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oisinthewizard's review against another edition
This is a very interesting and important text documenting LGBT identities (and public policy regarding them) in Weimar Berlin. I am disappointed to have quit the book only 40 pages from completion, but the conflation of (modern) gay and transgender identities with pedophilia is more than I can stomach. I understand the historic reasons for this fusion of unrelated identities and behaviors - notably, that the Weimar legal system understood these behaviors to be the same - but that does not make it palatable or even manageable as a 21st century gay man who finds pedophilia to be one of the most morally abhorrent behaviors in our society.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
babywren's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
2.75
This was so hard to read, oh my God. Not only was this book incredibly dense, but the combo of didactic and unfamiliar language really challenged me. The choice to slap 11 pages of images in the middle of an unrelated chapter was also annoying - just put them in an appendix at the end.
I did appreciate how critical Beachy was of instances of antisemitism, xenophobia, and misogyny, and his comments on the predatory nature of some of the masculinist's (ie Brand's) ideas of ideal male-male relationships (an older man being involved with a much younger male) were gratifying.
My main issues with the content of the book are Beachy's descriptions of trans people. There are so many instances (particularly in Chapter 6) where Beachy misrepresents the experiences of trans people and media, twisting it to fit his "Gay Berlin" narrative. Not only this, but he consistently misgenders trans people and uses outright transphobic language.
Here are some of the problematic bits that stuck out to me:
- Beachy discusses a movie called "I Don't Want to Be A Man" (1918), which centers around a trans woman and her love interest. Beachy reduces intimate moments between the two as "homosexual encounters".
- Beachy misgendering a trans woman who has written to Hirschfeld, seeking surgery to replace her testicles with ovaries so she "could become a complete woman". She mentions she "feels more woman than man" and included a photo of herself with her letter to Hirschfeld. Beachy describes this photograph as "a man in drag", and calls her a "cross dresser".
- Beachy misgendering a trans woman who was one of the first recipients of bottom surgery, and then being dismissive and ultimately lacking compassion for her after she chose to reverse the surgery.
I did appreciate how critical Beachy was of instances of antisemitism, xenophobia, and misogyny, and his comments on the predatory nature of some of the masculinist's (ie Brand's) ideas of ideal male-male relationships (an older man being involved with a much younger male) were gratifying.
My main issues with the content of the book are Beachy's descriptions of trans people. There are so many instances (particularly in Chapter 6) where Beachy misrepresents the experiences of trans people and media, twisting it to fit his "Gay Berlin" narrative. Not only this, but he consistently misgenders trans people and uses outright transphobic language.
Here are some of the problematic bits that stuck out to me:
- Beachy discusses a movie called "I Don't Want to Be A Man" (1918), which centers around a trans woman and her love interest. Beachy reduces intimate moments between the two as "homosexual encounters".
- Beachy misgendering a trans woman who has written to Hirschfeld, seeking surgery to replace her testicles with ovaries so she "could become a complete woman". She mentions she "feels more woman than man" and included a photo of herself with her letter to Hirschfeld. Beachy describes this photograph as "a man in drag", and calls her a "cross dresser".
- Beachy misgendering a trans woman who was one of the first recipients of bottom surgery, and then being dismissive and ultimately lacking compassion for her after she chose to reverse the surgery.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism and Transphobia
leoreadssmut's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
It give a look into a world that queerness was allowed to thrive with writing that makes you forget you are learning
marcyewebb's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating look at pre-Stonewall queer prehistory, through early attempts at reform and an emerging understanding of sexuality and gender identity, split in a debate between bisexuality and homosexuality, drag performances, the relaxation of censorship laws and Weimar cinema, and gender reassignment surgery, though simultaneously as a movement built upon problematic elements: conflating sexuality and gender, idolising the adult abuse of teenagers and children, accepting anti-Semitism and Nazi ideologies, misogny in the face of feminism, and a culture of prostitution and drug abuse
cranea653's review against another edition
2.0
Knowing queer history is so very important, and what Beachy attempts in his book is admirable. However, the actual writing was impossible to get through.
zarahzoe's review
5.0
Incredibly dense and incredibly interesting, and a piece of german history noone ever told me about. I learned so much!
adrianlarose's review against another edition
4.0
Covers queer Berlin (certainly not just gay) from the mid-1800s to, well, the election of Hitler (1933). Given this time span, the author zooms in with good detail on the political work of associations, and the effects and persistence of "Paragraph 175" the German law against certain homosexual acts (not against homosexuality as such). Occasional forays into bars and personal lives are present, but that is not the goal of the book - it is much more of a history of how the struggle for rights evolved in that era, and how "ahead of its time" Berlin was in that respect. It ends at at fitting time, given the total destruction imposed in 1933 onward. The text is academic, but clearly written and readable for an academic book. I would quibble with some repetition between chapters, which could use better organization (they are vaguely chronological but also thematic), and with a desire to know more about the personal lives of the main players. But those details may be lost to the past - no doubt Paragraph 175, which was only truly repealed in the 1990s despite a near pass at doing so in the 1920s described in the book, made recording such details a risky endeavour.