A Short History of Queer Women

Download A Short History of Queer Women PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0861542851
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (615 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Short History of Queer Women by : Kirsty Loehr

Download or read book A Short History of Queer Women written by Kirsty Loehr and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-10-06 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No, they weren’t ‘just friends’! Queer women have been written out of history since, well, forever. ‘But historians famously care about women!’, said no one. From Anne Bonny and Mary Read who sailed the seas together disguised as pirates, to US football captain Megan Rapinoe declaring ‘You can’t win a championship without gays on your team’, via countless literary salons and tuxedos, A Short History of Queer Women sets the record straight on women who have loved other women through the ages. Who says lesbians can’t be funny?

Living Queer History

Download Living Queer History PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469665816
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Living Queer History by : Gregory Samantha Rosenthal

Download or read book Living Queer History written by Gregory Samantha Rosenthal and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Queer history is a living practice. Talk to any group of LGBTQ people today, and they will not agree on what story should be told. Many people desire to celebrate the past by erecting plaques and painting rainbow crosswalks, but queer and trans people in the twenty-first century need more than just symbols—they need access to power, justice for marginalized people, spaces of belonging. Approaching the past through a lens of queer and trans survival and world-building transforms history itself into a tool for imagining and realizing a better future. Living Queer History tells the story of an LGBTQ community in Roanoke, Virginia, a small city on the edge of Appalachia. Interweaving &8239;historical analysis, theory, and memoir, Gregory Samantha Rosenthal tells the story of their own journey—coming out and transitioning as a transgender woman—in the midst of working on a community-based history project that documented a multigenerational southern LGBTQ community. Based on over forty interviews with LGBTQ elders, Living Queer History explores how queer people today think about the past and how history lives on in the present.

Black. Queer. Southern. Women.

Download Black. Queer. Southern. Women. PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469641119
Total Pages : 590 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Black. Queer. Southern. Women. by : E. Patrick Johnson

Download or read book Black. Queer. Southern. Women. written by E. Patrick Johnson and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2018-10-22 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawn from the life narratives of more than seventy African American queer women who were born, raised, and continue to reside in the American South, this book powerfully reveals the way these women experience and express racial, sexual, gender, and class identities--all linked by a place where such identities have generally placed them on the margins of society. Using methods of oral history and performance ethnography, E. Patrick Johnson's work vividly enriches the historical record of racialized sexual minorities in the South and brings to light the realities of the region's thriving black lesbian communities. At once transcendent and grounded in place and time, these narratives raise important questions about queer identity formation, community building, and power relations as they are negotiated within the context of southern history. Johnson uses individual stories to reveal the embedded political and cultural ideologies of the self but also of the listener and society as a whole. These breathtakingly rich life histories show afresh how black female sexuality is and always has been an integral part of the patchwork quilt that is southern culture.

A Queer History of the United States

Download A Queer History of the United States PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Beacon Press
ISBN 13 : 0807044652
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Queer History of the United States by : Michael Bronski

Download or read book A Queer History of the United States written by Michael Bronski and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Stonewall Book Award in nonfiction The first comprehensive history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender America, from pre-1492 to the present "Readable, radical, and smart—a must read."—Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home Intellectually dynamic and endlessly provocative, this is more than a “who’s who” of queer history: it is a narrative that radically challenges how we understand American history. Drawing upon primary documents, literature, and cultural histories, scholar and activist Michael Bronski charts the breadth of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history, from 1492 to the present, a testament to how the LGBTQ+ experience has profoundly shaped American culture and history. American history abounds with unknown or ignored examples of queer life, from the ineffectiveness of sodomy laws in the colonies to the prevalence of cross-dressing women soldiers in the Civil War and resistance to homophobic social purity movements. Bronski highlights such groundbreaking moments of queer history as: • In the 1620s, Thomas Morton broke from Plymouth Colony and founded Merrymount, which celebrated same-sex desire, atheism, and interracial marriage. •Transgender evangelist Jemima Wilkinson, in the early 1800s, changed her name to "Publick Universal Friend," refused to use pronouns, fought for gender equality, and led her own congregation in upstate New York. • In the mid-19th century, internationally famous Shakespearean actor Charlotte Cushman led an openly lesbian life, including a well-publicized “female marriage.” • in the late 1920s, Augustus Granville Dill was fired by W. E. B. Du Bois from the NAACP’s magazine the Crisis after being arrested for a homosexual encounter. Informative and empowering, this engrossing and revelatory treatise emphasizes that there is no American history without queer history.

Public Faces, Secret Lives

Download Public Faces, Secret Lives PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479830941
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Public Faces, Secret Lives by : Wendy L. Rouse

Download or read book Public Faces, Secret Lives written by Wendy L. Rouse and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2024-03 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Honorable Mention for the 2023 Francis Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize 2023 Judy Grahn Award-Publishing Triangle Finalist Restores queer suffragists to their rightful place in the history of the struggle for women’s right to vote The women’s suffrage movement, much like many other civil rights movements, has an important and often unrecognized queer history. In Public Faces, Secret Lives Wendy L. Rouse reveals that, contrary to popular belief, the suffrage movement included a variety of individuals who represented a range of genders and sexualities. However, owing to the constant pressure to present a “respectable” public image, suffrage leaders publicly conformed to gendered views of ideal womanhood in order to make women’s suffrage more palatable to the public. Rouse argues that queer suffragists did take meaningful action to assert their identities and legacies by challenging traditional concepts of domesticity, family, space, and death in both subtly subversive and radically transformative ways. Queer suffragists also built lasting alliances and developed innovative strategies in order to protect their most intimate relationships, ones that were ultimately crucial to the success of the suffrage movement. Public Faces, Secret Lives is the first work to truly recenter queer figures in the women’s suffrage movement, highlighting their immense contributions as well as their numerous sacrifices.

A Queer History of the United States for Young People

Download A Queer History of the United States for Young People PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Beacon Press
ISBN 13 : 0807056138
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Queer History of the United States for Young People by : Michael Bronski

Download or read book A Queer History of the United States for Young People written by Michael Bronski and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 by School Library Journal Queer history didn’t start with Stonewall. This book explores how LGBTQ people have always been a part of our national identity, contributing to the country and culture for over 400 years. It is crucial for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth to know their history. But this history is not easy to find since it’s rarely taught in schools or commemorated in other ways. A Queer History of the United States for Young People corrects this and demonstrates that LGBTQ people have long been vital to shaping our understanding of what America is today. Through engrossing narratives, letters, drawings, poems, and more, the book encourages young readers, of all identities, to feel pride at the accomplishments of the LGBTQ people who came before them and to use history as a guide to the future. The stories he shares include those of * Indigenous tribes who embraced same-sex relationships and a multiplicity of gender identities. * Emily Dickinson, brilliant nineteenth-century poet who wrote about her desire for women. * Gladys Bentley, Harlem blues singer who challenged restrictive cross-dressing laws in the 1920s. * Bayard Rustin, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s close friend, civil rights organizer, and an openly gay man. * Sylvia Rivera, cofounder of STAR, the first transgender activist group in the US in 1970. * Kiyoshi Kuromiya, civil rights and antiwar activist who fought for people living with AIDS. * Jamie Nabozny, activist who took his LGBTQ school bullying case to the Supreme Court. * Aidan DeStefano, teen who brought a federal court case for trans-inclusive bathroom policies. * And many more! With over 60 illustrations and photos, a glossary, and a corresponding curriculum, A Queer History of the United States for Young People will be vital for teachers who want to introduce a new perspective to America’s story.

The Women's House of Detention

Download The Women's House of Detention PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bold Type Books
ISBN 13 : 9781645036654
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (366 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Women's House of Detention by : Hugh Ryan

Download or read book The Women's House of Detention written by Hugh Ryan and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2023-05-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This singular history of a prison, and the queer women and trans people held there, is a window into the policing of queerness and radical politics in the twentieth century. The Women's House of Detention, a landmark that ushered in the modern era of women's imprisonment, is now largely forgotten. But when it stood in New York City's Greenwich Village, from 1929 to 1974, it was a nexus for the tens of thousands of women, transgender men, and gender-nonconforming people who inhabited its crowded cells. Some of these inmates--Angela Davis, Andrea Dworkin, Afeni Shakur--were famous, but the vast majority were incarcerated for the crimes of being poor and improperly feminine. Today, approximately 40 percent of the people in women's prisons identify as queer; in earlier decades, that percentage was almost certainly higher. Historian Hugh Ryan explores the roots of this crisis and reconstructs the little-known lives of incarcerated New Yorkers, making a uniquely queer case for prison abolition--and demonstrating that by queering the Village, the House of D helped defined queerness for the rest of America. From the lesbian communities forged through the Women's House of Detention to the turbulent prison riots that presaged Stonewall, this is the story of one building and much more: the people it caged, the neighborhood it changed, and the resistance it inspired.

Wide-Open Town

Download Wide-Open Town PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520244745
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (22 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Wide-Open Town by : Nan Alamilla Boyd

Download or read book Wide-Open Town written by Nan Alamilla Boyd and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2005-04-13 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the history of gay men and lesbians in San Francisco, from the turn of the century, when queer bars emerged in San Francisco's tourist districts, to 1965, when a raid on a drag ball energized the gay community. Includes excerpts from oral histories of lesbians and gay men who have lived in San Francisco since the 1930s.

When Brooklyn Was Queer

Download When Brooklyn Was Queer PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1250169925
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis When Brooklyn Was Queer by : Hugh Ryan

Download or read book When Brooklyn Was Queer written by Hugh Ryan and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The never-before-told story of Brooklyn’s vibrant and forgotten queer history, from the mid-1850s up to the present day. ***An ALA GLBT Round Table Over the Rainbow 2019 Top Ten Selection*** ***NAMED ONE OF THE BEST LGBTQ BOOKS OF 2019 by Harper's Bazaar*** "A romantic, exquisite history of gay culture." —Kirkus Reviews, starred “[A] boisterous, motley new history...entertaining and insightful.” —The New York Times Book Review Hugh Ryan’s When Brooklyn Was Queer is a groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the queer women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. No other book, movie, or exhibition has ever told this sweeping story. Not only has Brooklyn always lived in the shadow of queer Manhattan neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Harlem, but there has also been a systematic erasure of its queer history—a great forgetting. Ryan is here to unearth that history for the first time. In intimate, evocative, moving prose he discusses in new light the fundamental questions of what history is, who tells it, and how we can only make sense of ourselves through its retelling; and shows how the formation of the Brooklyn we know today is inextricably linked to the stories of the incredible people who created its diverse neighborhoods and cultures. Through them, When Brooklyn Was Queer brings Brooklyn’s queer past to life, and claims its place as a modern classic.

Queer Women and Religious Individualism

Download Queer Women and Religious Individualism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253221161
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (532 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Queer Women and Religious Individualism by : Melissa M. Wilcox

Download or read book Queer Women and Religious Individualism written by Melissa M. Wilcox and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Melissa M. Wilcox explores the complex spiritual lives of queer women in the Los Angeles area. She takes the reader on a tour of a colorful array of religious and secular groups that serve as spiritual resources for these women—from the well-known Metropolitan Community Churches to Wiccan covens, from the Gay and Lesbian Sierrans to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Arguing that these women's stories are exemplary cases of postmodern patterns of religious identity, belief, and practice, Wilcox offers a nuanced analysis of contemporary Western spirituality and selfhood, and a detailed exploration of the history of queer religious organizing in Los Angeles. Queer Women and Religious Individualism is important reading for scholars in religious studies, sociology, women's studies, and LGBT studies.

Stand by Me

Download Stand by Me PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 046509855X
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Stand by Me by : Jim Downs

Download or read book Stand by Me written by Jim Downs and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a prominent young historian, the untold story of the rich variety of gay life in America in the 1970s Despite the tremendous gains of the LGBT movement in recent years, the history of gay life in this country remains poorly understood. According to conventional wisdom, gay liberation started with the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village in 1969. The 1970s represented a moment of triumph -- both political and sexual -- before the AIDS crisis in the subsequent decade, which, in the view of many, exposed the problems inherent in the so-called "gay lifestyle". In Stand by Me, the acclaimed historian Jim Downs rewrites the history of gay life in the 1970s, arguing that the decade was about much more than sex and marching in the streets. Drawing on a vast trove of untapped records at LGBT community centers in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, Downs tells moving, revelatory stories of gay people who stood together -- as friends, fellow believers, and colleagues -- to create a sense of community among people who felt alienated from mainstream American life. As Downs shows, gay people found one another in the Metropolitan Community Church, a nationwide gay religious group; in the pages of the Body Politic, a newspaper that encouraged its readers to think of their sexuality as a political identity; at the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore, the hub of gay literary life in New York City; and at theaters putting on "Gay American History," a play that brought to the surface the enduring problem of gay oppression. These and many other achievements would be largely forgotten after the arrival in the early 1980s of HIV/AIDS, which allowed critics to claim that sex was the defining feature of gay liberation. This reductive narrative set back the cause of gay rights and has shaped the identities of gay people for decades. An essential act of historical recovery, Stand by Me shines a bright light on a triumphant moment, and will transform how we think about gay life in America from the 1970s into the present day.

Queering India

Download Queering India PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135305889
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (353 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Queering India by : Ruth Vanita

Download or read book Queering India written by Ruth Vanita and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Queering India is the first book to provide an understanding of same-sex love and eroticism in Indian culture and society. The essays focus on pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial gay and lesbian life in India to provide a comprehensive look at a much neglected topic. The topics are wide-ranging, considering film, literature, popular culture, historical and religious texts, law and other aspects of life in India. Specifically, the essays cover such issues as Deepa Mehta's recent and controversial film, Fire, which focused on lesbian relationships in India; the Indian penal code which outlaws homosexual acts; a case of same-sex love and murder in colonial India; homophobic fiction and homoerotic advertising in current day India; and lesbian subtext in Hindu scripture. All of the essays are original to the collection. Queering India promises to change the way we understand India as well as gay and lesbian life and sexuality around the world.

Sapphistries

Download Sapphistries PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 0814777260
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (147 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sapphistries by : Leila J. Rupp

Download or read book Sapphistries written by Leila J. Rupp and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2011-01-28 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lyrical and meticulously researched mapping of the ways in which diverse societies have shaped female same-sex sexuality across time and geograhy From the ancient poet Sappho to tombois in contemporary Indonesia, women throughout history and around the globe have desired, loved, and had sex with other women. In beautiful prose, Sapphistries tells their stories, capturing the multitude of ways that diverse societies have shaped female same-sex sexuality across time and place. Leila J. Rupp reveals how, from the time of the very earliest societies, the possibility of love between women has been known, even when it is feared, ignored, or denied. We hear women in the sex-segregated spaces of convents and harems whispering words of love. We see women beginning to find each other on the streets of London and Amsterdam, in the aristocratic circles of Paris, in the factories of Shanghai. We find women’s desire and love for women meeting the light of day as Japanese schoolgirls fall in love, and lesbian bars and clubs spread from 1920s Berlin to 1950s Buffalo. And we encounter a world of difference in the twenty-first century, as transnational concepts and lesbian identities meet local understandings of how two women might love each other. Giving voice to words from the mouths and pens of women, and from men’s prohibitions, reports, literature, art, imaginings, pornography, and court cases, Rupp also creatively employs fiction to imagine possibilities when there is no historical evidence. Sapphistries combines lyrical narrative with meticulous historical research, providing an eminently readable and uniquely sweeping story of desire, love, and sex between women around the globe from the beginning of time to the present.

The Lavender Scare

Download The Lavender Scare PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226825736
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Lavender Scare by : David K. Johnson

Download or read book The Lavender Scare written by David K. Johnson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-03-22 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new edition of a classic work of history, revealing the anti-homosexual purges of midcentury Washington. In The Lavender Scare, David K. Johnson tells the frightening story of how, during the Cold War, homosexuals were considered as dangerous a threat to national security as Communists. Charges that the Roosevelt and Truman administrations were havens for homosexuals proved a potent political weapon, sparking a “Lavender Scare” more vehement and long-lasting than Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare. Drawing on declassified documents, years of research in the records of the National Archives and the FBI, and interviews with former civil servants, Johnson recreates the vibrant gay subculture that flourished in midcentury Washington and takes us inside the security interrogation rooms where anti-homosexual purges ruined the lives and careers of thousands of Americans. This enlarged edition of Johnson’s classic work of history—the winner of numerous awards and the basis for an acclaimed documentary broadcast on PBS—features a new epilogue, bringing the still-relevant story into the twenty-first century.

We Are Everywhere

Download We Are Everywhere PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ten Speed Press
ISBN 13 : 0399581820
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (995 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis We Are Everywhere by : Matthew Riemer

Download or read book We Are Everywhere written by Matthew Riemer and published by Ten Speed Press. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have pride in history. A rich and sweeping photographic history of the Queer Liberation Movement, from the creators and curators of the massively popular Instagram account LGBT History. “If you think the fight for justice and equality only began in the streets outside Stonewall, with brave patrons of a bar fighting back, you need to read We Are Everywhere right now.”—Anderson Cooper Through the lenses of protest, power, and pride, We Are Everywhere is an essential and empowering introduction to the history of the fight for queer liberation. Combining exhaustively researched narrative with meticulously curated photographs, the book traces queer activism from its roots in late-nineteenth-century Europe—long before the pivotal Stonewall Riots of 1969—to the gender warriors leading the charge today. Featuring more than 300 images from more than seventy photographers and twenty archives, this inclusive and intersectional book enables us to truly see queer history unlike anything before, with glimpses of activism in the decades preceding and following Stonewall, family life, marches, protests, celebrations, mourning, and Pride. By challenging many of the assumptions that dominate mainstream LGBTQ+ history, We Are Everywhere shows readers how they can—and must—honor the queer past in order to shape our liberated future.

Queer, There, and Everywhere

Download Queer, There, and Everywhere PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062474340
Total Pages : 237 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (624 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Queer, There, and Everywhere by : Sarah Prager

Download or read book Queer, There, and Everywhere written by Sarah Prager and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-05-23 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Public Library Best Book of 2017 * A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book for Teens 2017 This first-ever LGBTQ history book of its kind for young adults will appeal to fans of fun, empowering pop-culture books like Rad American Women A-Z and Notorious RBG. Three starred reviews! World history has been made by countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals—and you’ve never heard of many of them. Queer author and activist Sarah Prager delves deep into the lives of 23 people who fought, created, and loved on their own terms. From high-profile figures like Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt to the trailblazing gender-ambiguous Queen of Sweden and a bisexual blues singer who didn’t make it into your history books, these astonishing true stories uncover a rich queer heritage that encompasses every culture, in every era. By turns hilarious and inspiring, the beautifully illustrated Queer, There, and Everywhere is for anyone who wants the real story of the queer rights movement. A Junior Library Guild Selection

Straight

Download Straight PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Beacon Press
ISBN 13 : 080704444X
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Straight by : Hanne Blank

Download or read book Straight written by Hanne Blank and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's surprising that the term "heterosexuality" is less than 150 years old and that heterosexuality's history has never before been written, given how obsessed we are with it. In Straight, independent scholar Hanne Blank delves deep into the contemporary psyche as well as the historical record to chronicle the realm of heterosexual relations--a subject that is anything but straight and narrow. Consider how Catholic monasticism, the reading of novels, the abolition of slavery, leisure time, divorce, and constipation of the bowels have all at some time been labeled enemies of the heterosexual state. With an extensive historical scope and plenty of juicy details and examples, Straight provides a fascinating look at the vagaries, schisms, and contradictions of what has so often been perceived as an irreducible fact of nature.