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Yes, Publishers Weekly, we think Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? is great, too.

Posted on September 13th, 2011 in Reviews of AK Books

We are very excited about Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s new edited collection Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, (available February 2012), and apparently so is Publishers Weekly, because they’ve written a glowing review, far in advance of the title’s appearance.

Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? celebrates the history of a vibrant and dynamic queer culture, and laments the loss of its exhilarating fabulousness to make way for a more corporate-cozy version of itself. But more importantly, as our mothers now watch Ellen and our friends get gay married on Bridezillas (and it’s just as bland as anything else on TV), Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? is an attempt to reclaim that thriving and flamboyant subculture and challenge assimilationist norms with its defiant faggotry!

Read the review, which appeared in the September 12th print and online issue of  Publishers Weekly, and make sure to check out the book when it comes out in February. We can hardly wait!

Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform

Edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. AK (akpress.org), $17.95 (224p) ISBN 978-1-84935-088-4

A distinctive collection of essays by gay and transgender activists, performance artists, and scholars embraces the subversive aspects of queer identity and rails against its “sanitized, straight-friendly version.” Some essays are personal observations of lives on the margins, such as Ezra RedEagle Whitman’s attempts to reconcile his homosexuality with Native American conceptions of manliness, or Booh Edouardo’s experiences as an autistic transgender man interacting with mainstream gay peers. Others focus more on general trends in gay culture, such as Michael J. Faris and ML Sugie’s discussion of racial preferences and prejudices on hookup sites, or George Ayala and Patrick Hebert’s examination of the role of the arts in building community among HIV positive men. Some stories are disheartening, like Matthew Blanchard’s reflections on his hospitalization and disfigurement after many years of drug-fueled indiscriminate, unsafe sex. Others are much more hopeful, like Kristen Stoeckeler’s observations on drag queen and king performers and their playful yet serious blurring of the lines between male and female. Just as the battle for LGBTQ civil rights continues, these essays—alternately moving and sprightly, contemplative and outraged—display the power of presenting an alternative to the mainstream: a world of greater tolerance, acceptance, support, and creativity. (Feb.)