garchump's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
crow_dandy's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
marginaliant's review against another edition
3.0
Like most theorists, Halberstam sometimes comes across like a person who has never interacted with other humans. This book regularly falls back on using the passive voice (for example, that 'butchness is seen as being XYZ' or similar) to avoid having to give more concrete evidence that a particular notion exists at all, let alone is as wide-spread as Halberstam would have you believe. One segment that had me flabbergasted was in the first chapter in which he asserts that men's restrooms are not just homosocial but "homoerotic" spaces. There's no follow up or explanation to this ludicrous statement. I did an informal poll of six men of my acquaintance, not a big sample size I know, and 0% of them owned up to any "homoerotic" experiences in men's restrooms ("It's possibly about the least sexy place I could think of. It stinks in there.")
If we are going to attempt to make academia a more accessible place, I think saying things that are true ought to be high on the priority list.
I also struggle with Halberstam's reluctance to form a coherent definition of masculinity. Halberstam argues that masculinity is not aping male behavior, since even cisgender men strive for masculinity. Not to be a Jungian or anything but I don't see any contradiction in the idea that men strive idealized male archetype, that seems logical to me (not that I think that is ideal.) I think that an ordinary writer might have instead listed traits that are masculine, but that would probably give Halberstam away as someone who dislikes and distrusts femininity. He has no fond words whatsoever for femininity, which he characterizes as ridiculous and artificial in the chapter about drag or dangerous and unhealthy in the chapters about cisgender, heterosexual feminine women. I can think of too many examples of ways that femininity can be performed by women in ways that are not encouraged by society as a whole, and "too much" femininity is definitely a critique I have seen before from [cis, hetero] men as well as [cis, hetero] women.)
Because of this disconnect with the lived experiences of actual butches and other masculine women, I also worry about the implications of some of Halberstam's points. One of those that has stuck with me is the idea that masculine women and Butches constitute a separate gender (or cluster of genders.) Some butches do identify as gender non-conforming or non-binary, but many do not, and so I think that othering butchness from womanness and from lesbianism is not only historically untenable but also extremely dangerous. Butches and masculine women do not universally have "male privilege" that protects them from patriarchal scrutiny or violence and it is important for those of us who construct safe communities to carve out room for butches or other masculine women (Side note: This is why I am extremely opposed to use phrases like "women and femmes" that exclude Butches and other masculine women from the protections offered by feminist and other LGBT-inclusive spaces.)
It was not all bad and there were definitely sections in this book that I flagged for later reference (reading this the same month as reading Alison Bechdel's The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues, and two biographies of Anne Lister has been very interesting.) This book shines in chapters where Halberstam actually has to talk to other people, such as the chapter about drag kings or even the conclusion which discusses his own experiences as a masculine child who wanted to box but was prevented from doing so by his parents. The final chapter ends with a meditation on what encouraging masculinity could do for young girls who are often encouraged to be feminine to the point of sexualization and I also found that very interesting to think about, although I would argue that either encouraging androgyny or encouraging neither would be better long-term solutions.
If we are going to attempt to make academia a more accessible place, I think saying things that are true ought to be high on the priority list.
I also struggle with Halberstam's reluctance to form a coherent definition of masculinity. Halberstam argues that masculinity is not aping male behavior, since even cisgender men strive for masculinity. Not to be a Jungian or anything but I don't see any contradiction in the idea that men strive idealized male archetype, that seems logical to me (not that I think that is ideal.) I think that an ordinary writer might have instead listed traits that are masculine, but that would probably give Halberstam away as someone who dislikes and distrusts femininity. He has no fond words whatsoever for femininity, which he characterizes as ridiculous and artificial in the chapter about drag or dangerous and unhealthy in the chapters about cisgender, heterosexual feminine women. I can think of too many examples of ways that femininity can be performed by women in ways that are not encouraged by society as a whole, and "too much" femininity is definitely a critique I have seen before from [cis, hetero] men as well as [cis, hetero] women.)
Because of this disconnect with the lived experiences of actual butches and other masculine women, I also worry about the implications of some of Halberstam's points. One of those that has stuck with me is the idea that masculine women and Butches constitute a separate gender (or cluster of genders.) Some butches do identify as gender non-conforming or non-binary, but many do not, and so I think that othering butchness from womanness and from lesbianism is not only historically untenable but also extremely dangerous. Butches and masculine women do not universally have "male privilege" that protects them from patriarchal scrutiny or violence and it is important for those of us who construct safe communities to carve out room for butches or other masculine women (Side note: This is why I am extremely opposed to use phrases like "women and femmes" that exclude Butches and other masculine women from the protections offered by feminist and other LGBT-inclusive spaces.)
It was not all bad and there were definitely sections in this book that I flagged for later reference (reading this the same month as reading Alison Bechdel's The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues, and two biographies of Anne Lister has been very interesting.) This book shines in chapters where Halberstam actually has to talk to other people, such as the chapter about drag kings or even the conclusion which discusses his own experiences as a masculine child who wanted to box but was prevented from doing so by his parents. The final chapter ends with a meditation on what encouraging masculinity could do for young girls who are often encouraged to be feminine to the point of sexualization and I also found that very interesting to think about, although I would argue that either encouraging androgyny or encouraging neither would be better long-term solutions.
mrsdalloways's review against another edition
4.0
Remarkably comprehensive and dense, yet accessible! Good for those already relatively familiar with queer and feminist theories. The author is obviously so passionate about this topic and he has studied it so in depth and with so so much love for the subject matter. There truly is not enough academic work that is cantered around female gender non conformity or transmasculinity and its connection with lesbian culture
bookmama1980's review against another edition
While I really enjoyed reading this text, I almost felt like even though Halberstam was saying that female masculinity should not be assumed as indicative of sexuality, that she still directly connected them as essential. But that also could have been me. Loved it anyway!