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A review by ninarivagf
A Short History of Queer Women by Kirsty Loehr
1.0
basically the premise of this book is that historians have been erasing lesbians through history and we're here to fix that up BUT then the writer says she's going to follow the historians for trans people and talk about them by their birth gender... There's even a story about a trans man and then at the end she backfires and decides to say he (the author writes "she/he") was a woman.
Also, where are the trans women? there's a lot of full story about cis white queer women, does the writer even know trans lesbians exist im not sure. there's also not much about black queer women either. its always very short and not well handed. marsha johnson only got around five lines about her death. tbh it's clear the writers only wanted to talk about (white) lesbians issue so when she talks about a black woman, she goes with some blank statements about how racism is bad but doesn't expand much on their stories. How can you talk about queer women history without trans and black women...?
And total other subject but, can we show a little of empathy in regards of the genocide of the jewish people during world was ii? I mean, yes, the nazis didn't like gaypeople but writing that anne frank was "loving breasts" is just inappropriate. Anne (and her family) went into hiding and died because she was jewish, not because she might have maybe liked girls and downsizing that she was jewish because the author wants to fantasize about her being a lesbian is just disgusting and offensive.
Next to the rest it's not as bad but the book has no sources which makes it hard to figure out how much is accurate and how much is made-up, and the writer's sarcastic tone was annoying and depending the story felt insensitive (the "oh i bet they didn't teach you at school about anne frank's sexuality", and i thought the tone for the few black stories weren't right especially when she talks about the great granddaughter of a slave and a slaver.)
This book is NOT about queer women history. It's mostly about fantasizing about the sexuality of certain female figures, a little of transphobia, insensitivity towards jewish and black stories and a narrator who is painfully unfunny and keep repeating "who says lesbians aren't funny" isn't what gonna make me laugh.
Also, where are the trans women? there's a lot of full story about cis white queer women, does the writer even know trans lesbians exist im not sure. there's also not much about black queer women either. its always very short and not well handed. marsha johnson only got around five lines about her death. tbh it's clear the writers only wanted to talk about (white) lesbians issue so when she talks about a black woman, she goes with some blank statements about how racism is bad but doesn't expand much on their stories. How can you talk about queer women history without trans and black women...?
And total other subject but, can we show a little of empathy in regards of the genocide of the jewish people during world was ii? I mean, yes, the nazis didn't like gaypeople but writing that anne frank was "loving breasts" is just inappropriate. Anne (and her family) went into hiding and died because she was jewish, not because she might have maybe liked girls and downsizing that she was jewish because the author wants to fantasize about her being a lesbian is just disgusting and offensive.
Next to the rest it's not as bad but the book has no sources which makes it hard to figure out how much is accurate and how much is made-up, and the writer's sarcastic tone was annoying and depending the story felt insensitive (the "oh i bet they didn't teach you at school about anne frank's sexuality", and i thought the tone for the few black stories weren't right especially when she talks about the great granddaughter of a slave and a slaver.)
This book is NOT about queer women history. It's mostly about fantasizing about the sexuality of certain female figures, a little of transphobia, insensitivity towards jewish and black stories and a narrator who is painfully unfunny and keep repeating "who says lesbians aren't funny" isn't what gonna make me laugh.