Female Desires: Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices Across Cultures

So much writing about homosexuality covers men in the West only. Through his monographs, Stephen Murray has done a lot to cover same-sex love between men outside of the West. Finally, this anthology is an attempt to cover non-Western lesbian and transgendered women. Many books have said female bisexuals have tensions with monosexual lesbians. (Examples include "Bi Any Other Name," "Closer to Home," and "Bisexual Politics.") Halberstam has said that female-to-male transsexuals and butch lesbians have also had tensions. In this anthology, the writers discuss lesbians, bisexual women, and transgendered women equally. In fact, the lines between these identities get blurred. This book is diverse covering Asia, Africa, and the Americas. (Nothing is written on Arab lesbians, however.) The contributors are all Western-educated; still, some are white and some are of color. Unlike work on non-Western gay men, which often never says anything about non-Western lesbians, this often must mention the situation of gay men before it can describe their female counterparts. One contributor said she is a bisexual sex worker. I wish her good luck trying to find a professor's job after admitting that fact. The articles range in quality. The chapters on mati in South America and female m-ah-u in the South Pacific were fantastic. Though Thadani is a well-respected expert on lesbian South Asia, I thought her chapter was boring and unnecessary. There is a large focus on Southeastern Asian islands. Since few American immigrants come from those nations, I am not sure if this book will be less compelling to many readers. I hate the cover of the book. I think it's meant to be a photo of able-bodied and disabled women, with a primitive artistic twist. It's ugly: they could have shown a photograph of a committed female couple of color (whether heterogenderal or homogenderal) to get their point across more effectively. This book is incredibly academic. I am not sure if the average lesbian or FTM would be able to comprehend it. Still, I think it is a book that every lesbian or FTM of color should own. I thank the editors for their efforts and vision.