This was so entirely up my alley, I am big into essays that blend medicine and history and social science. I am PARTICULARLY interested in essays thatThis was so entirely up my alley, I am big into essays that blend medicine and history and social science. I am PARTICULARLY interested in essays that do this around AIDS, and then add trying that all into the current COVID pandemic and of course I was going to need to read this.
This essay collection goes a lot of different paces. If you just want something that is going to discuss COVID in relation to other viral pandemics, this book may stress you out. But if you want something to also think about how communities gather and define themselves, how activism works (and sometimes doesn't) in fighting a pandemic, about the function of writing, both private and public, when going through extraordinary times, about personal relationships, about sex, about employment, about risk, then this might be the book for you.
I read this more or less an essay at a time, taking breaks in between. Certainly some essays worked better for me than others, but I was always interested in what Osmundson had to say....more
I'd only heard good things about this book and it did not disappoint. I had some extra interest in this topic as the majority of friends I have made iI'd only heard good things about this book and it did not disappoint. I had some extra interest in this topic as the majority of friends I have made in fandom identify somewhere in the ace/aro spectrum/area. In the book, Chen mentions the tension between writing to give those who are asexual an opportunity to see themselves and writing to explain asexuality to allos (the rest of us), and I think the final product is a vital piece of the conversation for anyone wanting to think deeply about desire and identity.
The combination of personal reflection, interviews, and cultural criticism worked very well for me. I especially appreciated that Chen's commitment to exploring intersectionality with ace identity wasn't just one chapter of the book, it really WAS the book. The way societal scripts of how we are "supposed to" experience desire are so determined by gender, race, ability... Wouldn't we all be better off if we felt less bound to these predetermined scripts?...more
This was good, but I was a bit confused by its presentation. The cover copy makes it sound like it is about consumer culture in general, and while I kThis was good, but I was a bit confused by its presentation. The cover copy makes it sound like it is about consumer culture in general, and while I knew it would have a focus on fast fashion, I did not expect, exactly, for that to be 98% of the book, nor for the authorial tone to be addressing an audience supposed to be also heavy consumers of fast fashion. (Which I am not.) I found a lot of the information in the book interesting, but during a lot of the "action" sections, I just did not feel like she was talking to me. But I did really love that there WAS a significant action section!...more
The strength of this book was definitely its diversity, so while the first handful of stories are all white and in the UK, there are also stories fromThe strength of this book was definitely its diversity, so while the first handful of stories are all white and in the UK, there are also stories from all over the world, both inside and outside of Christian contexts, and with wildly differing views on gender. There are authors who seem entirely wedded to the gender binary and authors on a mission to queer all of it they can. Very "beginner friendly" in that you don't have to have much or any familiarity with trans issues or terminology in order to follow right along. Somehow there ended up being a lot more dysphoria and trauma than I expected, as each essay put their euphoric moment in context of all that went before. My favorite essay was definitely "The Radical Vulnerability of Trans Sex," as I loved the way the author, Katherine Cross, writes. I will have to seek out more of her writing after this!...more