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inthemoonlight 's review for:
The Tragedy of Heterosexuality
by Jane Ward
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
To start with the good, this book does have an interesting examination of the heterosexual repair industry, pickup artists, and the ways that queerness challenges exptected heterosexual misery by giving an alternative to the expected "women be miserable and do all the labor while men should be working and hate their wives" narrative. I think that for cishet people who have a limited understanding of feminism and have resigned themselves to misery this could be a useful an insightful read.
That being said, I went into this really expecting an analysis of straight culture through a queer cultural lens, and instead ended up with "as a lesbian, this was weird to hear" for a majority of the book. I'd estimate that 10-15% of the book actually delves deeper past the surface of straight culture being weird and often shallow. Also, I couldn't help but feel the analysis being given could have really benefitted from a trans gender-fuckery perspective. While she is analyzing heterosexual culture, above all else she's analyzing *cisgender* heterosexual culture. Who better to analyze this than those who challenge heteropatriarchy the most? Especially genderqueer POC, who fit into these molds the least. To be fair, in the beginning of the book she does make it clear she's a white lesbian and the limits of her perspective. While I appreciate the self awareness you could really feel the lack of perspective for much of the book.
That being said, I went into this really expecting an analysis of straight culture through a queer cultural lens, and instead ended up with "as a lesbian, this was weird to hear" for a majority of the book. I'd estimate that 10-15% of the book actually delves deeper past the surface of straight culture being weird and often shallow. Also, I couldn't help but feel the analysis being given could have really benefitted from a trans gender-fuckery perspective. While she is analyzing heterosexual culture, above all else she's analyzing *cisgender* heterosexual culture. Who better to analyze this than those who challenge heteropatriarchy the most? Especially genderqueer POC, who fit into these molds the least. To be fair, in the beginning of the book she does make it clear she's a white lesbian and the limits of her perspective. While I appreciate the self awareness you could really feel the lack of perspective for much of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment