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Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'
Queer. La guía LGBT para adolescentes by Marke Bieschke, Kathy Belge
1 review
weewaa13's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
2.0
I think the book has a good premise, and there's no denying that it does contain useful information - such as the detailed resources section at the back, suggested reading, and a few segments/parts of chapters. But for a book that's intended to be the "ultimate" guide for teens, I think there's a lot missing in terms of trans, specifically nonbinary rep, ace rep, and aro rep. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's borderline arophobic at points, kind of suggesting that if you separate sex from romantic love too much then you need to take a look at why you think sex is so dirty and should be separate from your sweet innocent romantic feelings *expression of mild alarm.* I'm sure that this was not the authors' intention, however it really felt like exclusion that could have been easily avoided had an a-spec or a well-educated ace/aro ally looked it over.
I have the privilege of reading this as a person who's just passed out of teen-hood, and who has made it my goal to be educated on queer identity and issues - I thrived on and thirsted for that knowledge even before I knew I was part of the community. But when I think of teens who for them this might be their first, or most trusted piece of queer media, I really hope they take the book's advice seriously and do their own research, interact with the wider queer community, otherwise there will be some serious missing pieces.
There also wasn't really any mention of two-spirit people, or how being a person of colour can affect queer identity and perception in society. [I admit there may have been some mention, but if it was there it was few and far between and didn't stick with me. {which hey, I tried to look out for, but as a white person I could have missed to be fair}]
It felt like trans people were almost separated from the rest of the conversation of the book, often going a whole chapter talking only in a cisnormative way, and then throwing in a shorter trans section at the end - again I don't know what their proof-reading process was, but I feel like this could have been fixed with a trans sensitivity reader and use of gender neutral language - which would have been more concise and flowed better anyway! The use of alternating 'he asks you out' and 'if she asks for your phone number' as example people felt so forced and weird, when they really could have used they/them, or at least used it more than the ONE time they did. The chapter about sex was also really equating penis with boy and vagina with girl despite having a trans section - which really just said "consent is important before touching or referring to people's body parts" which is just-I mean-that should go for cis people too??
No mention of disabled queer folks, and there wasn't too much about mental health either if I'm remembering correctly?
Anyway. I now have a messy-but-thoroughly-annotated-with-my-dull-pencil copy of this book if anyone's interested lmao.
Edit: started browsing other people's reviews and immediately remembered the bi/panphobia (thanks arthur_of_camelot)
oh ALSO, they kept being like "oh make sure to check if your partner wants things to be exclusive/monogamous" "remember that monogamy's benefit is less chance of contracting STI's" ...like, okay but polyamorous people exist - I don't think they ever used that word, nor did they even really ever mention any form of non-monogamy as being a good thing/the only option for some people
I have the privilege of reading this as a person who's just passed out of teen-hood, and who has made it my goal to be educated on queer identity and issues - I thrived on and thirsted for that knowledge even before I knew I was part of the community. But when I think of teens who for them this might be their first, or most trusted piece of queer media, I really hope they take the book's advice seriously and do their own research, interact with the wider queer community, otherwise there will be some serious missing pieces.
There also wasn't really any mention of two-spirit people, or how being a person of colour can affect queer identity and perception in society. [I admit there may have been some mention, but if it was there it was few and far between and didn't stick with me. {which hey, I tried to look out for, but as a white person I could have missed to be fair}]
It felt like trans people were almost separated from the rest of the conversation of the book, often going a whole chapter talking only in a cisnormative way, and then throwing in a shorter trans section at the end - again I don't know what their proof-reading process was, but I feel like this could have been fixed with a trans sensitivity reader and use of gender neutral language - which would have been more concise and flowed better anyway! The use of alternating 'he asks you out' and 'if she asks for your phone number' as example people felt so forced and weird, when they really could have used they/them, or at least used it more than the ONE time they did. The chapter about sex was also really equating penis with boy and vagina with girl despite having a trans section - which really just said "consent is important before touching or referring to people's body parts" which is just-I mean-that should go for cis people too??
No mention of disabled queer folks, and there wasn't too much about mental health either if I'm remembering correctly?
Anyway. I now have a messy-but-thoroughly-annotated-with-my-dull-pencil copy of this book if anyone's interested lmao.
Edit: started browsing other people's reviews and immediately remembered the bi/panphobia (thanks arthur_of_camelot)
oh ALSO, they kept being like "oh make sure to check if your partner wants things to be exclusive/monogamous" "remember that monogamy's benefit is less chance of contracting STI's" ...like, okay but polyamorous people exist - I don't think they ever used that word, nor did they even really ever mention any form of non-monogamy as being a good thing/the only option for some people
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content
i mean nothing graphic whatsoever it's all just for educational purposes in the 'queer sex' chapter
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