Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Premesse interessanti, perde molto mano a mano che si va avanti con la lettura.
Il capitolo su Mishima (l'unica figura sulla quale sono decisamente ferrata) lascia molto a desiderare - soprattutto se paragonato ad altri che scendono molto nel dettaglio.
Forse una prospettiva troppo anglocentrica, come dicono molte altre recensioni? Probabile.
Se comunque siete curiosi di scoprire qualcosa di più non solo su come l'identità dell'uomo gay (una sola donna all'appello) sia cambiata nel tempo, ma anche sulla vita di una dozzina di figure storiche allora questo libro fa per voi.
Il capitolo su Mishima (l'unica figura sulla quale sono decisamente ferrata) lascia molto a desiderare - soprattutto se paragonato ad altri che scendono molto nel dettaglio.
Forse una prospettiva troppo anglocentrica, come dicono molte altre recensioni? Probabile.
Se comunque siete curiosi di scoprire qualcosa di più non solo su come l'identità dell'uomo gay (una sola donna all'appello) sia cambiata nel tempo, ma anche sulla vita di una dozzina di figure storiche allora questo libro fa per voi.
adventurous
funny
informative
fast-paced
dark
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
ok i REALLY wanted to finish this but i just couldn't deal with how dense the narrative was so that's on me for picking up history nonfiction :/ obviously i would have been more motivated if there were more tales of evil gay women mixed in but i understand that their stories wouldn't have been recorded the same in the past blahblahblah
funny
informative
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
Only white men? I give up. This book was based on white European men. Are there no POC, women (my bad there was one woman in the book), non-binary people to talk about?
Also the title of the book didn’t really match the writing. A lot of these men weren’t “bad”. I didn’t get it.
Tl:dr: google that shit instead of wasting your life slogging through this book.
Also the title of the book didn’t really match the writing. A lot of these men weren’t “bad”. I didn’t get it.
Tl:dr: google that shit instead of wasting your life slogging through this book.
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
slow-paced
This book was very disappointing. The history aspect of the book is amazing and learning about the different figures in history and how they actually navigated same sex attractions and actions was fantastic. But the authors try to wrap everything into an overly wrought thesis about white gays and abandoning progress thereby instituting a “failure of homosexuality” (whatever that means) and the evidence just does not fit.
An example that sticks with me because it’s in the last chapter is the discussion about white gay activists abandoning AIDS activism for a “civilly tolerable fight for gay marriage” which left POC and other marginalised groups behind all without realising that gay marriage was integral to AIDS activism because patients were forced to die alone in hospital because their relationships were not legally recognised. The fight for gay marriage is an evidence point used by activists to show how queer people were marginalised by society and treated without dignity compared others.
Next I want to take note of the tonal shifts in the book. The first 1/3 or so of the book reads as just a straight up history. Here are some older figures that experienced same sex attraction/actions and their biographies, nothing really linking it to their thesis. Then the second 1/3 shifts completely into some weird linking of colonialism and white gayness that’s honestly a stretch a contortionist would be proud of. The last 1/3 of the book seems to abandon the history and educational aspect of the book and talked less about homosexuality and how the subjects navigated or engaged in attraction/action.
The chapter on the krays was honestly one of the most disappointing. The Krays are some of the most fascinating characters in history and there’s so much to discuss particularly in how they navigated homosexuality and used it in their criminal enterprise. However, it seems the authors submitted a draft without hitting the word count so they needed to add a super quick chapter that talks about nothing important and glosses over everything.
2.75 stars because of the history aspect for he text and how much I learned about some historical figures but the overly academic nature of the latter half, that I don’t find persuasive means I can’t give any higher.
An example that sticks with me because it’s in the last chapter is the discussion about white gay activists abandoning AIDS activism for a “civilly tolerable fight for gay marriage” which left POC and other marginalised groups behind all without realising that gay marriage was integral to AIDS activism because patients were forced to die alone in hospital because their relationships were not legally recognised. The fight for gay marriage is an evidence point used by activists to show how queer people were marginalised by society and treated without dignity compared others.
Next I want to take note of the tonal shifts in the book. The first 1/3 or so of the book reads as just a straight up history. Here are some older figures that experienced same sex attraction/actions and their biographies, nothing really linking it to their thesis. Then the second 1/3 shifts completely into some weird linking of colonialism and white gayness that’s honestly a stretch a contortionist would be proud of. The last 1/3 of the book seems to abandon the history and educational aspect of the book and talked less about homosexuality and how the subjects navigated or engaged in attraction/action.
The chapter on the krays was honestly one of the most disappointing. The Krays are some of the most fascinating characters in history and there’s so much to discuss particularly in how they navigated homosexuality and used it in their criminal enterprise. However, it seems the authors submitted a draft without hitting the word count so they needed to add a super quick chapter that talks about nothing important and glosses over everything.
2.75 stars because of the history aspect for he text and how much I learned about some historical figures but the overly academic nature of the latter half, that I don’t find persuasive means I can’t give any higher.
Too much history that I’m not taking it in
should‘ve braced myself for the alice weidel shoutout.. hope whoever handed out ‘lesben gegen weidel’ stickers at our local pride had a fantastic day