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A review by inuyasha
A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women's Culture by June Thomas
2.75
rating this low does have a bit of an ironic twist to it as this author points out several times how lesbians tend to be harsher on their spaces than we would hetero ones. fair point june and sorry to do it to you... but!
this was interesting but organized extremely weird to me. there would be brief mentions of things i wish were expanded upon and then tangents that made no sense to me structurally (why did we spend the last 3-4 pages of the lesbian bookstore section talking about harvey milk??). i liked some of the historical aspects i learned about lesbian bars/restaurants and sex toy shops, but didn't find the rest of the sections that interesting - i think a baby gay might though. i appreciate her transparency in how racist and segregated a lot of lesbian spaces were - a lot of white gays really mythologize the lesbian spaces in nyc in the 70s so it was nice to see a white author put that perspective in. however. i feel like this book is also in some ways complicit of the same thing - we have interviews and info about white bar owners, and then one line thrown away about the black lesbian bar owner in ALABAMA?? there's a much more interesting story you're teasing us with and not giving to us! i felt similarly with the lesbian bookstore section, which felt very defeatist in only highlighting bookstores that have since shuttered. they specifically mention a room of one's own in madison, a bookstore i've been to a few times, who is still lesbian-owned and hosts queer events constantly. later in the book, madison is also brought up as the current home for the women's music festival - so why are we not discussing success stories here? what did a room of own's one do that allowed them to stay open as a queer (lesbian) bookstore this whole time? maybe i'm just mad this book isn't what it was in my head - idk!
i'm also rating this low because i'm deeply sensitive about the topic of transphobia in lesbian spaces and i do not think this book took the right attitude towards that. when discussing racist or segregated lesbian bars or softball teams, it's done with an attitude that is clearly not giving leeway on these women's racist actions. it is presented matter-of-fact. in fact, june doesn't interview with or give any pull quotes from the racist organizers, giving attention instead to those who challenged party promoters in court or created their own teams for women of color. that's why it's so upsetting to me that the lesbian land section in particular gave so much credence to TERFs. maybe it's june thomas' own guilt at having been a frequent attender of past events such as the women's music festival, who knows. TERFs are given a voice in this, june thomas coddles them by giving reasoning behind why they think the way they do and saying she "understands" it to some degree. she expresses that she disagrees with them but believes they deserve "credit" for the work they've done - which is a little nuts, because most of the lesbian land section highlighted the separatist movement as massive failures that were miserable to be a part of. the lesbian land section ends with a plea to TERFs to re-consider and understand that they are echoing rhetoric that conservatives once used against them. and like... what the fuck? are we pleading with racists to stop being racist? why are we holding their hand about this so much?
i think the transphobic section of the lesbian community is very minor, and i've only really encountered it online - i think it's a generational thing, but i hate that for some reason the greater community as a large is stereotyped as being TERF-y but this kind of "gentle parenting" of transphobes is exactly what gets us to that point.
this was interesting but organized extremely weird to me. there would be brief mentions of things i wish were expanded upon and then tangents that made no sense to me structurally (why did we spend the last 3-4 pages of the lesbian bookstore section talking about harvey milk??). i liked some of the historical aspects i learned about lesbian bars/restaurants and sex toy shops, but didn't find the rest of the sections that interesting - i think a baby gay might though. i appreciate her transparency in how racist and segregated a lot of lesbian spaces were - a lot of white gays really mythologize the lesbian spaces in nyc in the 70s so it was nice to see a white author put that perspective in. however. i feel like this book is also in some ways complicit of the same thing - we have interviews and info about white bar owners, and then one line thrown away about the black lesbian bar owner in ALABAMA?? there's a much more interesting story you're teasing us with and not giving to us! i felt similarly with the lesbian bookstore section, which felt very defeatist in only highlighting bookstores that have since shuttered. they specifically mention a room of one's own in madison, a bookstore i've been to a few times, who is still lesbian-owned and hosts queer events constantly. later in the book, madison is also brought up as the current home for the women's music festival - so why are we not discussing success stories here? what did a room of own's one do that allowed them to stay open as a queer (lesbian) bookstore this whole time? maybe i'm just mad this book isn't what it was in my head - idk!
i'm also rating this low because i'm deeply sensitive about the topic of transphobia in lesbian spaces and i do not think this book took the right attitude towards that. when discussing racist or segregated lesbian bars or softball teams, it's done with an attitude that is clearly not giving leeway on these women's racist actions. it is presented matter-of-fact. in fact, june doesn't interview with or give any pull quotes from the racist organizers, giving attention instead to those who challenged party promoters in court or created their own teams for women of color. that's why it's so upsetting to me that the lesbian land section in particular gave so much credence to TERFs. maybe it's june thomas' own guilt at having been a frequent attender of past events such as the women's music festival, who knows. TERFs are given a voice in this, june thomas coddles them by giving reasoning behind why they think the way they do and saying she "understands" it to some degree. she expresses that she disagrees with them but believes they deserve "credit" for the work they've done - which is a little nuts, because most of the lesbian land section highlighted the separatist movement as massive failures that were miserable to be a part of. the lesbian land section ends with a plea to TERFs to re-consider and understand that they are echoing rhetoric that conservatives once used against them. and like... what the fuck? are we pleading with racists to stop being racist? why are we holding their hand about this so much?
i think the transphobic section of the lesbian community is very minor, and i've only really encountered it online - i think it's a generational thing, but i hate that for some reason the greater community as a large is stereotyped as being TERF-y but this kind of "gentle parenting" of transphobes is exactly what gets us to that point.