Your Place or Mine? A 21st Century Essay on (Same) Sex

by Gilles Dauvé

In a fascinating and radical critique of identity and class, Your Place or Mine? examines the modern invention of homosexuality as a social construct that emerged in the nineteenth century. Examining “fairies” in Victorian England, transmen in early twentieth-century Manhattan, sexual politics in Soviet Russia, and Stonewall’s attempt to combine gay self-defense with revolutionary critique, Dauvé turns his keen eye on contemporary political correctness in the United States and the rise of reactionary discourse.

The utopian vision of Your Place or Mine? is vital to a just society: the invention of a world where one can be human without having to be classified by sexual practices or gender expressions. Where one need not find shelter in definition or assimilation. A refreshing reminder that we are not all the same, nor do we need to be.

Genres: Nonfiction, Queer Lit, Essays

224 pages, Paperback

Published August 16, 2022

About the author

Gilles Dauvé has worked as a translator and a schoolteacher. He is the author of essays and books on the Russian, German and Spanish revolutions, and on democracy, fascism, war, morals, crisis, and class.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anachronism and utopia are often a political necessity before a movement is strong enough to assert itself on the basis of its real content. / There is a side to the lives of these men which must remain untold

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far not an area I’m knowledgeable in, but I found this essay to be a fascinating introduction to the evolution of what it ‘meant’ to be gay over time, and the political history do the LGBT+ movement. Really fascinating stuff, read it in just a couple days. Also, it just goes to show how much history has been selectively edited out of our common historical record by, stereotypically, WASP men.