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A review by becleighton
Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity by Chloë Brushwood Rose, Anna Camilleri
4.0
I really liked this book, and it's one I'd recommend. It covers a great cross-section of femme identity, and while not all the pieces are good, I found most of them at least thought-provoking. The mix of mediums throughout the book works really well, and it's one I can see myself referring back to.
There are some stellar pieces in this: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's 'gonna get my girl body back: this is a work in progress', which I had to take a couple of hours to get through because I kept wanting to cry, T.J. Bryan's 'It Takes Ballz: Reflections of a Black Attitudinal Femme Vixen in tha' making', which I couldn't put down, Zoe Whittall's great 'Fevers, Fall-Outs, and Fast Foods', and Debra Anderson's poetry (especially 'fading femme') were my favourites. I loved the variety, the perspectives I hadn't necessarily considered before, and their desire to push the boundaries of 'femme' - i.e. the inclusion of 'Blessed Be', Daniel Collins' chapter on the Radical Faeries and 'Wheels Plus', Michelle Tea's not-overtly-queer tale about her early teens. These were far from the only ones worth reading - most of the book is pretty fantastic.
There was, however, some pretty dismisal stuff: Sky Gilbert's cissexist and mansplainy 'Drag Queens and Feminine Women: The Same But Kinda Different', Lisa Duggan and Kathleen McHugh's ridiculous and wanky 'A Fem(me)inist Manifesto', Suzann Kole's (mostly) obnoxious and incoherent 'Rags and Reiterations: A Queer Story', Camilla Gibb's 'How Wide Is Our Circle' and Kathryn Payne's irritatingly-blind-to-her-own-privilege take on sex workers' rights, 'Whores And Bitches Who Sleep With Women'. That sounds like a fairly long list, but it was all interesting to approach critically and think about nonetheless - and the rest of the book more than made up for it.
The one criticism I did have of the books a whole was the glaring absence of trans women from a book that even included two different chapters by men: the only thing by a trans woman is one brief poem by Trish Salah. It's the second-last thing in the book, and it's not one of the book's strong points at that. This was made all the more glaring by the casual cissexism running through a couple of the pieces.
Nonetheless, I'd definitely recommend this one, and I'm glad it's one for the bookshelf.
There are some stellar pieces in this: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's 'gonna get my girl body back: this is a work in progress', which I had to take a couple of hours to get through because I kept wanting to cry, T.J. Bryan's 'It Takes Ballz: Reflections of a Black Attitudinal Femme Vixen in tha' making', which I couldn't put down, Zoe Whittall's great 'Fevers, Fall-Outs, and Fast Foods', and Debra Anderson's poetry (especially 'fading femme') were my favourites. I loved the variety, the perspectives I hadn't necessarily considered before, and their desire to push the boundaries of 'femme' - i.e. the inclusion of 'Blessed Be', Daniel Collins' chapter on the Radical Faeries and 'Wheels Plus', Michelle Tea's not-overtly-queer tale about her early teens. These were far from the only ones worth reading - most of the book is pretty fantastic.
There was, however, some pretty dismisal stuff: Sky Gilbert's cissexist and mansplainy 'Drag Queens and Feminine Women: The Same But Kinda Different', Lisa Duggan and Kathleen McHugh's ridiculous and wanky 'A Fem(me)inist Manifesto', Suzann Kole's (mostly) obnoxious and incoherent 'Rags and Reiterations: A Queer Story', Camilla Gibb's 'How Wide Is Our Circle' and Kathryn Payne's irritatingly-blind-to-her-own-privilege take on sex workers' rights, 'Whores And Bitches Who Sleep With Women'. That sounds like a fairly long list, but it was all interesting to approach critically and think about nonetheless - and the rest of the book more than made up for it.
The one criticism I did have of the books a whole was the glaring absence of trans women from a book that even included two different chapters by men: the only thing by a trans woman is one brief poem by Trish Salah. It's the second-last thing in the book, and it's not one of the book's strong points at that. This was made all the more glaring by the casual cissexism running through a couple of the pieces.
Nonetheless, I'd definitely recommend this one, and I'm glad it's one for the bookshelf.