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nenaveenstra's review against another edition
funny
informative
fast-paced
3.75
I can’t fault this book for doing exactly what it says on the tin; Kristy Loehr gives a very brief overview of what we know about queer women in history. However, in being so brief, she has made some questionable choices. The most important of which being that the queer women discussed in this book, are mostly lesbian women, or women who we would refer to as lesbians nowadays. Sure, bisexual and trans women are acknowledged in this book, and I appreciate that, but I wish they had gotten more page time.
I think this book tried to be funny, while also giving the reader names and titles for further reading, and I think it succeeded in that, and yet it leaves me feeling… unsatisfied. What I really wanted from this book was to gain new knowledge that I could tell all my queer friends the next time we meet up, but instead, I got homework. All of the information in this book was very surface-level, and with the humorous nature of this book, I wasn’t even sure if I could trust all of it.
That being said, I did enjoy this read, and I will lend it out to my friends who want to know more about queer history. Although this book might be surface-level, it sure does succeed in sparking the interest of the reader, and it functions as an excellent sample of all there is to learn. On top of that, I liked how aware it was of intersectionality, and that not just white/European-centered stories were portrayed. It was actually quite diverse!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Sexual content
Obviously, queer history is filled with a lot of trauma and grief. The content warnings above refer to that, as well as the writing style of the author - but I don't think this book itself is transphobic at all.jamielav's review against another edition
Horribly misinformed. No citations for anything she was saying. Transphobic statements.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
booksjessreads's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
Overall, a really informative short book about the history of queer women which was witty and funny but also reflective of identity and queerness for women. There were a lot of gems in this book of whom I wasn't aware, and it was great for them to be written about in such a positive way.
The queer joy that emanated from this book was superior and I really enjoyed this element of the book. To say this is also a non-fiction book, it reads so easy which is helped by the matter-of-fact writing which made things so much more digestible. Alongside the jokes and the wit, this just made it a breeze to read. One issue though, was that sometimes, there was just too much cringe jokes and sometimes they could have been cut out, they just weren't needed constantly. It did stop more towards the end, but especially in the beginning, it felt like the witty writing was used to pad areas out.
Furthermore, another issue was that nothing was referenced throughout, but rather a list of sources was presented at the end. It would have helped to have those references throughout to follow up sources so we could do more research. However, I appreciate that without the footnotes etc. it did make it look more appealing to read and this was probably the purpose behind that.
Regardless, it was a really great introduction to queer women in history and I look forward to going back through and researching these wonderful women in more depth. An overall really good read.
The queer joy that emanated from this book was superior and I really enjoyed this element of the book. To say this is also a non-fiction book, it reads so easy which is helped by the matter-of-fact writing which made things so much more digestible. Alongside the jokes and the wit, this just made it a breeze to read. One issue though, was that sometimes, there was just too much cringe jokes and sometimes they could have been cut out, they just weren't needed constantly. It did stop more towards the end, but especially in the beginning, it felt like the witty writing was used to pad areas out.
Furthermore, another issue was that nothing was referenced throughout, but rather a list of sources was presented at the end. It would have helped to have those references throughout to follow up sources so we could do more research. However, I appreciate that without the footnotes etc. it did make it look more appealing to read and this was probably the purpose behind that.
Regardless, it was a really great introduction to queer women in history and I look forward to going back through and researching these wonderful women in more depth. An overall really good read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Minor: Suicide attempt
ideotape's review against another edition
1.5
"Sure, lesbianism as a 'concept' did not exist in the past, but it doesn't mean we can't use it to refer to certain women. It's not a slur, it's not an insult, it's a word that just offers happy visibility. We must also remember that gender theory is a modern tradition, and that applying it to a society that did not function as such is just, well... like those highly educated and respected men, a bit daft."
Baffled by the hypocrisy in this paragraph. The way people understand and express gender and sexuality is constantly evolving, no modern definition is going to truly capture how people in the past experienced either. But if we are going to argue we can label someone a lesbian because they can be interpreted to fit our understanding of the word we have to also accept the same be done with individuals fitting the experience we now define as trans, doing otherwise is just, well, a bit daft.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
bronzeageholly's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Lesbophobia
szucker6's review against another edition
0.5
UGH what a colossal disappointment. In addition to being TERFy and transphobic, it was so heavily leaning into this weird sarcastic voice that I genuinely couldn’t tell at times what was fact and what was flourish.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
maiahhtratchh's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
2.25
honestly this book and the storytelling was not for me. I know it is a short history but the writing seemed superficial and speculative. There were sources listed at the back, honestly my favourite part, but supplementing them throughout the reading would have been so much better. It would have possibly taken away the speculative aspect or at least diminishing it. Everything post-WW2 was told better or more sensitively (although that may do to us having more sources and less room to speculate). My biggest issue was the insensitivity with which some of the people were treated, specifically within the WW2 era. Lots of the women were characterized and sometimes even referred to as characters. It just really put me off.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia
hayley23's review against another edition
was excited to read this but it’s incredibly transphobic.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
jamesflint's review against another edition
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia and Lesbophobia
starsinmasonjars's review against another edition
I got the Advanced Readers copy of this from work. As a very butch and sapphic person, I was excited to read it. Then I actually tried to read it and ended up with transphobic word salad. Loehr kicks off this shit fest by saying she will only recognize people by their assigned gender at birth, even if they claimed to be a different gender throughout their life, she’s decided they’re lesbians and will write about them as such. She decided that Eleno de Céspedes is a lesbian despite him literally getting imprisoned and getting lashings for refusing to be seen as a woman. She completely avoids using pronouns for Radclyffe Hall, who Loehr says “identified as male” then on the next page she says that by investigating transgender people, sexologists were being misogynistic. Loehr repeatedly calls attention to the fact that the villains in her stories are straight white men, which always leaves out that these people are cis. I know that it’s a given but it seems like a deliberate exclusion. Loehr probably thinks she’s the funniest person on the planet with her commentary, but it’s grating and from a place of privilege that I don’t have access to so it seems like she’s punching down. On top of all of this, there are no sources. There are some author footnotes but nothing indicating actual research. Maybe she just did a quick google? Idk. I don’t recommend this book and it seems like some TERF revisionist history.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
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