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betsycharlene 's review for:
Bad Gays: A Homosexual History
by Ben Miller, Huw Lemmey
I appreciated the point that was driven home in this book that activism that is not intersectional is 'bad'. All too often we see activist movements relying on privilege in certain areas to extend a more hospitable treatment towards gays who also share that privilege. This book highlights a number of these mostly wealthy, cis, white men.
This book includes a lot of history to give context for each featured 'bad gay'. While writing about historical events can tend to get dry and academic, the authors did a good job keeping it entertaining, and sharing tidbits about homosexual history that we don't often hear about.
The one criticism I have is for the few non white or non male figures thrown in- because there were so few, it almost felt like an obligatory 'diversity' addition. I understood their focus mainly on western culture and white men, because that is at the root of the specific 'bad gay' they were highlighting. Margaret mead was also in line with this privileged point of view, making her less out of place than the inclusion of Yukio Mishima. His story was incredibly compelling, and I loved hearing a bit about Japan and it's history with homosexuality, but because there weren't any other cultures also represented, it felt out of place.
This book includes a lot of history to give context for each featured 'bad gay'. While writing about historical events can tend to get dry and academic, the authors did a good job keeping it entertaining, and sharing tidbits about homosexual history that we don't often hear about.
The one criticism I have is for the few non white or non male figures thrown in- because there were so few, it almost felt like an obligatory 'diversity' addition. I understood their focus mainly on western culture and white men, because that is at the root of the specific 'bad gay' they were highlighting. Margaret mead was also in line with this privileged point of view, making her less out of place than the inclusion of Yukio Mishima. His story was incredibly compelling, and I loved hearing a bit about Japan and it's history with homosexuality, but because there weren't any other cultures also represented, it felt out of place.