Pomosexuals: Challenging Assumptions about Gender and Sexuality

A small volume of essays from mostly radical sex activists who put queer theory into practice, all the way to actual erotic experiences and the identies created by them. This work deals with the postmodern as the construction of "mulitple subjectivities" and features contributions from transsexual authors. Cutting edge stuff, more accessible than other theorists. Also written from a different perspective, one that helps close the gap between the academy and the street.A lived testimony to the inadequacy and decontstruction of "heterosexual" and "homosexual" as discursive labels.

Carol Queen, my hero, goes exploring for wisdom from the unlikely source of genderbenders and folks whose sexualities can't be expressed in a single word (eg. straight, gay). She finds an above average collection of revelations about life from people who have taken the time to examine and re-examine why they think differently. Keep in mind that Pomosexuals is a collection and the quality of insight varies but queer folk have a special duty to read this book before they laugh at a pre-op or dismiss someone who loves boys and girls as going through a phase. Call Pomosexuals a paradigm buster.

I wanted to read more after I finished the book. Yet, within the space of close to 200 pages, POMOSEXUALS touched upon issues most of us either ignore (because we can) or lack the words to discuss. And indeed the essays within the anthology managed to challenge assumptions of gender and sexuality, creating, hopefully, words and spaces to talk about the unspeakable. As the collection proved, gender and sexuality can no longer be thought of in binary notions, rather a full-range of transgressive possibilities exist--which I think is the root of pomosexuality (postmodern sexuality problematizes our assumptions of gender/sexuality). And in my opinion it is exactly those possibilities that make life exciting; such an opinion as shown in several of the essays is threatening even to 'the lesbian and gay community' and especially to society as a whole. I found all the essays well written, provocative, and honest; each of the essays moved me in one sense or another. This is a collection not to be missed. It is a quick and enriching read. My only criticism would be that it wasn't long enough. I wanted to read more.

The subtitle of the book says it all and this book fulfills its promise. In this anthology, writers talk about their most personal experiences of themselves as sexual beings: the gender they feel they are-sometimes in contrast to their physical bodies, what sexual experiences feel in synch with their arousal, and how each of these are changeable over the course of a lifetime.None of the authors fit the general expectation of lesbian, gay, bi, or transgendered. If a self-identified lesbian and a gay man are partnered sexually, how do they then define themselves? Why are bisexuals so often discriminated against by gays and lesbians as well as by the general public? And in terms of being part of a community, how do others label them?Understanding the fluidity of desire and identity can reveal these mysteries, which challenge the queer community as well as mainstream folks who worry about how children will be raised and what makes a family."PoMo" refers to postmodern as the editors articulate so well on page 21 "Postmodern thought invites us to get used to the Zen notion of "multiple subjectivies" ---the idea that there is no solid, objective reality, that each of us experiences our reality subjectively affected (or influenced) by our unique circumstances. This mode of thought encourages overlapping and sometimes contradictory realities, a life of investigation and questioning as opposed to essentialism's quest for the One Truth, the innate quality, indubitable facts on a silver platter, the answer to everything."Each essay is honest, thoughtful, and very well written. I enjoyed this book more than I would have guessed and look forward to reading other work by the individual authors.~~Joan Mazza, author of DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE; WHO'S CRAZY ANYWAY; THINGS THAT TICK ME OFF; and EXPLORING YOUR SEXUAL SELF, A GUIDED JOURNAL (May 2001).

If you want to read really cutting-edge gender theory, but don't have the experience or patience for Haraway and Butler, try this one. Short, incredibly accessible essays.