redavisyoung's review
2.0
While this book made some interesting points, the exclusion of transwomen in a history of lesbianism is inexcusable. What's worse may be the author's complete side-stepping of the issue, obfuscating the transmisogynist politics at play. Overall, I'm shocked anyone could make a topic this interesting seem so boring.
ash_thelibrarian_reads's review against another edition
As a history grad I usually love this kind of writing and even though I am extremely into this topic I could not get into the book at this time. Maybe I’ll try again sometime.
talypollywaly's review
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
4.5
Wonderful and informative book. Devoured the bibilography. Wished there were a bit more info on indigenous identities (Native Hawaiian, Aboriginal, etc), but I understand colonization has made that impossible. However, mythological literature was included in the first section, so why not fill gaps that way? Ended up feeling a bit incomplete to me for that reason, so I can't give it 5 stars.
jdisarray's review
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
A more in-depth look at historical representations of Sapphic love and sexuality from many cultures that considers all female individuals, including those who may have considered themselves transmasculine or non-binary should they have been alive today.
Rupp has assembled a fantastic collection of texts, art, and other forms of proof that Sapphic love has always existed and thrived regardless of patriarchal erasure, pathologization, and moral-oriented demonization. This text also compares the differences in how female same-sex love was treated [read devalued] in contrast to male same-sex love. There are too many reasons to read this book.
Rupp has assembled a fantastic collection of texts, art, and other forms of proof that Sapphic love has always existed and thrived regardless of patriarchal erasure, pathologization, and moral-oriented demonization. This text also compares the differences in how female same-sex love was treated [read devalued] in contrast to male same-sex love. There are too many reasons to read this book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Violence, Sexual content, Rape, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, and Sexual violence
FGMhemlockreads's review
1.0
It made me uncomfortable that this book spoke at such length about historical trans men but didn't say anything at all about trans women. It set out so well in the beginning laying out that we're viewing the past through our cultural lens and tracing the evolution of lesbian as a concept, but when part of your evidence is men who lived as such and asserted their identities as men or were only discovered to not be cisgender after they died that seems disingenuous. This book was published in 2009 so I wasn't expecting as nuanced a look at gender as might have been published in a book written today (for example: wasn't really expecting nonbinary lesbians to be discussed), but the emphasis on "biology" and phrases like "social males" along with outdated terms made the last half of this book such a slog to get through.
Besides that everything was just kind of depressing. The author even acknowledges that the primary sources discussed are mostly men who are disdainful at best. Plus "love" seemed to mostly mean sex. As I read this book started to feel more like the history of lesbian fetishes and harmful pathology seasoned with TERF rhetoric.
Besides that everything was just kind of depressing. The author even acknowledges that the primary sources discussed are mostly men who are disdainful at best. Plus "love" seemed to mostly mean sex. As I read this book started to feel more like the history of lesbian fetishes and harmful pathology seasoned with TERF rhetoric.