A review by lukenotjohn
Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith by Mihee Kim-Kort
2.75
This is a difficult book to review because I don't entirely know what I think about it, even after finishing. Like many others have noted, it was really different from what I'd anticipated, not just in content but even at a foundational level regarding the understanding of "queerness" that it operates from. Within the framework of the book, queerness is a conceptual conglomerate connected to (1) a posture of expansiveness that transgresses norms and boundaries, (2) an experimental spirit of playfulness, and (3) an embodied ethic that is practiced by our identities and within political and social realities. Within that understanding, then, there is of course an inclusion of people who hold identities more commonly regarded as queer, but it seems to stretch that umbrella far wider than that too.
However, I think you could argue, it runs the risk of losing the umbrella altogether in its movement away from particularity towards abstraction and generalization. And I can see how that's fitting with Kim-Kort's logical trajectory, where queerness moves us (all of us) away from clearly marked boundaries and binaries of "in" and "out" but at the same time, I don't know if enough work was done on the front end to avoid the framework being co-opted as problematically appropriative. In fact, I received the book from a friend of mine who is queer and, expecting to feel represented in her identity (which is so rarely the case, especially within Christian publishing) got so frustrated with the looseness of the term's usage that she gave up halfway through. I have some familiarity with queer theory and that definitely helped me to follow her train of thought around the inherent connection between "queer" and "transgressive" but if this was my introduction, I think those waters would be more muddied than clear. From what I can remember, there was still of sense of centeredness regarding those with identities explicitly outside of cis/heteronormativity, and I can see how people feel this book moves away from that. For example, she explores drag performances and fictive kin, both of which are directly connected to experiences of those with queer identities, but then seems to open that up for others in relating them to wearing garments as a priest or prioritizing friendships in general. At another point, she associates her Asian identity as a marker of her queerness, and while I've certainly seen commentary on the intersection of racial and queer identities, I have never encountered a conflation of the two.
With that said, it's not like I disliked the book. Kim-Kort is a terrific writer who gives herself room to dip into some more poetic writing while still clipping along at a pace that's easy to follow. More importantly, she's offering a vision of a faith and a church that's really beautiful and compelling. I loved her exhortations to practice hospitality, expand the boundaries of family, and embrace a transgressive faith that traverses unhealthy boundaries and disrupts oppressive binaries. All of that is genuinely great! And at a personal level, I especially enjoyed the chapter on prioritizing friendship as its own meaningful end in relationship, as well as her exploration of Jesus's conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. There's plenty here worth reading, it's just a little less cohesive and a lot less clear than I had hoped going in.
However, I think you could argue, it runs the risk of losing the umbrella altogether in its movement away from particularity towards abstraction and generalization. And I can see how that's fitting with Kim-Kort's logical trajectory, where queerness moves us (all of us) away from clearly marked boundaries and binaries of "in" and "out" but at the same time, I don't know if enough work was done on the front end to avoid the framework being co-opted as problematically appropriative. In fact, I received the book from a friend of mine who is queer and, expecting to feel represented in her identity (which is so rarely the case, especially within Christian publishing) got so frustrated with the looseness of the term's usage that she gave up halfway through. I have some familiarity with queer theory and that definitely helped me to follow her train of thought around the inherent connection between "queer" and "transgressive" but if this was my introduction, I think those waters would be more muddied than clear. From what I can remember, there was still of sense of centeredness regarding those with identities explicitly outside of cis/heteronormativity, and I can see how people feel this book moves away from that. For example, she explores drag performances and fictive kin, both of which are directly connected to experiences of those with queer identities, but then seems to open that up for others in relating them to wearing garments as a priest or prioritizing friendships in general. At another point, she associates her Asian identity as a marker of her queerness, and while I've certainly seen commentary on the intersection of racial and queer identities, I have never encountered a conflation of the two.
With that said, it's not like I disliked the book. Kim-Kort is a terrific writer who gives herself room to dip into some more poetic writing while still clipping along at a pace that's easy to follow. More importantly, she's offering a vision of a faith and a church that's really beautiful and compelling. I loved her exhortations to practice hospitality, expand the boundaries of family, and embrace a transgressive faith that traverses unhealthy boundaries and disrupts oppressive binaries. All of that is genuinely great! And at a personal level, I especially enjoyed the chapter on prioritizing friendship as its own meaningful end in relationship, as well as her exploration of Jesus's conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. There's plenty here worth reading, it's just a little less cohesive and a lot less clear than I had hoped going in.