQ sections of multiple academic libraries!) I have to buy this at some point, because I keep finding new ideas in it.
mikchara's review against another edition
4.0
Loved many parts of this. Some not so much. I’m an overall newbie to gender studies and theory and feel like this was an overall good intro.
But I REALLY REALLY disliked Fading to Pink by Robin Maltz. It was literally a cis woman talking about being comfortable and whole within a traditionally feminine binary and accusing non femme women/trans men of hating themselves “While stone butches dislike and disguise their female bodies, FTMs pathologize theirs, as if the body alone is a mishap that needs to be fixed through surgery and hormones in order to feel whole.” Dude...
Maybe I’m misinterpreting it but a comment that reinforces the transphobic belief that trans men or masculine women remove themselves from traditionally feminine roles/binaries because they hate themselves seems extremely out of place in a book about gender fluidity and queerness. She said other questionable stuff that I don’t even wanna repeat because reading it makes my eyes roll so far back my brain does a cartwheel.
But I REALLY REALLY disliked Fading to Pink by Robin Maltz. It was literally a cis woman talking about being comfortable and whole within a traditionally feminine binary and accusing non femme women/trans men of hating themselves “While stone butches dislike and disguise their female bodies, FTMs pathologize theirs, as if the body alone is a mishap that needs to be fixed through surgery and hormones in order to feel whole.” Dude...
Maybe I’m misinterpreting it but a comment that reinforces the transphobic belief that trans men or masculine women remove themselves from traditionally feminine roles/binaries because they hate themselves seems extremely out of place in a book about gender fluidity and queerness. She said other questionable stuff that I don’t even wanna repeat because reading it makes my eyes roll so far back my brain does a cartwheel.
choirqueer's review against another edition
5.0
This was one of the first books I encountered when I was starting to question my gender identity as a teenager, and I'd read it many times back then, but haven't touched it in years. I loved going back and experiencing these old-familiar stories again. I was especially delighted to find that some of the pieces in this book were written by people I've become friends with since then!
irasobrietate's review against another edition
4.0
This book is essentially a collection of personal essays that explore some of the multitude of ways that people can be genderqueer, initially published almost two decades ago. Various essays look at the connection between gender and sexuality, the disconnect between gender expression and gender identity, the policing of gender expression, and just generally the question of what does it mean to be genderqueer. Despite the age of the book, a lot of what's discussed here feels very timely and relevant to our world today. However, there are some ways where it's easy to tell that this book was initially written at the beginning of the millennium, mostly because of what isn't talked about. There isn't really any discussion of the Internet or how changing methods of communication have affected the way that gender is viewed and talked about. Nor are there mention of any identities that only reached a wider population because of the Internet, such as asexuality and aromanticism. This isn't, of course, a criticism of the book, but rather something I noticed that makes me wish for a new collection along the same lines as this one that grapples with the same questions and presents some of the new answers (and even more questions) found in the last two decades.
The only real criticism of the volume I have is that I really would have liked there to be some kind of content warning attached to each essay. This collection addresses numerous difficult and traumatizing subjects such as rape, child abuse, drug and alcohol addictions, eating disorders, medical mistreatment, and various forms of queerphobia. All of these issues are, unfortunately, common problems for genderqueer people, which is obviously why they appear in so many essays, but that also means they could be triggering as well and I think some kind of warning is needed. And as a sex-repulsed asexual person, a warning for the sometimes aggressively sexual content would have been appreciated as well.
The only real criticism of the volume I have is that I really would have liked there to be some kind of content warning attached to each essay. This collection addresses numerous difficult and traumatizing subjects such as rape, child abuse, drug and alcohol addictions, eating disorders, medical mistreatment, and various forms of queerphobia. All of these issues are, unfortunately, common problems for genderqueer people, which is obviously why they appear in so many essays, but that also means they could be triggering as well and I think some kind of warning is needed. And as a sex-repulsed asexual person, a warning for the sometimes aggressively sexual content would have been appreciated as well.
ominousevent's review against another edition
3.0
Ergh. Some of the pieces in this book were great! Some of them really weren't! A lot of it was confronting and difficult to read … which can be good, but isn't always. Sometimes it was just difficult because it was transphobic as hell. Kind of upsetting to find that kind of thing in a book like this. (And I'm not talking about the language choices etc that date the book – current discourse may have moved on and in many cases disavowed the language used here, but that's a thing that happens and it's fine.) (The book is pretty dated, though, in more than just its language.)
Seriously mixed feelings overall.
Seriously mixed feelings overall.
juliemawesome's review against another edition
3.0
This is a collection of essays/stories by people who don't fit into the neat packages of 'male' and 'female'. A number of them defy any labels, while others identify by their gender or sexual orientation, but aren't quite what you'd expect from that label.
I did find it all interesting, but there was a lot more discussion of sex than I was expecting. It gives the impression that gender is all about (or mostly about) sex. Not a lot of asexual voices in here, for one thing.
It's also a little inaccessible (wait, bad term, scratch that term). There are a number of references to people, places, events, and a lot of terms and acronyms that the writers and editors just expect you to know. It seems to be written with the LGB if not even also T community in mind. Now, I'm not ignorant, but there were a number of things that went over my head completely. And it took me a minute to figure out what GB meant.
There are some really good ones in here. A few I even half-identified with. But even though I didn't identify with any of them fully, you sort of glean that it's okay that you don't. Because most of these writers are trying to carve their own path amongst all the labels.
Weirdly, I kept thinking this was published in the early 90's. But it was 2002, I think. I kept having to remind myself that it really wasn't that old. Still, a lot has changed in even 8 years. Resources and information and community are a lot easier to find on the Internet now.
I'd like to see another anthology like this, aimed at teens, maybe. More current. Less sex. More diversity of voices.
I did find it all interesting, but there was a lot more discussion of sex than I was expecting. It gives the impression that gender is all about (or mostly about) sex. Not a lot of asexual voices in here, for one thing.
It's also a little inaccessible (wait, bad term, scratch that term). There are a number of references to people, places, events, and a lot of terms and acronyms that the writers and editors just expect you to know. It seems to be written with the LGB if not even also T community in mind. Now, I'm not ignorant, but there were a number of things that went over my head completely. And it took me a minute to figure out what GB meant.
There are some really good ones in here. A few I even half-identified with. But even though I didn't identify with any of them fully, you sort of glean that it's okay that you don't. Because most of these writers are trying to carve their own path amongst all the labels.
Weirdly, I kept thinking this was published in the early 90's. But it was 2002, I think. I kept having to remind myself that it really wasn't that old. Still, a lot has changed in even 8 years. Resources and information and community are a lot easier to find on the Internet now.
I'd like to see another anthology like this, aimed at teens, maybe. More current. Less sex. More diversity of voices.