false 9 29 16 true 5775133 read 2 true 3456788 currently-reading 4 true 3456787 to-read 7 true 9100740 books-i-don-t-have-but-want-to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81276928 Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture (Hardcover) by Ellen Ruppel Shell
bookshelves: books-i-don-t-have-but-want-to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80074577 Hos, Hookers, Call-Girls, and Rent Boys: Prostitutes Writing on Life, Love, Work, Sex, and Money (Paperback) by David Henry Sterry
bookshelves: books-i-don-t-have-but-want-to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79756471 Between XX and XY: Intersexuality and the Myth of Two Sexes (Hardcover) by Gerald N. Callahan
bookshelves: books-i-don-t-have-but-want-to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79756458 Unclutter Your Life in One Week (Hardcover) by Erin Doland
bookshelves: books-i-don-t-have-but-want-to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79107913 Word Made Flesh (Never Never and Elsewhere, #1) by Luna Dolezal
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74599074 to: PoMoSexuals: Challenging Assumptions About Gender and Sexuality (Paperback) by Carol Queen
PoMosexuals was recommended to me by a friend who knows me, and knows I don't quite fit into any of the specific, prescribed queer identity labels.

She also knows I'm addicted to essay collections on queerness, sexuality and feminist topics. I love my friends.

Many of the essays weren't of interest to me, but some struck a chord. I felt, however, that the book didn't make much of an impact on me, at least not as I was expecting. As I was reading the essays I realised PoMosexuals was published 12 years ago, and this shows.

It's not that the conversation on gender and definitions has moved on, mind. Much of the LGBT 'gaystream' could really profit from reading it. Forgive the condescension, but among my lesbian friends, many still have doubts about the existence of truly bi people, let alone pansexual.

But the main problem with 'queerness' or 'pomosexuality' is that we give words weight, while at the same time forgetting they are cognitive tools. Words give us power and take it away, that's the primordial postmodern principle. But it comes full circle when we realise that if we opt out of that paradigm, we don't access the power that words and definitions give us. Queerness has the same problem, especially in its breadth. Anyway.

I personally found the involving despite not being eye-opening. Riki Wilchins' essay on having sex in a trans body was the closest to home, but so was the one about a small poly family unit under Soviet Russia.

I do recommend the book. Most essays will be of interest for those wanting to step away from rigidly defined queer identities and feeling like there's more out there to explore. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75015006 Freak Show (Hardcover) by James St. James
bookshelves: books-i-don-t-have-but-want-to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75011034 Parrotfish (Hardcover) by Ellen Wittlinger
bookshelves: books-i-don-t-have-but-want-to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75010971 What Happened to Lani Garver (Paperback) by Carol Plum-Ucci
bookshelves: books-i-don-t-have-but-want-to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/69682899 Queer Japan: Personal Stories of Japanese Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (Paperback) by Darren McDonald
bookshelves: currently-reading
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