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britbrit's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Thank you Net Galley and U o T Press for providing an ARC to provide an honest review. This book really opens your eyes on how gay rights are not just about being gay. When one fights against injustice for one thing, there are infinite connections to other injustices that can't and shouldn't be ignored. In Laurie Marhoefer's book, she examines the life of a German man at the front of the gay rights movement from the late 1800s to the early 1900s calling out the fact that while he was fighting for the rights of gay people, he meant white gay men. She connects his works to the lack of advocacy for gay men of colour and lesbians of any race. Honestly, this book was incredible and I highly recommend it if you're looking for a book on early gay rights and how it's always been and should always be connected to anti-racism and anti-colonialism.
aiyam's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
4.5
This is an information dense book, it was slow going for me but I absolutely loved it. I think reading it over a long period of time gave me the ability to sit with and digest each individual chapter and all the heaviness of them.
Marhoefer does an amazing job of explaining Hirschfield's ideas while refuting aspects that we now know are incorrect. I think the chapter that hit hardest for me was the eugenics one. Specifically the reminder that while we associate eugenics as a far right racist, ableist, homophobic take it was not always so black and white. W.E.B. Dubois, a staunch anti-racist, was a eugenicist and Hirschfield believed that eugenics were necessary in the anti-racism movement. That kind of nuance to history is one that often gets lost, and it was interesting to see so many commonly held beliefs be refuted so well.
There is a good bit of information on the general attitude towards homosexuality during that time period and the sort of information available to the public which helped the explanations of Hirschfield's theories. His ideas on the queer community are very exclusionary of most women, non-white people, etc. but he was a pioneer of sexology and gay rights and that cannot be ignored just because of his problematic viewpoints. This is definitely a book with nuanced takes.
I will say, I was slightly disappointed by this book's title. It is not a deep dive into the gay rights movement and how racism has affected it, it was a deep dive into one specific sexologists racism and how it affected his findings. Once I got over that initial misunderstanding of the contents of the book, I found it all very interesting.
I would recommend this book to everyone, I think the author has a lot of really important takes and I found myself questioning things that I had previously considered fact.
Marhoefer does an amazing job of explaining Hirschfield's ideas while refuting aspects that we now know are incorrect. I think the chapter that hit hardest for me was the eugenics one. Specifically the reminder that while we associate eugenics as a far right racist, ableist, homophobic take it was not always so black and white. W.E.B. Dubois, a staunch anti-racist, was a eugenicist and Hirschfield believed that eugenics were necessary in the anti-racism movement. That kind of nuance to history is one that often gets lost, and it was interesting to see so many commonly held beliefs be refuted so well.
There is a good bit of information on the general attitude towards homosexuality during that time period and the sort of information available to the public which helped the explanations of Hirschfield's theories. His ideas on the queer community are very exclusionary of most women, non-white people, etc. but he was a pioneer of sexology and gay rights and that cannot be ignored just because of his problematic viewpoints. This is definitely a book with nuanced takes.
I will say, I was slightly disappointed by this book's title. It is not a deep dive into the gay rights movement and how racism has affected it, it was a deep dive into one specific sexologists racism and how it affected his findings. Once I got over that initial misunderstanding of the contents of the book, I found it all very interesting.
I would recommend this book to everyone, I think the author has a lot of really important takes and I found myself questioning things that I had previously considered fact.
clem's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Thank you to NetGalley and U of T Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This one is out in May.
This is an academic text and I'm evaluating it as such. My own doctoral research is heavily informed by queer theory, including queer of colour critique. I am, however, not a historian.
Magnus Hirschfeld was a prominent sexologist who argued for homosexuality as an innate, biological category and for the rights of people within that category. In the 1930s, he met Li Shiu Tong in Shanghai and took him on as a protegé and probably lover. Marhoefer exposes the flaws in Hirschfeld's theories - particularly the endemic racism and sexism and the missed opportunity to critique empire - and attempts to write Li back into a story he has been largely erased from.
The strength of this book is in Marhoefer's complex treatment of Hirschfeld's ideas. They centrally argue that the understanding of homosexuality as biologically innate and immutable informs gay rights rhetoric today. They expose the downfalls of this theory and explain that many of the exclusions of mainstream gay activism come from the shortcomings in Hirschfeld's own conception of sexuality. Hirschfeld was against biological racism but indulged many racist tropes in his own work and was particularly anti-Black. He also largely excluded women from his work. This leads to his concept of "the homosexual" being implicitly gendered and racialized as a white man. I like Marhoefer's conclusion that Hirschfeld's work shouldn't be ignored but that we should instead look at his ideas more fully, with a critical eye that does not dismiss the ways in which it fails.
A lot of Marhoefer's attempts to bring Li back into this narrative rely on statements like "I assume", "One can assume", statements which guess at his presence or thoughts. In turn, I would assume that a trained historian has good reasons for making these assumptions, and I would have liked more clarity and transparency about these thought processes. There has been a widespread erasure of Li's contributions to Hirschfeld's research as well as his literal physical presence, and I wanted more in the way of evidence or at least reasonable guesses that he was indeed present. The reading of the little of Li's own thought that survives is insightful and convincing.
I think the title somewhat oversells what this book offers: while there is some link drawn between Hirschfeld's ideas and modern gay rights movements in the introduction and conclusion, that connection is not maintained throughout the book. As a historical account and reading of Hirschfeld's work it is strong. But I'm not sure it is quite doing what the title implies, which is to provide a thorough and sustained account of how Hirschfeld's own racism has a direct link to mainstream gay rights movements that focus on assimilation and respectability and often have very exclusionary politics. The book is not a broad look at "Racism and the making of gay rights" - it is the account of one influential sexologist's racist theory of homosexuality. I think it generally succeeds at that task, but I would have liked a more comprehensive engagement with modern queer activism and its links to the past. As it is, the book largely glosses over everything that happened between Hirschfeld's 1935 death and the present day.
I can see myself referencing sections of this book in my own dissertation.
This is an academic text and I'm evaluating it as such. My own doctoral research is heavily informed by queer theory, including queer of colour critique. I am, however, not a historian.
Magnus Hirschfeld was a prominent sexologist who argued for homosexuality as an innate, biological category and for the rights of people within that category. In the 1930s, he met Li Shiu Tong in Shanghai and took him on as a protegé and probably lover. Marhoefer exposes the flaws in Hirschfeld's theories - particularly the endemic racism and sexism and the missed opportunity to critique empire - and attempts to write Li back into a story he has been largely erased from.
The strength of this book is in Marhoefer's complex treatment of Hirschfeld's ideas. They centrally argue that the understanding of homosexuality as biologically innate and immutable informs gay rights rhetoric today. They expose the downfalls of this theory and explain that many of the exclusions of mainstream gay activism come from the shortcomings in Hirschfeld's own conception of sexuality. Hirschfeld was against biological racism but indulged many racist tropes in his own work and was particularly anti-Black. He also largely excluded women from his work. This leads to his concept of "the homosexual" being implicitly gendered and racialized as a white man. I like Marhoefer's conclusion that Hirschfeld's work shouldn't be ignored but that we should instead look at his ideas more fully, with a critical eye that does not dismiss the ways in which it fails.
A lot of Marhoefer's attempts to bring Li back into this narrative rely on statements like "I assume", "One can assume", statements which guess at his presence or thoughts. In turn, I would assume that a trained historian has good reasons for making these assumptions, and I would have liked more clarity and transparency about these thought processes. There has been a widespread erasure of Li's contributions to Hirschfeld's research as well as his literal physical presence, and I wanted more in the way of evidence or at least reasonable guesses that he was indeed present. The reading of the little of Li's own thought that survives is insightful and convincing.
I think the title somewhat oversells what this book offers: while there is some link drawn between Hirschfeld's ideas and modern gay rights movements in the introduction and conclusion, that connection is not maintained throughout the book. As a historical account and reading of Hirschfeld's work it is strong. But I'm not sure it is quite doing what the title implies, which is to provide a thorough and sustained account of how Hirschfeld's own racism has a direct link to mainstream gay rights movements that focus on assimilation and respectability and often have very exclusionary politics. The book is not a broad look at "Racism and the making of gay rights" - it is the account of one influential sexologist's racist theory of homosexuality. I think it generally succeeds at that task, but I would have liked a more comprehensive engagement with modern queer activism and its links to the past. As it is, the book largely glosses over everything that happened between Hirschfeld's 1935 death and the present day.
I can see myself referencing sections of this book in my own dissertation.
anakuroma's review
4.0
Note: This review comes from a queer, non-binary person who is white.
*Special thanks to NetGallery and University of Toronto Press for the eARC of this book*
TW: Racism, colourism, homophobia, transphobia, suicide, eugenics, forced castration
This book is right up my ally as someone who has been focusing on reading about anti-racism and queer history. I've been fascinated by Magnus Hirschfeld and his library that was lost during WWII, and all I've learned about him was very positive, his forward thinking, his support of transgender folks and being a safe place in Germany's queer scene. This book has both confirmed that, but also turned it all on its head.
This book focuses on Hirschfeld's impact on queer history, but also how much of it was taken from the fight for civil rights, and again, it's mostly white (or people arguing they are white, as Hirschfeld does) taking advantage of activism for their own gains, without giving credit, or helping to continue the fight for those root causes.
There is amazing complexity, as Hirschfeld is both incredibly before his time, but also incredibly a product of it. Yes he believed homosexuality was a natural part of our world, but he also argued for eugenics and that queer people should never have children; yes he considered himself anti-racist, but he was also incredibly racist and dismissive to Black people.
Now onto the other focus of this book, Li Shiu Tong. He contributed so much to Hirschfeld's work, but is never credited. Li was Hirschfeld's apprentice, assistant, and probable lover. He was also a very complex person, and taken advantage of for Hirschfeld's own gains and fancies. Much of the book is dedicated to Li, which I find appropriate and needed, as in all my learnings I had never heard of him, and yet Hirschfeld would not have been able to do all he did without Li.
Li is an unsung leader in queer history and finally gets the spotlight he deserves after being abandoned to history. Just as Hirschfeld before him, Li also had problematic points, such as believing homosexuality was learned, not inate. We still know so little about him, as much of his work was lost after he died, but what we have managed to rescue needs to be displayed in the same import as Hirschfeld's work.
The final takeaway from this book is that queer history, and current day queer politics are rooted in racist actions, but it doesn't have to be so now. For example, I do not need to exploit other races and their cultures to validate myself, a white person, being non-binary. It is important to know our messy and complicated past, so that we don't repeat it in our present activism, as we so often do.
*Special thanks to NetGallery and University of Toronto Press for the eARC of this book*
TW: Racism, colourism, homophobia, transphobia, suicide, eugenics, forced castration
This book is right up my ally as someone who has been focusing on reading about anti-racism and queer history. I've been fascinated by Magnus Hirschfeld and his library that was lost during WWII, and all I've learned about him was very positive, his forward thinking, his support of transgender folks and being a safe place in Germany's queer scene. This book has both confirmed that, but also turned it all on its head.
This book focuses on Hirschfeld's impact on queer history, but also how much of it was taken from the fight for civil rights, and again, it's mostly white (or people arguing they are white, as Hirschfeld does) taking advantage of activism for their own gains, without giving credit, or helping to continue the fight for those root causes.
There is amazing complexity, as Hirschfeld is both incredibly before his time, but also incredibly a product of it. Yes he believed homosexuality was a natural part of our world, but he also argued for eugenics and that queer people should never have children; yes he considered himself anti-racist, but he was also incredibly racist and dismissive to Black people.
Now onto the other focus of this book, Li Shiu Tong. He contributed so much to Hirschfeld's work, but is never credited. Li was Hirschfeld's apprentice, assistant, and probable lover. He was also a very complex person, and taken advantage of for Hirschfeld's own gains and fancies. Much of the book is dedicated to Li, which I find appropriate and needed, as in all my learnings I had never heard of him, and yet Hirschfeld would not have been able to do all he did without Li.
Li is an unsung leader in queer history and finally gets the spotlight he deserves after being abandoned to history. Just as Hirschfeld before him, Li also had problematic points, such as believing homosexuality was learned, not inate. We still know so little about him, as much of his work was lost after he died, but what we have managed to rescue needs to be displayed in the same import as Hirschfeld's work.
The final takeaway from this book is that queer history, and current day queer politics are rooted in racist actions, but it doesn't have to be so now. For example, I do not need to exploit other races and their cultures to validate myself, a white person, being non-binary. It is important to know our messy and complicated past, so that we don't repeat it in our present activism, as we so often do.
halfwaytoaugust's review against another edition
I had high hopes to really learn a lot from this book about racism & queer history & the intersections of how they relate to each other. I haven't come across much queer history that goes farther back than Stonewall, which may be fault of my own or lack of writing/publishing or both. However, I interpreted the synopsis to mean this book would be a linear telling of Hirschfeld & Li's work regarding racism & queer history, and that was not my experience with it. It reads very academic & not as a linear history. The content quite honestly goes over my head as academic writing is not my forte, therefore, I have decided to DNF at page 70 because I am not able to properly follow the information given in order to learn what I had intended. This is by no means fault of poor writing or a bad book, it simply just doesn't mesh with me personally and the way I learn information.
Thank you to netgalley & university of toronto press for an earc in exchange for an honest review.
Expected pub date: May 17, 2022
Thank you to netgalley & university of toronto press for an earc in exchange for an honest review.
Expected pub date: May 17, 2022
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