mimithorp's review against another edition
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.0
Fast to read, enjoyable and humourous, but it's frustrating that no sources are provided during the actual body of the text (there are some notes on sources at the end) and while the witty sarcastic feel helps the pace, it is still used in some more serious moments which feels a little distasteful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Lesbophobia
bronzeageholly's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Sexual content, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Infidelity, Biphobia, Death, Racism, Transphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Misogyny
ramalam98's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
3.0
Lots of mixed feelings about this.
A lot of people in the reviews have spoken against the decision to refer to historical people as their assigned sex at birth (i.e. women) rather than what they may have identified as, calling this transphobic. While I largely agree that in the cases where these people lived life as men this book should have treated them as such, I do also believe that we should be very careful when applying modern gender terms to historical people. I attended an event where the author herself spoke about this, and stated that it was largely a decision imposed upon her by the publisher. She also touched upon the fact that lesbians and trans men have a massive shared history and that the lives of people who would today possibly identify as trans men are still incredibly important to talk about in the context of lesbian history.
That aside, the last third of this book was definitely the strongest part, as the lack of complete historical evidence for lesbians before that section meant that the author has padded out her writing with a lot of sass and sarcasm. I am a lover of sarcasm, but when every other sentence is a ‘witty’ comment, it gets old very quickly. For this reason I found a lot of this quite difficult to get through. Furthermore in several cases I couldn’t work out if the author was stating something that existed or was being sarcastic, as she didn’t actually include direct references to anything.
On to the good stuff though, this was still a great and snappy read and a very accessible starting point for those wishing to learn more about historical lesbians. There was a lot in here that I didn’t know about, a lot to laugh at and a lot of sapphic joy.
A lot of people in the reviews have spoken against the decision to refer to historical people as their assigned sex at birth (i.e. women) rather than what they may have identified as, calling this transphobic. While I largely agree that in the cases where these people lived life as men this book should have treated them as such, I do also believe that we should be very careful when applying modern gender terms to historical people. I attended an event where the author herself spoke about this, and stated that it was largely a decision imposed upon her by the publisher. She also touched upon the fact that lesbians and trans men have a massive shared history and that the lives of people who would today possibly identify as trans men are still incredibly important to talk about in the context of lesbian history.
That aside, the last third of this book was definitely the strongest part, as the lack of complete historical evidence for lesbians before that section meant that the author has padded out her writing with a lot of sass and sarcasm. I am a lover of sarcasm, but when every other sentence is a ‘witty’ comment, it gets old very quickly. For this reason I found a lot of this quite difficult to get through. Furthermore in several cases I couldn’t work out if the author was stating something that existed or was being sarcastic, as she didn’t actually include direct references to anything.
On to the good stuff though, this was still a great and snappy read and a very accessible starting point for those wishing to learn more about historical lesbians. There was a lot in here that I didn’t know about, a lot to laugh at and a lot of sapphic joy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Racism, and War
Minor: Terminal illness and Suicide
More...