Meg-John Barker

Though not a graphic novel, this high illustrated nonfiction book explores how we came to view sex, gender and sexuality in the ways that we do. Barker and Scheele show how these ideas get tangled up with our culture and our understanding of biology, psychology and sexology; and how these views have been disputed and challenged. Each page focuses on a specific aspect of the subject.

a graphic history

Queer

Bria

I really like how they type LGBT as LG(BT) because "LGBT rights agendas are often driven by gay men and, to a lesser extent, lesbians" (Queerer Umbrella). There have been plenty times where I've seen gay men, lesbians, and straight people accuse a bi person of just being gay or straight, completely erasing their identity. Also, trans people are often targets for many people, including gay, lesbian, bi, straight, and even other trans people. It's why pansexuality was created. Some people didn't want trans, and later gnc and nb, people to be included in bisexuality because "bi means two" when they're really just transphobic and prejudice. As I once heard, God created day and night, but that doesn't mean He didn't create dusk and dawn as well. He created land and sea, but that also includes valleys and swamps. When God create men and women, who gives you the right to say that there's nothing in between like there is with everything else? Every thing is a spectrum; nothing is just black and white, and that includes people as well.

Maggie Gordon

Queer: A Graphic History is a fantastic overview of the academic side of queer theory. Barker explains the thoughts of major thinkers and the structure of different academic movements all in a fairly accessible manner (it's not an easy read without some university-level education, but I think it can be tackled without multiple degrees. Which is saying something given Barker touches on some very complex theories from the likes of Butler and Foucault). The book is careful to look at a variety of perspectives, discussing one issue, then flipping to look at critiques of it and ideas potentially left out of the discussion. It is a book geared at looking at academic thoughts, not on the ground activism, and it comes out of a particular area of academic thought, so it does not cover all of queer thought ever. For what it does cover, it does a remarkable job at being clear and thorough for those who need an overview of the area. Great first book of the year!

Fiona Coffey

3.5 stars. I like the idea of queer theory in graphic novel form. I honestly wish there was more graphic parts, rather than illustrations here and there. It was basically a queer theory 101 class, as someone who’s taken a couple of queer theory classes I found it to be a little bit repetitive from what I already knew. It was also a little bit of a slog to get through at times. Having it as a graphic novel didn’t necessarily make it less academic which is kiiiind of what I was hoping for. My eyes glossed over certain sections. A good read though if you’re interested in queer theory and haven’t read much about it yet. If you are GENUINELY really interested you’d probably be better off just reading directly from queer theorists.

Enfys J. Book

Compelling reading and a fantastic, easy-to-grasp overview of queer theory and the problems it seeks to solve. This graphic-style compendium doesn't shy away from the many complexities and internal disagreements among queer theorists, yet still manages to be very accessible.

"Let's aim to queer things through revealing the strangeness of normativity, disrupting the status quo, (re)claiming what is usually rejected, and forming new umbrella-alliances." Hear, hear!

Dani

Excelente como guía inicial para comprender el complejo mundo de la teoría Queer y tomar muchas notas para seguir leyendo ✌

Carolina Lopes

This was a lot more focused on the history of academic thinking and theories around "Queerness" and its meaning, and a lot less about the history surrounding everyday queer people or movements; thus my 3-star rating. Still a good book, just not what I was looking for.

Queer a graphic history

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