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A review by caseythecanadianlesbrarian
Anything That Loves by Charles "Zan" Christensen
3.0
Ugh. What a disappointment. I'm giving this three stars because I really like and respect the individual work of some of the creators in here, but I actually disliked this anthology as a whole. Where do I even begin. Let's see: the editor (who's gay) frames the book on the cover and in the intro as a collection about bisexuality for gay and straight people. Somehow the conversation about bi people is always framed around monosexuals. I mean, just look at the description for how it centres gay and straight people from the first sentence. The fucking front cover with the full title has the words gay and straight in big letters with any non-monosexual word left out. Christensen even writes in the intro about how important it is to him that "the refusal to accept bisexuality [is] a root cause of homophobia." OH SO BISEXUAL PEOPLE AND BIPHOBIA ARE IMPORTANT NOT FOR THEIR OWN SAKE BUT BECAUSE OF THE LINKS TO GAY PEOPLE AND HOMOPHOBIA. Seriously, what an ignorant piece of poop.
The comics selections themselves unfortunately overall don't so much to counteract the misinformed editing. There are plenty of boring, repetitive pieces trying to dispel myths about bisexuality and recalling biphobic coming out stories and conversations with supposed friends and partners. I understand that these kinds of pieces can be important but there were so many of the same thing it became redundant and depressing . If I were just coming out as bi this collection would scare the crap out of me and not give me much hope.
Other pieces didn't even seem like they fit. Like, why is there a story about a self-identified cis gay man who dates trans guys in here? Is it supposed to be implying he's bisexual, despite what he says and the fact that trans men are men? There's another story about a woman with a latex fetish that doesn't seem to have anything to do with non-monosexuality and another about a trans woman who hasn't come out yet who is confused about the differences between gender identity and sexual orientation.
I also would have appreciated more attention to the complexities of gender in here. A lot of the stories refer to "both men and women" totally excluding non-binary people (although a few have their own stories in here). Also, more creators of colour are definitely needed.
Overall this book is screamingly aimed at straight and gay people, in a way I've actually never seen with a bi/pan book before. I've read plenty of books by trans people clearly aimed at a cis audience (and know the equivalent exists for gay men and lesbians and used to be more common) but I've never encountered the equivalent for bi/pan people. I can't tell you how disheartening it is to pick up a book thinking "this is for me, written by people like me!" only to find it's been written for people privileged in relation to that part of your identity instead. It's the kind of book whose strategy of educating monosexuals about biphobia is to make them feel sorry for bisexuals. No thanks.
Shout-out to a lovely story by MariNaomi about being turned on by a woman eating a mango, which was my favourite piece. Ellen Forney's funny and practical guide to having bisexual threesomes was also rad. Nods also to pieces by Melaina, Jason A Quest, Erika Moen, and Lena H Chandhok.
The comics selections themselves unfortunately overall don't so much to counteract the misinformed editing. There are plenty of boring, repetitive pieces trying to dispel myths about bisexuality and recalling biphobic coming out stories and conversations with supposed friends and partners. I understand that these kinds of pieces can be important but there were so many of the same thing it became redundant and depressing . If I were just coming out as bi this collection would scare the crap out of me and not give me much hope.
Other pieces didn't even seem like they fit. Like, why is there a story about a self-identified cis gay man who dates trans guys in here? Is it supposed to be implying he's bisexual, despite what he says and the fact that trans men are men? There's another story about a woman with a latex fetish that doesn't seem to have anything to do with non-monosexuality and another about a trans woman who hasn't come out yet who is confused about the differences between gender identity and sexual orientation.
I also would have appreciated more attention to the complexities of gender in here. A lot of the stories refer to "both men and women" totally excluding non-binary people (although a few have their own stories in here). Also, more creators of colour are definitely needed.
Overall this book is screamingly aimed at straight and gay people, in a way I've actually never seen with a bi/pan book before. I've read plenty of books by trans people clearly aimed at a cis audience (and know the equivalent exists for gay men and lesbians and used to be more common) but I've never encountered the equivalent for bi/pan people. I can't tell you how disheartening it is to pick up a book thinking "this is for me, written by people like me!" only to find it's been written for people privileged in relation to that part of your identity instead. It's the kind of book whose strategy of educating monosexuals about biphobia is to make them feel sorry for bisexuals. No thanks.
Shout-out to a lovely story by MariNaomi about being turned on by a woman eating a mango, which was my favourite piece. Ellen Forney's funny and practical guide to having bisexual threesomes was also rad. Nods also to pieces by Melaina, Jason A Quest, Erika Moen, and Lena H Chandhok.