I loved this book in college, but after reading it a second time I've concluded that it's absolutely boring. Most of the stories seemed to revolve around butches and FTMs who fucked men and did a lot of naval-gazing about identity. I got the feeling they felt this was somehow way cool and radical.

Meh. ( )

This was a very important book on my journey. Looking back on it 10 years later, the essays I remember most vividly are Dorothy Allison's essay on the sex-positive legacy of gay men and Marco Vassi's essay on the spirituality of sex, which helped move me beyond my narrow view of religion. The Pat Califia essay is a pre-transition piece, which perhaps I should re-read with some of his more recent material. I recommend this to anyone who doesn't feel they fit neatly into anyone's categories. ( )

Could just as easily have been subtitled "In your societies disrupting your binaries." This is a fascinating collection of essays interrogating and exploring the experience of being queer in the late 20th century and the way language and political attitudes have created divides (and insiders and outsiders) in the LGBT&F community(ies). Written by a variety of writers falling all along the sexuality and gender continuums and coming at the topic from multiple angles, the book's unifying theme is a reaction against assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality. Recommended. ( )

I was first told about this book spring of my sophomore year of college, but I haven't picked it up until now, and I'm sorry I waited so long. Though I can't really predict what my response would have been had I read it then; I believe it would've been very different, as my understanding of my gender identity and sexuality was in a different place at that time.
Pomosexuals is a collection of essays by various queers concerning what the concept of postmodern sexuality means to them. There's not a lot of theory, it's mostly personal anecdotes. Notable contributers include Kate Bornstein, Dorothy Allison, and Pat Califia (all three of whom I highly, highly recommend reading). The book is broken up into seven sections: "Beyond Definitions;" "The Politic Identity: Questioning Reputations;" "Don't Fence Me In: Bi-Pan-/Omni-Sexuals;" "Through a Glass Queerly: Our Boys, Ourselves;" "Hermaphrodykes: Girls Will Be Boys, Dykes Will Be Fags;" "Gender Pending: Denying Gender Imperatives;" and "Tectonic Shifts: Crossing Cultures, Mapping Desires." My favorite sections were definitely "The Politic Identity: Questioning Reputations" and "Hermaphrodykes: Girls Will Be Boys." To oversimplify, all the essays, to various extents, are about being queer and not fitting in with the mainstream queer community in America.
I loved this book. I'm a huge gender/sex kick lately. If I had read Pomosexuals before I read Genderqueer, it would have had a greater impact. The two books have some similar ideas, and with both of them I did the whole "gasp!omfgthisISme!" thing. (A review of Genderqueer is forthcoming, by the way.) If you're going to read Pomosexuals though, I think you should be comfortable with the idea of gender as a social/cultural construction first. After a few more of these (Genderqueer, The Judith Butler Reader, Cunt, Public Sex) I think I'll sit down and actually write an entry about my own gender and sexual identity.
I'd also like to note that I'm proud of myself for reaching a point in my reading career in which I can process different ideas, apply them to my own experience, use them to challenge my beliefs, take in contradictory theories and view them on equal levels, use them as I see fit, accept or reject them after thoughtful analysis. ( )

I was first told about this book spring of my sophomore year of college, but I haven't picked it up until now, and I'm sorry I waited so long. Though I can't really predict what my response would have been had I read it then; I believe it would've been very different, as my understanding of my gender identity and sexuality was in a different place at that time.
Pomosexuals is a collection of essays by various queers concerning what the concept of postmodern sexuality means to them. There's not a lot of theory, it's mostly personal anecdotes. Notable contributers include Kate Bornstein, Dorothy Allison, and Pat Califia (all three of whom I highly, highly recommend reading). The book is broken up into seven sections: "Beyond Definitions;" "The Politic Identity: Questioning Reputations;" "Don't Fence Me In: Bi-Pan-/Omni-Sexuals;" "Through a Glass Queerly: Our Boys, Ourselves;" "Hermaphrodykes: Girls Will Be Boys, Dykes Will Be Fags;" "Gender Pending: Denying Gender Imperatives;" and "Tectonic Shifts: Crossing Cultures, Mapping Desires." My favorite sections were definitely "The Politic Identity: Questioning Reputations" and "Hermaphrodykes: Girls Will Be Boys." To oversimplify, all the essays, to various extents, are about being queer and not fitting in with the mainstream queer community in America.
I loved this book. I'm a huge gender/sex kick lately. If I had read Pomosexuals before I read Genderqueer, it would have had a greater impact. The two books have some similar ideas, and with both of them I did the whole "gasp!omfgthisISme!" thing. (A review of Genderqueer is forthcoming, by the way.) If you're going to read Pomosexuals though, I think you should be comfortable with the idea of gender as a social/cultural construction first. After a few more of these (Genderqueer, The Judith Butler Reader, Cunt, Public Sex) I think I'll sit down and actually write an entry about my own gender and sexual identity.
I'd also like to note that I'm proud of myself for reaching a point in my reading career in which I can process different ideas, apply them to my own experience, use them to challenge my beliefs, take in contradictory theories and view them on equal levels, use them as I see fit, accept or reject them after thoughtful analysis. ( )