Greetings from Amazon.com Delivers Lesbian Studies FEATURED IN THIS E-MAIL: * "Exile and Pride" by Eli Clare * "Witness to Revolution" edited by Chris Bull * "My Lesbian Husband" by Barrie Jean Borich * "Gender Trouble" by Judith Butler * "Friends and Family" by Dan Woog * Amazon.com Presents the Best of the Century "Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation" by Eli Clare http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0896086054/entertainmentsit At long last, an essay on the politics and poetics of queer disability. Eli Clare, a poet with cerebral palsy, movingly describes her attempt to climb Mount Adams--not, she points out, as a "supercrip," like the boy without hands who bats .486 on his Little League team, but just as an impaired person who loves to hike: a story about ableism rather than disability. Avoiding easy answers and journalistic sunshine, she recounts the story of the fight for disabled access, touching on the history of the freak show. She tracks the origins of her own tenacity and self-knowledge to her rural Oregon upbringing and the conflicting personality of her father--who sexually abused her, but also taught her how to frame a house, how to use a chainsaw. "I think of the words crip, queer, freak, redneck," Clare remarks. "None of these are easy words. They mark the jagged edge between self-hatred and pride, the chasm between how the dominant culture views marginalized peoples and how we view ourselves, the razor between finding home, finding our bodies, and living in exile, living on the metaphoric mountain." "Witness to Revolution: The Advocate Reports on Gay and Lesbian Politics, 1967-1999" edited by Chris Bull http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555834655/entertainmentsit Among the radical magazines, news sheets, and bulletins that surfaced in the heady climate of the late 1960s, none can compare with the venerable Advocate, rightly described as "the world's premier chronicle of the lesbian and gay civil rights movement." In "Witness to Revolution," Washington correspondent Chris Bull compiles dozens of trenchant and timely articles on politics from the magazine's first 32 years, ranging from descriptions of bar raids and early, celebratory coverage of the first openly gay elected officials to some of the first (woefully belated) articles on AIDS and, later, the rise of the religious Right. Among the selections: John Weir's acid reflections on a ubiquitous symbol of queer activism, "The Red Plague: Do Red Ribbons Really Help in the Fight Against AIDS?" "The ribbon," Weir contends, "has seeped into the national culture like the score from 'My Fair Lady.'" He even spotted one suspended in a glass ball on his mother's Christmas tree, and discovered that "she had traveled all the way to Greenwich Village to find it, sifting through sex toys at the Pleasure Chest. Any charitable gesture that places me at risk of encountering my mother in a sex shop is one that we as a community ought to reconsider." "My Lesbian Husband" Barrie Jean Borich http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555972926/entertainmentsit Barrie Jean Borich's memoir of her 14-year marriage is a subtle exploration of gender and the intricacies of butch-femme desire. In dense, lyrical paragraphs, she describes her first attraction to her partner, Linnea, and the slow building of their life together in a decaying neighborhood in Minneapolis. "My Lesbian Husband" traces both the pleasures and the wrenching difficulties of trying to construct a long-term union in the absence not only of legal and social support, but of everything that our aunts and uncles and parents take for granted: "names for their union in every language, the weddings of a square-chested prince and a big-busted, cinch-waisted princess at the end of every Disney movie, every Shakespeare comedy, not to mention Mary and Joseph, Hera and Zeus, and those little bride and groom figurines they have saved from their wedding cakes." As sharply observed and well-written a memoir as Jan Clausen's "Apples and Oranges," but a valentine rather than a valediction. Information about Jan Clausen's "Apples and Oranges" can be found at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0395827523/entertainmentsit "Gender Trouble" by Judith Butler http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415924995/entertainmentsit In a new introduction to the 10th-anniversary edition of "Gender Trouble"--among the two or three most influential books (and by far the most popular) in the field of gender studies--Judith Butler explains the complicated critical response to her groundbreaking arguments and the ways her ideas have evolved as a result. Nevertheless, she has resisted the urge to revise what has become a feminist classic (as well as an elegant defense of drag, given Butler's emphasis on the performative nature of gender). The book was produced "as part of the cultural life of a collective struggle that has had, and will continue to have, some success in increasing the possibilities for a livable life for those who live, or try to live, on the sexual margins." An attack on the essentialism of French feminist theory and its basis in structuralist anthropology, "Gender Trouble" expands to address the cultural prejudices at play in genetic studies of sex determination, as well as the uses of gender parody, and also provides a critical genealogy of the naturalization of sex. A primer in gender studies, and sexy reading for college cafes. "Friends and Family: True Stories of Gay America's Straight Allies" by Dan Woog http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555834914/entertainmentsit Dan Woog's inspiring and in some cases astonishing stories of heterosexual activists will banish for a few hours those images of homophobes closing in with pitchforks that television coverage of gay issues so often conjures. Most of these friendly crusaders have conversion stories, moments when they were shaken from their complacency or prejudice, such as 80-year-old Frannie Peabody, who returned from her grandson's funeral in 1984 and helped found the AIDS Project of Portland, Maine. Tom Potter, the former chief of police in Portland, Oregon, announced at his swearing-in ceremony his commitment to fighting racism, sexism, and homophobia; his daughter, also a cop, had come out to him shortly before. Rabbi David Horowitz, whose daughter is a lesbian, keeps 17 gay-related pamphlets on his desk, just in case people want to talk about the issue. Described by one gay activist as "the mother of all moms," Carolyn Wagner sprang to her son's defense after he was beaten in the street, eventually suing the school he had attended and forcing policy changes. Not only have these people helped advance gay rights and visibility, but their involvement with the movement has in many instances helped them as well, they argue, providing a focus--a mission--they may not otherwise have found. AMAZON.COM PRESENTS THE BEST OF THE CENTURY ******************************************* As the century comes to a close, Amazon.com takes a look at the landmarks in books, music, and video of the past 100 years. Selected by our editors, our lists take you decade by decade from the turn of the century all the way to the end of the millennium. But don't just take our word for it; cast your vote for the best book, video, and CD in our best-of-the-millennium poll for your chance to win our customers' 300 favorite music, book, and video titles. Books of the century ****** Give the Perfect Gift -- Get the Perfect Gift Does Aunt Ida send polka CDs when you'd prefer pop? Create an Amazon.com Wish List and save everyone the agony of the unwanted gift. Wish list
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