A review by ralowe
Hold It Against Me: Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art by Jennifer Doyle

5.0

i came to this book with a ton of slightly intimidated to confess frustrations around what has become of something i understood to be feminist performance. the revolutionary-catharsis-through-misery ascesis that disturbed what ought to be a convivial and therapeutic audience gathering had just gotten flat unbearable in a way that in reality was easy enough to avoid entirely. but dissatisfied with the status quo i'd come all to quickly yet gradually accustomed to i sought instead probe my discomfort. this book is but tangentially concerned with being trapped in a packed audience full of queers being terrorized by a technically nonconsensual witness to embarrassing vulnerability verging on violation. it is about the conservative fictions of jesse helms' types that legislate how institutional resources are meted out, the culture wars. jennifer doyle doesn't offer any prescription for pressing bravely pass one's own personal limits. i still just don't personally care for when art comes for me personally like i did something.