In this assemblage combining previously
published and new essays, Henry Abelove addresses the purposeful
misinterpretation of Freudian theories of homosexuality in America, analyzes
middle European sexual practice, and assesses current approach to lesbian and
gay history. The essays reflect a keen thinker and persuasive analyst of
current sexual politics.

Even as the bibliography of books and
articles on lesbian and gay history burgeons, so too does the multitude of
powerful responses evoked in the interpretative undergraduate community poring
through it. There is an extensive merited discussion upon one leading Harvard
scholar, Francis Otto Matthiessen, a white and well-to-do male homosexual
leftist. Interestingly, Matthiessen was chosen for membership in the secret
society Skull and Bones: both Presidential candidates last fall are among its
members!

This small collection ends with a few
suggestions from Dr. Abelove: sometimes to look critically at an object, one is
better served by looking at the sources (or forces) that shape or produce it,
even from a distance; without attention to the troubles of queer folk during
the Cold War, no historic record would be truly complete; and the erroneous
view of early New York City’s gay liberation front was predicated not upon the
demand for subject visibility but rather an outcry on behalf of the worldwide
struggle for decolonization and its benefits to humankind. The compendium is
neither earth-shattering nor ground-breaking, but simplifies concepts and
constructs that are not necessarily heretofore grounded in connectivity.

Read more in:

q      
Butler J:
Undoing Gender. 273 pp. Routledge. August 2004

q      
Halberstam
J: In A Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. 213 pp.
New York University Press. January 2005.

q      
McBride DA:
Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch: Essays on Race and Sexuality in America
(Sexual Cultures Series). 240 pp. New York University Press. February 2005

q      
Warner M:
The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life. 240 pp.
Harvard University Press. November 2000

© 2005 Sundeep Nayak

Dr. Nayak is an Associate Professor of
Clinical Radiology in the University of California School of Medicine in San
Francisco and his interests include mental health, medical ethics, and gender
studies. A voracious reader and intrepid epicure, he enjoys his keyboards too
much. He has learnt well to never judge a book by its cover. 

Categories: General, Sexuality