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A review by lolaleviathan
Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics by Jennifer Baumgardner
3.0
I can't really disagree with a lot of the criticism leveled against this book. I find Baumgardner's thesis to be valuable and enlightening, but it is largely based on her own sexual and romantic experiences, which were largely dysfunctional, it seems: she seems to simultaneously give more weight to relationships with men while contending that women make better partners and much better lovers.
I was drawn to this book because my sexual history is, on paper, pretty similar to Baumgardner's, and, although I have not come to the same conclusions she has about those genders, this personal connection is what makes me love it. She says a lot of things that you really don't hear in the everyday public discourse on sexuality, which in my experience is just, "you are who you fuck now, therefore you either realize you're really a lesbian or that was just a phase and now you are a hasbian." This dilemma is why it makes sense that Baumgardner focuses on women--male bisexuality is lived very differently, and that book should be written by a bisexual man.
Baumgardner offers a lot of ways that bisexuality could be used politically, which is awesome. One argument here that really resonated with me is that bisexuality is useful precisely because many of us do tend to be "invisible" and thus can't claim to be oppressed in the same way (although there are bisexual butches out there, etc.). This is something I struggle with and often an excuse for me not coming out as bi-or-whatever, because I don't want to sound like I'm claiming a marginal status that I don't actually share. But I digress.
Hey, if you slept with Amy Ray, you'd write about it in every chapter, too.
I was drawn to this book because my sexual history is, on paper, pretty similar to Baumgardner's, and, although I have not come to the same conclusions she has about those genders, this personal connection is what makes me love it. She says a lot of things that you really don't hear in the everyday public discourse on sexuality, which in my experience is just, "you are who you fuck now, therefore you either realize you're really a lesbian or that was just a phase and now you are a hasbian." This dilemma is why it makes sense that Baumgardner focuses on women--male bisexuality is lived very differently, and that book should be written by a bisexual man.
Baumgardner offers a lot of ways that bisexuality could be used politically, which is awesome. One argument here that really resonated with me is that bisexuality is useful precisely because many of us do tend to be "invisible" and thus can't claim to be oppressed in the same way (although there are bisexual butches out there, etc.). This is something I struggle with and often an excuse for me not coming out as bi-or-whatever, because I don't want to sound like I'm claiming a marginal status that I don't actually share. But I digress.
Hey, if you slept with Amy Ray, you'd write about it in every chapter, too.