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Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'
Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Ben Miller, Huw Lemmey
11 reviews
amyjo25's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Sexual content
vaguelyredhead's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Transphobia
Moderate: Sexual content and Colonisation
Minor: Genocide
the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
I feel like this book sets out with a really interesting thesis and then proceeds to not be able to address it adequately at all. It seems to me to be a problem of trying to tackle too many angles, which leads to not adequately discussing any of them well. On one hand, this book seeks to go through history from a queer perspective, which is interesting but falls apart when trying to deep dive into the "bad gays" it is profiling. The chosen profiles don't really fit into the chosen narrative arc of homosexuality throughout history, so it feels muddled as a focus. This is not helped by the run-on sentences and lack of overarching reflections for the thesis statement.
The book also tries to look at queers who are evil or bad throughout history, but it doesn't provide enough context on any of them to really substantiate these claims of evilness. For many, the individuals just seem to be participants in a colonial/imperial/racist system rather than people actively enacting harm. For individuals with whom I was familiar (such as J. Edgar Hoover), I felt that the details were far too light on the very real and active harm perpetuated by the individual. If you go into this story without the background knowledge on the people profiled, I don't feel the authors really provide it or justify it enough for you to think "ah yes, this is a person who could be seen as truly evil". They also have a very white and male selection of individuals that they profile, which they don't address at any time.
They might have had better results if they chose fewer individuals and really dived into their respective backgrounds, while making stronger points and analysis related to the thesis they set out to discuss. With the great number of people profiled, the biographies feel very disjointed and not cohesive as a book.
This is still 4-star for me, since I learned a lot of interesting things about homosexuality throughout history and the figures highlighted in the book. If you're really interested in history, I think there are some great historical nuggets buried in here that still make it an interesting read!
The book also tries to look at queers who are evil or bad throughout history, but it doesn't provide enough context on any of them to really substantiate these claims of evilness. For many, the individuals just seem to be participants in a colonial/imperial/racist system rather than people actively enacting harm. For individuals with whom I was familiar (such as J. Edgar Hoover), I felt that the details were far too light on the very real and active harm perpetuated by the individual. If you go into this story without the background knowledge on the people profiled, I don't feel the authors really provide it or justify it enough for you to think "ah yes, this is a person who could be seen as truly evil". They also have a very white and male selection of individuals that they profile, which they don't address at any time.
They might have had better results if they chose fewer individuals and really dived into their respective backgrounds, while making stronger points and analysis related to the thesis they set out to discuss. With the great number of people profiled, the biographies feel very disjointed and not cohesive as a book.
This is still 4-star for me, since I learned a lot of interesting things about homosexuality throughout history and the figures highlighted in the book. If you're really interested in history, I think there are some great historical nuggets buried in here that still make it an interesting read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Colonisation
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Minor: Genocide and Hate crime
vainnerj's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Incredibly interesting narrative and really expanded my view on gay history. Definitely would NOT listen to the audiobook aloud or around children. Will read again soon to make sure I got all of the details.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
katyfayyyx's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
2.5
Happy Pride Month 🏳️🌈. I will be honest there was no reason why I started reading this book I just saw it on my bookshelf and I thought I wanted to read something that was non-fiction so my brain doesn't turn off after collage and it is pride month so I thought why not. Also can we have a moment of silence for that cover, I don't know why but I fucking love this cover. However, I had the same issue with this book that I did with the last book I read as a love the idea of this book I just wished another author has wrote this book because it is just such a good idea but it has been executed so poorly. I love the idea of this book and I really liked some of the chapter but at the sometime I hated some of the other chapters some where just so dead and boring and you can tell the chapter that the authors had a clear passion and interest for as they are just written with more passion and than other chapter it just felt like they had copied and pasted their wikipedia page on other people's characters. Which again puts me in a weird position because I can't rate this 3 stars because for me its means I liked all of this book which in fact I didn't there was sometimes that this book made me never want to read again, I just wanted to put this book down and never look at it again because I was just so fucking bored.
However, there was a number of elements of this book that I really did like or even love one of which was how diverse this book was when it come to race, nationality, class however I would say I wish there was more diversity when it came to gender and gender identify. I also loved how this book did not hide away from the harm and the privilege that gay white man has and the harm they have done with that and how this is not just a discussion about sexuality but about race and class and how your experience as a queer people can be different because of this other factors. I also really like the introduction and the way it set out all the idea of this book in an easy but fun and interesting way and it has definitely got my attention. it provides you with a lot of information but it does it in a clear way that keeps you interested. I would say something I thought was a little cringe was the way they would be discussing a really serious topic such as empire but then would try put a joke which 99% of the time wasn't even funny and I just wanted them to stop. I will say I liked how there was a discussion of how homosexuality has been weaponised in a number of ways such as race and antisemitism. I will also say this book was very clearly well researched, referenced with well developed points. Somethings else I really enjoyed about this book was that not of these bad gays are actually bad however does not shy away from their bad and sometimes evil behaviour but also adds a new perspective but not justifying it.
However, they are the only things
However, there was a number of elements of this book that I really did like or even love one of which was how diverse this book was when it come to race, nationality, class however I would say I wish there was more diversity when it came to gender and gender identify. I also loved how this book did not hide away from the harm and the privilege that gay white man has and the harm they have done with that and how this is not just a discussion about sexuality but about race and class and how your experience as a queer people can be different because of this other factors. I also really like the introduction and the way it set out all the idea of this book in an easy but fun and interesting way and it has definitely got my attention. it provides you with a lot of information but it does it in a clear way that keeps you interested. I would say something I thought was a little cringe was the way they would be discussing a really serious topic such as empire but then would try put a joke which 99% of the time wasn't even funny and I just wanted them to stop. I will say I liked how there was a discussion of how homosexuality has been weaponised in a number of ways such as race and antisemitism. I will also say this book was very clearly well researched, referenced with well developed points. Somethings else I really enjoyed about this book was that not of these bad gays are actually bad however does not shy away from their bad and sometimes evil behaviour but also adds a new perspective but not justifying it.
However, they are the only things
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Death and Sexual content
Minor: Cursing, Genocide, and War
mermaidsherbet's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Antisemitism, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and War
j_squaredd's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Classism
Moderate: Sexual content and Slavery
Minor: Torture
mackenzienoelle's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
3.0
It was too easy for me to get zoned out. And also they didn’t include nearly enough female bad gays. Audiobook has big errors in certain spots but it fixes itself and no information is lost.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Sexual content
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
gls_merch's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.75
The first objective of Bad Gays is to introduce readers to gay people in history, who were not heroes. These people were flawed, sometimes even criminally so, but often, they were very successful. In many cases, people do not even remember that they were gay. In achieving this goal, the authors, Lemmey and Miller, have done an excellent job in curating and writing about a fascinating cast of characters. It's in their theorizing through the lens of queer studies into the behaviors of gays of the past I have difficulty with.
In some of the biographies, the authors succeed in making a point using intersectionality where a reasonable reader can understand the propositions and the argument. I can accept how bad gays from the past might have engaged in classist, racist behavior to define what normal homesexuality (masculine Greek love vs. effeminate sissy) is like. However, too often the authors dive into the deep end with little or no supporting propositions other than a citation to another paper.
---
Here's a small sampling of some howlers passing as coherent propositions or arugments:
"It is interesting here to think about homosexuality as a path towards anti-colonial alliance..."
"... was part of a group of gay men – not a group that understood itself necessarily as such, but a group we can definitely think of as relatively coherent in hindsight – who understood their homosexuality as part of a broader project of metropolitan anticolonial radicalism."
"Some people desired to separate themselves from colonized people by preserving strict standards of heterosexual morality, while some others, like the homosexuals beginning to recognise themselves and be noticed in European cities in the late nineteenth century, began identifying with these othered people."
"Sometimes, those homosexual encounters in the colonies led to ambivalence towards, or even explicit criticism of, European imperialism."
"While they were embracing Marxism, and pushing their work towards socially committed themes, his work seemed to revel in the densely poetic, baroque language of metaphor and sensation."
"...although he oriented himself against both the materialism of the Left and the dry, worthy literature of socialist realism that seemed to run contrary to his own literary imagination soaked in myth, metaphor, and historical drama."
"By the mid-1950s, it had become an elite bauble, and today its starchitects actively express Marie Antoinette–like disdain for the migrant workers who die en masse while constructing their fantasy forms."
"...spanning from his work as a curator at the Museum of Modern Art interpreting the new International Style of architecture and bringing it to the United States, to his post-war reinvention as the architect of choice for several generations of corporate elites – stands as a metonym for the severing of the bonds between modernist aesthetics and progressive politics. That this career was punctuated by dedicated work promoting fascism and racist eugenics at home and abroad demonstrates the extent to which work in the service of American capitalism is also work in the service of racial capitalism.
---
I believe the authors can't credibly make these arguments without a logical, ordered series of propositions. At best, I think the author's get an incomplete grade (assuming all the cited papers are reasonably argued) on proving a point about how gays behaving badly sold out their gender identity through acquiescense to the ruling majority. At worst, it makes the book, outside of the recounting of biogrpahical facts, extremely difficult to agree with.
In some of the biographies, the authors succeed in making a point using intersectionality where a reasonable reader can understand the propositions and the argument. I can accept how bad gays from the past might have engaged in classist, racist behavior to define what normal homesexuality (masculine Greek love vs. effeminate sissy) is like. However, too often the authors dive into the deep end with little or no supporting propositions other than a citation to another paper.
---
Here's a small sampling of some howlers passing as coherent propositions or arugments:
"It is interesting here to think about homosexuality as a path towards anti-colonial alliance..."
"... was part of a group of gay men – not a group that understood itself necessarily as such, but a group we can definitely think of as relatively coherent in hindsight – who understood their homosexuality as part of a broader project of metropolitan anticolonial radicalism."
"Some people desired to separate themselves from colonized people by preserving strict standards of heterosexual morality, while some others, like the homosexuals beginning to recognise themselves and be noticed in European cities in the late nineteenth century, began identifying with these othered people."
"Sometimes, those homosexual encounters in the colonies led to ambivalence towards, or even explicit criticism of, European imperialism."
"While they were embracing Marxism, and pushing their work towards socially committed themes, his work seemed to revel in the densely poetic, baroque language of metaphor and sensation."
"...although he oriented himself against both the materialism of the Left and the dry, worthy literature of socialist realism that seemed to run contrary to his own literary imagination soaked in myth, metaphor, and historical drama."
"By the mid-1950s, it had become an elite bauble, and today its starchitects actively express Marie Antoinette–like disdain for the migrant workers who die en masse while constructing their fantasy forms."
"...spanning from his work as a curator at the Museum of Modern Art interpreting the new International Style of architecture and bringing it to the United States, to his post-war reinvention as the architect of choice for several generations of corporate elites – stands as a metonym for the severing of the bonds between modernist aesthetics and progressive politics. That this career was punctuated by dedicated work promoting fascism and racist eugenics at home and abroad demonstrates the extent to which work in the service of American capitalism is also work in the service of racial capitalism.
---
I believe the authors can't credibly make these arguments without a logical, ordered series of propositions. At best, I think the author's get an incomplete grade (assuming all the cited papers are reasonably argued) on proving a point about how gays behaving badly sold out their gender identity through acquiescense to the ruling majority. At worst, it makes the book, outside of the recounting of biogrpahical facts, extremely difficult to agree with.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
ronan_lesh's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and War
Minor: Infidelity, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia