A review by ravenofoctober
Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, by Julia Serano
4.0
As someone who came a little late to feminism and QUILTBAG+ activism and general awareness (some college classes, but mostly after-college reading the internet and learning about privilege, etc.), I'm always looking for books like this, meaning from a perspective that is not my own (i.e., not a white lesbian). And since I haven't been in these spaces long, I liked the first part of the book with all of Serano's personal essays and whatnot because it gave me a good context and some slices of history of the movement that I wasn't aware of/didn't experience. It all also provides a good foundation for the second half of the book.
I kind of wish the two parts of the book hadn't been so starkly separated, though. I think the second half would have benefited from having more personal examples/stories sprinkled throughout. Serano is great at making a solid case for her suggestions on how to make these movements more inclusive, and she's very thorough, but at times the second half started to feel repetitive, almost as if she expected people to read one chapter without having read the previous chapters. I think if there had been some more personal anecdotes/examples in the second half it would have helped mitigate the feeling of repetition.
In the last chapter, she talks about the practice of calling people out on their behavior, and how it can be useful but it is often mishandled and used to delegitimize people who are genuine allies but just made an honest mistake. I appreciated this (because no one is perfect), but I actually wish she had devoted an entire chapter to this idea. It seemed kind of crammed in there right at the end, and yet I think it's an important aspect of this whole conversation—there's really no more thorough way to ostracize someone than to publicly shame them, which is what calling out can do when it's not done right. I think she could have cut some of the repetitive parts of some of the chapters out and then would have had time to talk more about this aspect of exclusion.
But overall I like the proposals Serano makes in this book about holistic activism and trying to fight the true root causes that lead myriad groups of people to be deemed second-class in some way. Instead of focusing just on fighting on one front (which then pits the groups against each other as each group tries to claim they are MORE oppressed than the other), those seeking change should focus on the common denominator, the us vs. them mentality at large. Serano's much better at breaking this down and being more granular in her explanation in the book, but that's the gist of it. And that's an idea I can get behind.
I kind of wish the two parts of the book hadn't been so starkly separated, though. I think the second half would have benefited from having more personal examples/stories sprinkled throughout. Serano is great at making a solid case for her suggestions on how to make these movements more inclusive, and she's very thorough, but at times the second half started to feel repetitive, almost as if she expected people to read one chapter without having read the previous chapters. I think if there had been some more personal anecdotes/examples in the second half it would have helped mitigate the feeling of repetition.
In the last chapter, she talks about the practice of calling people out on their behavior, and how it can be useful but it is often mishandled and used to delegitimize people who are genuine allies but just made an honest mistake. I appreciated this (because no one is perfect), but I actually wish she had devoted an entire chapter to this idea. It seemed kind of crammed in there right at the end, and yet I think it's an important aspect of this whole conversation—there's really no more thorough way to ostracize someone than to publicly shame them, which is what calling out can do when it's not done right. I think she could have cut some of the repetitive parts of some of the chapters out and then would have had time to talk more about this aspect of exclusion.
But overall I like the proposals Serano makes in this book about holistic activism and trying to fight the true root causes that lead myriad groups of people to be deemed second-class in some way. Instead of focusing just on fighting on one front (which then pits the groups against each other as each group tries to claim they are MORE oppressed than the other), those seeking change should focus on the common denominator, the us vs. them mentality at large. Serano's much better at breaking this down and being more granular in her explanation in the book, but that's the gist of it. And that's an idea I can get behind.