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A review by marioncromb
Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity by Michael Paramo
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
The premise of this book was really interesting, so I wanted this book to be so much more than it was. Perhaps I was spoiled by Sherronda J Brown's Refusing Compusory Sexuality, which was so amazing and insightful, that nothing else is coming near. In this book i was looking for the same insight, more focused on colonialism (and thus with a wide worldview), and the intersections of asexuality, aromanticism and agender identity.
The problem I had is that the language used was quite academic and obscuring, to essentially say in unnecessarily convoluted language nothing particularly new, and the arguments were not that rigorous. For example in the first few chapters, historical context seemed to only be american history of the past 200 years or so, and neglected complexities, e.g. not mentioning magnus hirshfeld, who was using the 'scientific legitimacy' of sexology to advocate for gay rights and gay people as being natural and normal.
The book also talks a lot about interconnectedness and refusing separable modes of thought but then treats its three As extremely separately! Literally 3 distinct chapters! I really thought from the title this book would explore how and why aroace and agender identities often overlap, how gender is constructed by sexuality, how its all connected, but there was none of that! Such a missed opportunity. The only way they are properly linked is in the first chapter where they are combined by similar ways that identities are invalidated. I would have also liked more exploration of sexuality and gender structures outside of the west and colonised places/times - what are some more alternatives? And also, just because they are not colonial, doesn't mean that they are not flawed too.
On the positive side, i thought chapter 5 (On love and the (A)romantic - basically the emergence of romantic love under colonialism) was very good, and was maybe closest to the premise - why couldnt the whole book have been as interesting as this chapter?
tl;dr wanted more rigour, more exploration of the links/overlaps connections of these concepts, just something more in general
The problem I had is that the language used was quite academic and obscuring, to essentially say in unnecessarily convoluted language nothing particularly new, and the arguments were not that rigorous. For example in the first few chapters, historical context seemed to only be american history of the past 200 years or so, and neglected complexities, e.g. not mentioning magnus hirshfeld, who was using the 'scientific legitimacy' of sexology to advocate for gay rights and gay people as being natural and normal.
The book also talks a lot about interconnectedness and refusing separable modes of thought but then treats its three As extremely separately! Literally 3 distinct chapters! I really thought from the title this book would explore how and why aroace and agender identities often overlap, how gender is constructed by sexuality, how its all connected, but there was none of that! Such a missed opportunity. The only way they are properly linked is in the first chapter where they are combined by similar ways that identities are invalidated. I would have also liked more exploration of sexuality and gender structures outside of the west and colonised places/times - what are some more alternatives? And also, just because they are not colonial, doesn't mean that they are not flawed too.
On the positive side, i thought chapter 5 (On love and the (A)romantic - basically the emergence of romantic love under colonialism) was very good, and was maybe closest to the premise - why couldnt the whole book have been as interesting as this chapter?
tl;dr wanted more rigour, more exploration of the links/overlaps connections of these concepts, just something more in general