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2.94k reviews for:
Stone Butch Blues: 20th Anniversary Author Edition
Leslie Feinberg, Leslie Feinberg
4.67 AVERAGE
2.94k reviews for:
Stone Butch Blues: 20th Anniversary Author Edition
Leslie Feinberg, Leslie Feinberg
4.67 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
leslie feinberg is an amazing person and activist, with an important story to tell. this book means a lot to me, not just for the content within but for how it has shaped the lesbian community and just for the fact of its existence.
i read it and knew that i had more time. i would figure things out. it would be okay one day.
i read it and knew that i had more time. i would figure things out. it would be okay one day.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I couldn’t put this book down. A beautiful amalgamation of gender, presentation, and sexuality set in the 50s, a violent era for the queer community.
lives up to its reputation as required reading for queer americans!!
stone butch blues is a very raw examination of queer liberation, community, and oppression. it chronicles brutal and graphic violence, but also cathartic and beautiful depictions of community and solidarity. it highlights not only the pain inflicted on, and between, marginalized groups, but also the power and love in acceptance
the writing style employed here is not my favorite. the prose and dialogue are a bit clunky, the characters are flat and interchangeable, and, while it says a lot that's great, a lot of the delivery is unpolished. that said, you can truly feel the passion and pain that feinberg drew on her own lived experiences to analyze here. it definitely read like a memoir, and as such the qualms i had were lessened by how real everything felt
one of my favorite aspects of stone butch blues was how unsanitized of a look feinberg provides here. she delves into how divisions prevent us from true solidarity, and you leave this book ever conscious of how marginalized communities are continuously pitted against each other and how much we need intersectionality. it's so important we continuously remind ourselves of this. it's so important that we remember queer history as a whole, and appreciate how much easier activists have made our lives. it's also so important, when fighting against people hellbent on stripping our rights, to remember that people have faced this and gotten through it once before, and that we, by learning from them, can too.
feinberg's closing words are so timely and moving, and the section below in particular really struck me
I am typing these words as June 2003 surges with pride. What year is it now, as you read them? What has been won? What has been lost? I can't see from here; I can't predict. But I know this: You are experiencing the impact of what we in the movement take a stand on and fight for today. The present and past are the trajectory of the future. But the arc of history does not bend towards justice automatically - as the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, without struggle there is no progress.
I can say this with certainty: If your life is being ground up in economic machinery and the burden of oppression is heavy on your back, you hunger for liberation, and so do those around you. Look for our brightly colored banners coming up over the hill of the past and into your present. Listen for our voices - our protest chants drawing nearer. Join us in the front ranks. We are marching toward liberation.
stone butch blues is a very raw examination of queer liberation, community, and oppression. it chronicles brutal and graphic violence, but also cathartic and beautiful depictions of community and solidarity. it highlights not only the pain inflicted on, and between, marginalized groups, but also the power and love in acceptance
the writing style employed here is not my favorite. the prose and dialogue are a bit clunky, the characters are flat and interchangeable, and, while it says a lot that's great, a lot of the delivery is unpolished. that said, you can truly feel the passion and pain that feinberg drew on her own lived experiences to analyze here. it definitely read like a memoir, and as such the qualms i had were lessened by how real everything felt
one of my favorite aspects of stone butch blues was how unsanitized of a look feinberg provides here. she delves into how divisions prevent us from true solidarity, and you leave this book ever conscious of how marginalized communities are continuously pitted against each other and how much we need intersectionality. it's so important we continuously remind ourselves of this. it's so important that we remember queer history as a whole, and appreciate how much easier activists have made our lives. it's also so important, when fighting against people hellbent on stripping our rights, to remember that people have faced this and gotten through it once before, and that we, by learning from them, can too.
feinberg's closing words are so timely and moving, and the section below in particular really struck me
I am typing these words as June 2003 surges with pride. What year is it now, as you read them? What has been won? What has been lost? I can't see from here; I can't predict. But I know this: You are experiencing the impact of what we in the movement take a stand on and fight for today. The present and past are the trajectory of the future. But the arc of history does not bend towards justice automatically - as the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, without struggle there is no progress.
I can say this with certainty: If your life is being ground up in economic machinery and the burden of oppression is heavy on your back, you hunger for liberation, and so do those around you. Look for our brightly colored banners coming up over the hill of the past and into your present. Listen for our voices - our protest chants drawing nearer. Join us in the front ranks. We are marching toward liberation.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
can't stop thinking about this book, i think it's going to be in my mind forever.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Stone Butch Blues had a raw and profound emotional honesty. It was an epic book narrating the complexity of love, pain, and the courage it takes to show up accountable in your journey of becoming. A cult to its time, however, still an inspiration we could all looked I feel empowered by such realness.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
i am in tears as i finish this book. an all time favorite for sure for sure!!!
Only felt right to start Pride month with this book. A harrowing and touching reminder that all current rights and freedoms are not granted, and it wasn't that long ago that "different" was nearly a death sentence. That behind every civil rights protest there were thousands of people literally fighting to just survive, day by day, at their workplace, in metro stations, every time they went outside.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Transphobia, Violence, Police brutality
Moderate: Death, Racism