A review by garberdog
Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity by Chloë Brushwood Rose, Anna Camilleri

5.0

Fantastic, eclectic anthology of writing by persons who identify with and about queer femininity. Crucially, this collection treats "femme" as an identity of its own, rather than as a (subordinate) partner of "butch." While these is some diversity in this collection, it remains heavily white and cisgender; it would have been a more through treatment if the editors had included the voices of more trans and non-binary femmes. As other reviewers have noted, Sky Gilbert's piece was really out-of-place; frankly misogynistic at points, and really out of touch with the rest of the collection, My favorite piece was probably Kathryn Payne's "Whores and Bitches Who Sleep with Women," though Lisa Duggan's and Kathleen McHugh's "A Fem(me)inist Manifesto" is a close second. I found myself actually smiling reading this book. It's a good mix of personal essays, critical, essays, poems, and even some comics. Definitely worth a read, as it's short, and it felt really good to read in a way I can't really explain.