Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'
The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World's Queer Frontiers by Mark Gevisser
5 reviews
stevia333k's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
1.25
Gevisser is an unreliable narrator. His interviewing & networking processes were infiltrated by TERFs either before or after he started. (Assuming he's not a TERF, which is actually not a given, I'm guessing based on the writing conventions of omission, brackets, and deadnaming, that he only caught on very late after like 5 years of work, and he did his best to salvage what he could. In that process, he ended up centering a cis white audience because he didn't do enough to center the people instead of the administrators.)
The author literally had an interpreter in India named Lavanya commit unprofessional conduct because she was a TERF, and for the discussion of the pink line there wasn't enough awareness of TERFs/White Feminism taken into account. So the haunting part is that it suggests that for him TERFism is the norm, and it shows with how Lavanya was the head of various things in India he had first made contact with.
I really wish he gave Ehrensaft more page space. Like I have my problems with her too, but still. He literally had 2 questions he wrote down only 1 answer, which: what is that deal? -- Like where I'm from omissions are usually used as censoring methods, whether of a murder, a sex scene, or bad words, so this came off as an omission of guilt on his part, as well as a doubling down (as least for this work).
I think what happened is that his TERF framework was called out, he got embarrassed, and hoped to comprensate by emphasizing his unreliablity as a narrator on the basis of being a foreigner or being white etc etc, as a substitution for dealing with the infiltration. And I say substitution due to the lack of acknowledgement of TERF/fascist collaboration, and how he omitted Ehrensaft's answer to his 2nd question. (like he alr ady acknowledged trans people like Liam in Ann Harbor & Pasha in Russia cutting off contact with him! He also didn't call out Lavanya's interruption as unprofessional & called her "a strong feminist"!)
Seriously info about "gender creative children" would've been needed in order to counteract the representation of cis detransitioners & get ideas about the pink line... Basically he fell into truscum & TERF spaces, and so he's an unreliable narrator.
That being said there's a lot of people represented here, so as long as you are able to call out that white supremacism & transphobia as you go, then voila, like it covers history of my generation, but I do worry about micro aggressions involved with the making of this book. Like he doesn't understand the difference between identity vs role, identity vs positionality in the last 2 chapters of the book.
On the one hand, we might be able to look up some of these people in other sources. Why I liked the book was that it compiled a bunch of 2010's lgbtqia2s+ news stories & followed up on them, along with his discussion of lgbtqia2s+ refugees. -- On the other hand, it feels like he failed them all. Gevisser didn't work thru his own gender issues (let alone have a decent intersectional critique at the beginning of the it gets better movement), and also went from the top down, instead of the bottom up in terms of interacting with institutions to get access to the people & their stories. It's unclear *how much* TERF infiltration affected the translations, or whether he had to be approved by them to even get into these spaces.
I'm going to list the names of the people he profiled so hopefully you can exit his colonial gaze to get a better sense of reliability.
The author literally had an interpreter in India named Lavanya commit unprofessional conduct because she was a TERF, and for the discussion of the pink line there wasn't enough awareness of TERFs/White Feminism taken into account. So the haunting part is that it suggests that for him TERFism is the norm, and it shows with how Lavanya was the head of various things in India he had first made contact with.
I really wish he gave Ehrensaft more page space. Like I have my problems with her too, but still. He literally had 2 questions he wrote down only 1 answer, which: what is that deal? -- Like where I'm from omissions are usually used as censoring methods, whether of a murder, a sex scene, or bad words, so this came off as an omission of guilt on his part, as well as a doubling down (as least for this work).
I think what happened is that his TERF framework was called out, he got embarrassed, and hoped to comprensate by emphasizing his unreliablity as a narrator on the basis of being a foreigner or being white etc etc, as a substitution for dealing with the infiltration. And I say substitution due to the lack of acknowledgement of TERF/fascist collaboration, and how he omitted Ehrensaft's answer to his 2nd question. (like he alr ady acknowledged trans people like Liam in Ann Harbor & Pasha in Russia cutting off contact with him! He also didn't call out Lavanya's interruption as unprofessional & called her "a strong feminist"!)
Seriously info about "gender creative children" would've been needed in order to counteract the representation of cis detransitioners & get ideas about the pink line... Basically he fell into truscum & TERF spaces, and so he's an unreliable narrator.
That being said there's a lot of people represented here, so as long as you are able to call out that white supremacism & transphobia as you go, then voila, like it covers history of my generation, but I do worry about micro aggressions involved with the making of this book. Like he doesn't understand the difference between identity vs role, identity vs positionality in the last 2 chapters of the book.
On the one hand, we might be able to look up some of these people in other sources. Why I liked the book was that it compiled a bunch of 2010's lgbtqia2s+ news stories & followed up on them, along with his discussion of lgbtqia2s+ refugees. -- On the other hand, it feels like he failed them all. Gevisser didn't work thru his own gender issues (let alone have a decent intersectional critique at the beginning of the it gets better movement), and also went from the top down, instead of the bottom up in terms of interacting with institutions to get access to the people & their stories. It's unclear *how much* TERF infiltration affected the translations, or whether he had to be approved by them to even get into these spaces.
I'm going to list the names of the people he profiled so hopefully you can exit his colonial gaze to get a better sense of reliability.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Classism, Hate crime, Alcohol, Deadnaming, Transphobia, Genocide, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Acephobia/Arophobia, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Outing, and Sexual violence
bookmaddie's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.0
I really appreciated Gevisser's dedication to telling the stories of those he interviewed honestly, in a way that aligned with what they had shared with him and how they would like to be represented. I really valued the breadth and variety in those he interviewed and their experiences of queer communities from all around the world.
Sometimes he didn't use people's preferred pronouns, but only when quoting others who used a different pronoun—it definitely felt a bit odd but also understandable, since it was a direct quote from someone else. Gevisser is constantly questioning his own actions, motivations, and privilege as he tells the stories of those he interviews, and while I appreciated his vulnerability, I feel like the chapters would have been a bit tighter if he removed himself a bit more from the narrative. This is a very personal subject for both the author and those who he spoke with, and I would've liked a bit more of a tight focus on those he interviewed in the chapters dedicated to their stories. Maybe Gevisser could've had his own shorter sections where he delved into some of the larger questions that these interviews brought up for him.
But, overall, this is a very powerful and informative read about the state of queer life in countries around the world. Gevisser's interviews, and the interspersed chapters about laws and social norms around LGBTQIA+ people, were well-structured, approachable, yet deeply informative (indicative of the mountains of research Gevisser did for this book). No stone is left unturned in his examinations of different country's social and political climates, and it was really insightful to begin to understand how countries use their stance on LGBTQIA+ issues to form a national identity. It was especially interesting for me to understand how the US Evangelical Christian community has spread their homophobia messaging through their missionary practices abroad, and to understand how knowledge of LGBTQIA+ identities is often associated with Western values in other countries, either to their people's detriment or benefit.
Very happy I finally read this, as it's been sitting on my Kindle since 2021. The page length definitely intimated me, and while it was a slow read, I was engaged and curious to continue reading. I'd definitely recommend if you're at all interested in the topic! Thanks to FSG for providing me with an advanced digital copy years ago!
Sometimes he didn't use people's preferred pronouns, but only when quoting others who used a different pronoun—it definitely felt a bit odd but also understandable, since it was a direct quote from someone else. Gevisser is constantly questioning his own actions, motivations, and privilege as he tells the stories of those he interviews, and while I appreciated his vulnerability, I feel like the chapters would have been a bit tighter if he removed himself a bit more from the narrative. This is a very personal subject for both the author and those who he spoke with, and I would've liked a bit more of a tight focus on those he interviewed in the chapters dedicated to their stories. Maybe Gevisser could've had his own shorter sections where he delved into some of the larger questions that these interviews brought up for him.
But, overall, this is a very powerful and informative read about the state of queer life in countries around the world. Gevisser's interviews, and the interspersed chapters about laws and social norms around LGBTQIA+ people, were well-structured, approachable, yet deeply informative (indicative of the mountains of research Gevisser did for this book). No stone is left unturned in his examinations of different country's social and political climates, and it was really insightful to begin to understand how countries use their stance on LGBTQIA+ issues to form a national identity. It was especially interesting for me to understand how the US Evangelical Christian community has spread their homophobia messaging through their missionary practices abroad, and to understand how knowledge of LGBTQIA+ identities is often associated with Western values in other countries, either to their people's detriment or benefit.
Very happy I finally read this, as it's been sitting on my Kindle since 2021. The page length definitely intimated me, and while it was a slow read, I was engaged and curious to continue reading. I'd definitely recommend if you're at all interested in the topic! Thanks to FSG for providing me with an advanced digital copy years ago!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia and Homophobia
Minor: Sexual harassment
kirstym25's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Hate crime
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
questingnotcoasting's review
emotional
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Hate crime, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence
lowkeymarie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.5
I'm definitely grateful to have read this book and been introduced to the personal stories of the LGBTQ+ subjects within. As a queer person from the US, it's definitely easy to have blinders on and just see and speak out against the issues facing us at home. You have some vague idea of the injustices and dangers that queer and trans people face in other countries, but it's different when you have names and stories to really illustrate those hardships. I also really appreciated the inclusion of some nonbinary and gender non-conforming people, as I don't see that enough in media.
Where this book sometimes faltered for me is in the tone. I believe the author is or was a journalist and sections of this book were published as articles in years past, and the book frequently read like an article: dry and dispassionate. Which I found off-putting due to the subject (and my own personal preferences in non-fiction, I suppose). The parts of the book that worked best for me were when the author broke the fourth wall a bit more to talk about how things affected him (especially the epilogue where he mulls over how his environment and experiences could have shaped his own sense of his gender identity as a child). And while I found the interstitials about the global politics and history of the LGBTQ+ movement interesting and informative, they could have been condensed a bit more for my taste.
Where this book sometimes faltered for me is in the tone. I believe the author is or was a journalist and sections of this book were published as articles in years past, and the book frequently read like an article: dry and dispassionate. Which I found off-putting due to the subject (and my own personal preferences in non-fiction, I suppose). The parts of the book that worked best for me were when the author broke the fourth wall a bit more to talk about how things affected him (especially the epilogue where he mulls over how his environment and experiences could have shaped his own sense of his gender identity as a child). And while I found the interstitials about the global politics and history of the LGBTQ+ movement interesting and informative, they could have been condensed a bit more for my taste.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, and Violence
More...