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xenia_li's review
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Misogyny and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Outing and Toxic friendship
stevia333k's review against another edition
1-1.25 stars (lack of quotes are due to using an audiobook instead of a print book, but basically chapter 3 is where she all out snitches on herself)
I first want to say that there's only 1 other chapter/essay in this anthology that I'm interested in finishing & that's the "step on me" one I haven't started yet. Anyways, i'm not that inclined to rush to that right now, but I wanted to at least acknowledge it.
2ndly I want to acknowledge the book isn't written in comedy, it's written in a different sociolect without the code switching to more academic sociolect.
Basically this is technically an autotheory book. Here are some examples of some better ones,
I first want to say that there's only 1 other chapter/essay in this anthology that I'm interested in finishing & that's the "step on me" one I haven't started yet. Anyways, i'm not that inclined to rush to that right now, but I wanted to at least acknowledge it.
2ndly I want to acknowledge the book isn't written in comedy, it's written in a different sociolect without the code switching to more academic sociolect.
Basically this is technically an autotheory book. Here are some examples of some better ones,
- Zeba Blay's Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Women in Pop Culture
- Emma Dabiri's Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture
- Emma Dabiri's Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture
- Heather Radke's Butts: A Backstory
I was willing to give Jill Gutowitz's book a chance because even though I figured it was going to be very white, I also was hoping that it'd be more of a people's history thing given the internet history & the subcultural sociolect.
but this book comes from a self-described "professional gaylor hired by Vulture" "the q of q-anon for taylor swift fans 10 years after [the george w bush era-typical homophobia]".
The author was willing to give name drops, but excluded historical information such as deep canvassing from 2008-2015 & how celebrities are underrepresented in terms of their lgbtqia+ populations suggesting that there are still more closeted people in the famous population than in the general population, when posing this quote..
[about how taylor swift is exceptional]
saying taylor swift's fans would back her up is free-marketist AKA neoliberal logic that is denialist of not only state/institutional/street/domestic violence being a problem, but then also argues for a trickle-down theory of liberation. this denies how advertisers & ratings boards are anti-trans, anti-intersex, anti-queer, as part of the dictatorship of the racial capitalist patriarchy. this book was published in march 2022 so i'll extend some grace, but considering how the ACLU has a donor campaign to buy & distribute books that are being banned in Florida, how white supremacists are getting entrire libraries removed from communities, this is the kind of things that make this book a shit show.
however, i don't think considering her discussion of taylor swift that she understands gay-for-pay, even though she seems to understand WLM-for-pay when it comes to like Lindsay Lohan & socially enforced sexuality. the point being is that read-people-fic & specifically gaylor -- which to be fair has historical precedents such as conservative/fascist white supremacists speculating that shakespeare was straight & exceptionally "normal" in contrast to gay & or bi+ -- uses great man historiography.
[insert about is it the celebrities that soften the culture, or is it the culture that softens the celebrities, jill gutowitz then saying she sides with the celebrities soften the culture.]
She explicity sides explicitly sides with that historiography when it is a factually wrong position. basically she's looking for work/employment & trying to save her own ass by putting out a book that presumably teaches current day teenagers about george w bush era-typical homophobia. (so think about say white women teacher's power in the context of the school-to-prison-pipeline? that's the play she's making for.)
since jill gutowitz explicitly said this, i think she's trying to be hired by higher-up orgs (IDK pragerU? -- whoever is white & capitalist antisemitic, yet hires lgbtqia+ people) to develop propaganda for them. basically since this is an autotheory book & she's explicitly supporting/siding with great man historiography, then she is trying to develop enough of a personality cult to where she can have a less public-facing job.
these last 3 paragraphs are in response to the bookclub i went to, but when i speak in generic role statements, the policy is that if the role description fits, then voila.
as for people who object to the sociolect &
- the lack of code-switching (it's not comedy, it's a subcultural sociolect!)
- where they don't understand the point of at'ing a bunch of people (to try to drum up replies to her work to then have something else to publish & hopefully make money on)
- & don't know the pop culture references (which if I'm reading a book about somewhere i've never been, i use google or something since the fascists haven't taken it away yet!)
i despise the fact that the rating scale is shared by y'all chauvinists means you're trying to attack me too while i'm trying to prevent a personality cult from forming. like fuck you for your lack of tact because you'd prefer to talk in a way that appeases racial capitalist patriarchy (such as ageism, linguistic elitism, etc). -- jill gutowitz literally name-dropped "harry potter" in 2022 to use a blood libel canard against perez hilton, but instead you'd rather tone police her because you can't be bothered to google celebrities (which you should already be doing when you're reading a book in order to understand where in the conversation the book you're reading fits!) -- if y'all had, then you could've found out the names of sexual harassers to basically block & boycott from. she's literally a gossip writer. even if the list would've been rudimentary, sometimes you miss out. y'all chauvinists openly said you can't be bothered researching to protect your communities.
seriously, conflating the community who uses the same sociolect that jill gutowitz writes in with your criticisms of jill gutowitz is what jill gutowitz is banking on for career advancement. fuck you for giving her capital like that.
TLDR: she's a white supremacist careerist "feminist" weaponizing white tears, who would probably take a job as a school teacher criminalizing marginalized kids in the school-to-prison pipeline if they challenged her pedagogy/authority.
The author was willing to give name drops, but excluded historical information such as deep canvassing from 2008-2015 & how celebrities are underrepresented in terms of their lgbtqia+ populations suggesting that there are still more closeted people in the famous population than in the general population, when posing this quote..
[about how taylor swift is exceptional]
saying taylor swift's fans would back her up is free-marketist AKA neoliberal logic that is denialist of not only state/institutional/street/domestic violence being a problem, but then also argues for a trickle-down theory of liberation. this denies how advertisers & ratings boards are anti-trans, anti-intersex, anti-queer, as part of the dictatorship of the racial capitalist patriarchy. this book was published in march 2022 so i'll extend some grace, but considering how the ACLU has a donor campaign to buy & distribute books that are being banned in Florida, how white supremacists are getting entrire libraries removed from communities, this is the kind of things that make this book a shit show.
however, i don't think considering her discussion of taylor swift that she understands gay-for-pay, even though she seems to understand WLM-for-pay when it comes to like Lindsay Lohan & socially enforced sexuality. the point being is that read-people-fic & specifically gaylor -- which to be fair has historical precedents such as conservative/fascist white supremacists speculating that shakespeare was straight & exceptionally "normal" in contrast to gay & or bi+ -- uses great man historiography.
[insert about is it the celebrities that soften the culture, or is it the culture that softens the celebrities, jill gutowitz then saying she sides with the celebrities soften the culture.]
She explicity sides explicitly sides with that historiography when it is a factually wrong position. basically she's looking for work/employment & trying to save her own ass by putting out a book that presumably teaches current day teenagers about george w bush era-typical homophobia. (so think about say white women teacher's power in the context of the school-to-prison-pipeline? that's the play she's making for.)
since jill gutowitz explicitly said this, i think she's trying to be hired by higher-up orgs (IDK pragerU? -- whoever is white & capitalist antisemitic, yet hires lgbtqia+ people) to develop propaganda for them. basically since this is an autotheory book & she's explicitly supporting/siding with great man historiography, then she is trying to develop enough of a personality cult to where she can have a less public-facing job.
these last 3 paragraphs are in response to the bookclub i went to, but when i speak in generic role statements, the policy is that if the role description fits, then voila.
as for people who object to the sociolect &
- the lack of code-switching (it's not comedy, it's a subcultural sociolect!)
- where they don't understand the point of at'ing a bunch of people (to try to drum up replies to her work to then have something else to publish & hopefully make money on)
- & don't know the pop culture references (which if I'm reading a book about somewhere i've never been, i use google or something since the fascists haven't taken it away yet!)
i despise the fact that the rating scale is shared by y'all chauvinists means you're trying to attack me too while i'm trying to prevent a personality cult from forming. like fuck you for your lack of tact because you'd prefer to talk in a way that appeases racial capitalist patriarchy (such as ageism, linguistic elitism, etc). -- jill gutowitz literally name-dropped "harry potter" in 2022 to use a blood libel canard against perez hilton, but instead you'd rather tone police her because you can't be bothered to google celebrities (which you should already be doing when you're reading a book in order to understand where in the conversation the book you're reading fits!) -- if y'all had, then you could've found out the names of sexual harassers to basically block & boycott from. she's literally a gossip writer. even if the list would've been rudimentary, sometimes you miss out. y'all chauvinists openly said you can't be bothered researching to protect your communities.
seriously, conflating the community who uses the same sociolect that jill gutowitz writes in with your criticisms of jill gutowitz is what jill gutowitz is banking on for career advancement. fuck you for giving her capital like that.
TLDR: she's a white supremacist careerist "feminist" weaponizing white tears, who would probably take a job as a school teacher criminalizing marginalized kids in the school-to-prison pipeline if they challenged her pedagogy/authority.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Lesbophobia, Outing, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic
booknerdbetty's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
Minor: Misogyny
kathleencoughlin's review
slow-paced
2.0
I feel like I don't know who this book was for. Purportedly young queer women (Gutowitz talk a lot about what "we" experienced), but there is so much explaining and surface level analysis that it feels like it's written for some other audience. Also, I think Gutowitz needs to investigate who this "we" is when she talks about what "we" felt and experienced in relation to celebrity culture. Seemingly women who grew up in the 90s and 2000s, but the unsaid part is that it's really middle+ class white women who had the closest experience to hers, and even that group (of which I am a part) did not have a universal experience. The overly casual/slangy style felt like another forced attempt at familiarity and quite affected as if I was reading a tumblr post instead of a book. I think the essays that were the most successful were where she really reflected on her own personal experience and relation to celebrity culture, rather than making broad generalizations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Misogyny, Car accident, and Outing
sarahsycamore's review
funny
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Sexual assault
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism
toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Funny, relatable, and informative, this essay collection about queer women in pop culture was exactly what I needed this pride month. It was a really great way to wrap up my month of (almost) all queer books!
There was this one chapter about lesbian yearning that I felt SO called out by that I had to stop listening and collect myself before continuing to read it. I loved the way Gutowitz delves into queer female celebrities and the treatment of them in the early 2000s because I think that is so worth examining - basically, we owe Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson a massive apology.
Another great aspect of the book is the relatable way the author writes about the early days of the pandemic. It was a really funny way of putting it, but also sad. There is also a section where she writes a letter to her younger self, which broke my heart and made me laugh at the same time.
I had some minor issues with the book, but overall really enjoyed it and recommend it.
There was this one chapter about lesbian yearning that I felt SO called out by that I had to stop listening and collect myself before continuing to read it. I loved the way Gutowitz delves into queer female celebrities and the treatment of them in the early 2000s because I think that is so worth examining - basically, we owe Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson a massive apology.
Another great aspect of the book is the relatable way the author writes about the early days of the pandemic. It was a really funny way of putting it, but also sad. There is also a section where she writes a letter to her younger self, which broke my heart and made me laugh at the same time.
I had some minor issues with the book, but overall really enjoyed it and recommend it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Biphobia and Racism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Islamophobia
keelin's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Lesbophobia
mallory10100's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
5.0
god i LOVED this!! one of the most relatable books i’ve ever read
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Biphobia, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Self harm, Dementia, and Classism
i highly recommend this!!caseythereader's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Thanks to Atria Books for the free advance copy of this book.
- GIRLS CAN KISS NOW is a hyperfocused deep dive into growing up and coming out in the 2000s. Gutowitz breaks down the journey lesbian culture and visibility took in those years, from hidden secret to loud and proud.
- I'm a few years older than the author, but so much of her experience of growing up as a suburban white girl receiving conflicting information about what being gay meant (and therefore being unable to discern whether you were gay) resonated deeply with me.
- A lot of really rough stuff is covered here, from generalized lesbophobia to forced outing, but this essay collection is actual laugh out loud hilarious. I kept reading passages aloud to my spouse, trying not to snort laugh at descriptions of furtively using the family computer or falling into lesbian TikTok.
- GIRLS CAN KISS NOW is a hyperfocused deep dive into growing up and coming out in the 2000s. Gutowitz breaks down the journey lesbian culture and visibility took in those years, from hidden secret to loud and proud.
- I'm a few years older than the author, but so much of her experience of growing up as a suburban white girl receiving conflicting information about what being gay meant (and therefore being unable to discern whether you were gay) resonated deeply with me.
- A lot of really rough stuff is covered here, from generalized lesbophobia to forced outing, but this essay collection is actual laugh out loud hilarious. I kept reading passages aloud to my spouse, trying not to snort laugh at descriptions of furtively using the family computer or falling into lesbian TikTok.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, and Outing
Minor: Transphobia, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol
samantharosemangino's review
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.75
Really lovely book. Funny and shockingly informative. Some of the essays were a bit too long winded and started off in one place and finished in the opposite direction which was a bit confusing. I’ve followed this author on Twitter for a long time and it was nice to see a more personal and vulnerable side.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
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