My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home
by Amber L. Hollibaugh
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Amber L. Hollibaugh is a lesbian sex radical, ex-hooker, incest survivor, gypsy child, poor-white-trash, high femme dyke. She is also an award-winning filmmaker, feminist, Left political organizer, public speaker, and journalist. My Dangerous Desires presents over twenty years of Hollibaugh's writing, an introduction written especially for this book, and five new essays including "A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home," "My Dangerous Desires," and "Sexuality, Labor, and the New Trade Unionism." show more In looking at themes such as the relationship between activism and desire or how sexuality can be intimately tied to one's class identity, Hollibaugh fiercely and fearlessly analyzes her own political development as a response to her unique personal history. She explores the concept of labeling and the associated issues of categories such as butch or femme, transgender, bisexual, top or bottom, drag queen, b-girl, or drag king. The volume includes conversations with other writers, such as Deirdre English, Gayle Rubin, Jewelle Gomez, and Cherríe Moraga. From the groundbreaking article "What We're Rollin' Around in Bed With" to the radical "Sex Work Notes: Some Tensions of a Former Whore and a Practicing Feminist," Hollibaugh charges ahead to describe her reality, never flinching from the truth. Dorothy Allison's moving foreword pays tribute to a life lived in struggle by a working-class lesbian who, like herself, refuses to suppress her dangerous desires. Having informed many of the debates that have become central to gay and lesbian activism, Hollibaugh's work challenges her readers to speak, write, and record their desires--especially, perhaps, the most dangerous of them--"in order for us all to survive." show lessTags
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Hollibaugh's essays deal with so many things I always wanted to bring up in my women's and queer studies classes. She talks about actual people having actual sex! Crazy! The essays and conversations in this collection touch on desire, class, sex work, monogamy and sexual jealousy, children's sexuality, the importance of reproductive freedom to the queer liberation movement and the importance of queer liberation to feminism, lesbianism and AIDS, race, drag queens, power in sex... oh, so many crucial, interesting questions and observations, presented in a clear and personal way. Hollibaugh's got activist credentials out the wazoo, but she never comes across as preachy. And as a woman who dated woman and is now dating a dude, I really show more relate to her struggle with her high femme desires and identity, is that weird? Oh, and this book also has two things that mean I will automatically love it: photo inserts and Gayle Rubin. "My Dangerous Desires" was just what I needed to inspire me to read and write and THINK after a year of WGS withdrawal. show less
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61 works; 1 member
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4+ Works 265 Members
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- Canonical title
- My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home
Classifications
- Genres
- LGBTQ+, Sexuality and Gender Studies, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 305.4896640973 — Society, government, & culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Social group - Age, Gender, Ethnicity Women Specific groups of women
- LCC
- HQ75.6 .U5 .H65 — Social sciences The family. Marriage, Women and Sexuality The Family. Marriage. Women Sexual life Homosexuality. Lesbianism
- BISAC
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- 192
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- 170,168
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.06)
- Languages
- English
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- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
