Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The 2000s Made Me Gay by Grace Perry

8 reviews

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0


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v_neptune's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

did not appreciate the lack of emphasis on jkr's transphobia, but otherwise this was a good book

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livbarry's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

2.75

Desperately needed an editor and I will leave it at that…..

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sderrig's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0


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courtneyfalling's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

This whole book felt like a comfy hug and gave me nostalgia for my freshman year of college, when I was first really coming into queer friendships, relationships, and community, and doing a lot of it through pop culture! I recognized some of the media discussed, I haven't seen others, and all of the chapters were enjoyable. The tone overall was very "it gets better" on an individual scale and "it's getting better" on a grand, societal scale, which... I agree that millennials have a distinct vantage point and queer representation is becoming quantitatively more common, but liberal rights discourses alone don't make me personally feel like I've had or am having any easier a time coming of age as a currently early-twenties lesbian, and I'm a white, highly femme-presenting person with a comfortable class and education background, this is so much materially worse for folks who experience heightened vulnerability and oppression based on their own multiple marginalizations, especially Black, Latinx, and Indigenous trans women. So.... idk. It was lighthearted, often funny, and cozy as a memoir, and I would recommend it to friends for that comfort, but the analytical frame and place within queer theory and criticism didn't really hold up.
Also, I do want to know if Claire okayed this story... like did she end up coming out years later? Even if not, did she proofread the chapter where she appears to make sure no heavy, unwanted identifying information was present? Did/does she even know this story including her is out there? This comes back to a larger discussion of the ethics of writing nonfiction, in the era of Kidney Girl, but I had to think about this.

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mallory10100's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

4.75

i loved this book, easily the most relatable book i’ve ever read 

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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

5.0

These essays made me cackle like a mad woman and cry like a baby sometimes within one chapter. As a queer millennial who was molded by the glee era (incidentally it is for better or worse, my favorite show) and taylor swift alike, I really feel like this author gets me in a way no other author has been able to capture on a page (or on audio I guess, since I listened to this on audible).

These essays felt like exchanging memories with a friend, whispers in the dark telling me that I was never alone because Perry felt a lot of the same things I felt and feel about my past and my future. I loved this book.

Also special mention to the fact that Moulin Rouge - my favorite movie, was mentioned a bunch of times. If my love for that movie at an early age wasn't a huge clue to my queerness, I don't know what is.

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cheye13's review against another edition

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informative lighthearted reflective fast-paced

3.0

This is not "essays on pop culture" but a memoir told through essays on pop culture. Which is perfectly fine! But not what I was hoping for when I picked this up.

The book started off strong, detailing media of Perry's youth. I saw myself immediately, not through the specific media, but by the way Perry described consuming media, internalizing it, living life through the lens of it. Then in a strange regression, the middle began to feel as though it were explicitly written for straight audiences. There's nothing wrong with marketing to a broad demographic, but as a queer woman reading another queer woman, I'd prefer to skip the literary small talk. I anticipated an upswing at the end, but it never really came back around. This was media that had shaped my gay experience and yet the media itself was sidelined for stats about contemporary social issues.

Of course identity and sexuality are deeply personal, but in the case of queerness, they're also deeply communal. This book firmly presents the uniquely nuanced perspective of a gay millennial, which is a conversation worth having. I'm glad this book exists! But with the marketing, I wanted something that felt more communal and less biographical. I wanted followthrough on the "made me gay" joke, I wanted new queer insight into popular media, I wanted a book that read like a gay inside joke all the way through.

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