Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?

by Sycamore, Mattilda Bernstein

• ISBN13: 9781849350884
• ISBN10: 1849350884
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-01-31
• Publisher: A K Pr Distribution

Summary

Gay culture has become a nightmare of consumerism, whether it's an endless quest for Absolut vodka, Diesel jeans, rainbow Hummers, pec implants, or Pottery Barn. Whatever happened to sexual flamboyance and gender liberation, an end to marriage, the military, and the nuclear family? As backrooms are shut down to make way for wedding vows, and gay sexual culture morphs into "straight-acting dudes hangin' out," what are the possibilities for a defiant faggotry that challenges the assimilationist norms of a corporate-cozy lifestyle? Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?challenges not just the violence of straight homophobia but the hypocrisy of mainstream gay norms that say the only way to stay safe is to act straight: get married, join the military, adopt kids! Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore reinvokes the anger, flamboyance, and subversion once thriving in gay subcultures in order to create something dangerous and lovely: an exploration of the perils of assimilation; a call for accountability; a vision for change. A sassy and splintering emergency intervention! Called "startlingly bold and provocative" by Howard Zinn, and described as "a cross between Tinkerbell and a honky Malcolm X with a queer agenda" by The Austin Chronicle, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamoreis undoubtedly one of America's most outspoken queer critics. She is the author of two novels, including, most recently, So Many Ways to Sleep Badly, and is the editor of four nonfiction anthologies, including Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformityand That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation.

Author Biography

Mattilde Bernstein Sycamore, most recently the author of So Many Ways to Sleep Badly and the editor of Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity and Thats Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation, is the type of faggot many people seem to fear, but shes actually quite friendly.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why are Faggots so Afraid of Faggots?	p. 1
Fierce Net: Imagining a Faggotty Web	p. 5
Going From Zero to Sexy on High-Caloric Overdrive	p. 11
Trans/Nationally Femme: Notes on Neoliberal Economic Regimes, Security States, and My Life as a Brown Immigrant Fag	p. 15
Levity and Gravity	p. 25
Death by Masculinity	p. 33
Without a Face	p. 39
Fucking with Fucking Online: Advocating for Indiscriminate Promiscuity	p. 45
Difficult Conversations	p. 53
Penis is Important for That	p. 57
Glass Blowing	p. 67
Appearances and All That	p. 71
Girls	p. 77
Straightening the Shawl	p. 85
The Unlikely Barebacker	p. 91
Rehab for the Unrepentant	p. 97
I'll Tell You What I Want, What I Really Want: Homolove and Accountability	p. 105
IT GETS BETTER?	p. 115
The Soul of Our Work	p. 123
Dirt Story	p. 133
Generations	p. 137
Prisons and Closets	p. 141
A Rock and a Bird	p. 147
Slow Boil Aids and the Remnants of Time	p. 157
Excelsior	p. 163
My Fear, The Forces Beneath	p. 169
Cell Block 6	p. 175
Rich Man's War, Poor (Gay) Man's Fight	p. 181
Not Till the Earth Falls into the Sun	p. 185
Dancing with White Boys	p. 193
Something Resembling Power	p. 199
Acknowledgements	p. 205
Contributors	p. 206
About the Editor	p. 213
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