A review by malayapapaya
Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker

informative inspiring reflective

5.0

Queer: A Graphic History is an easy-to-read introduction to the development and ideas of queer theory and how we can “queer” the world by disrupting norms and challenging binary ways of thinking (not just in terms of gender and sexuality, but also in the binaries of assimilationist/liberating, good/bad, etc). And so much more. I’ve had to take this book slowly some times I start it and other times I whip through it. It mentions the history while also pointing out a lot of the flaws of that history, and as someone who learned a lot of this material as I read the book (and who has no deeper knowledge to criticize from) really inspired me to want to learn and deconstruct more. (That sounds like a non-compliment lmao. The point is that it was a very motivating start for someone who wants to dig deeper). 

For anyone who wants specifics, here are some of the things I found most intriguing and marked for deeper reading later:
1) bell hooks’s work about marginality as resistance to the “norm” instead of a place of despair, and the place of compassion in activism
2) Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s work calling attention to the fact that our definition of sexual orientation categorizes only by gender when there are SO MANY OTHER THINGS it could categorize by
3) Jack Halberstam’s “The Queer Art of Failure”
4) Sari van Anders’s sexual configurations theory, connected to #2 above

I loved this and will be recommending it to everyone ever lol