
Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?
Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform
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Narrated by:
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Mark Bachman
About this listen
Gay culture has become a nightmare of consumerism, whether it's an endless quest for Absolut vodka, Diesel jeans, rainbow Hummers, pec implants, or Pottery Barn. Whatever happened to sexual flamboyance and gender liberation, an end to marriage, the military, and the nuclear family? As backrooms are shut down to make way for wedding vows, and gay sexual culture morphs into “straight-acting dudes hangin’ out”, what are the possibilities for a defiant faggotry that challenges the assimilationist norms of a corporate-cozy lifestyle?
Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? challenges not just the violence of straight homophobia but the hypocrisy of mainstream gay norms that say the only way to stay safe is to act straight: Get married, join the military, adopt kids! Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore reinvokes the anger, flamboyance, and subversion once thriving in gay subcultures in order to create something dangerous and lovely: An exploration of the perils of assimilation; a call for accountability; a vision for change. A sassy and splintering emergency intervention!
Called "startlingly bold and provocative" by Howard Zinn, and described as "a cross between Tinkerbell and a honky Malcolm X with a queer agenda" by The Austin Chronicle, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is undoubtedly one of America's most outspoken queer critics. She is the author of two novels, including, most recently, So Many Ways to Sleep Badly, and is the editor of four nonfiction anthologies, including Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity and That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation.
©2012 Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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What listeners say about Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Susie
- 03-14-13
Forget the Status Quo South Beach B.S.
Mattilda's rant got the whole community talking—personal, strong, and compelling, about how gay life is not all white parties in Miami.
Here are thirty short stories and essays that play with race concepts and body issues in the gay men's community. Whether it’s being gay and disabled—or growing up gay, South Asian, and living in Ohio—the attitude is indignant, confidential, painful, nostalgic, funny, and activist.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Josh hout
- 01-19-21
Thought provoking
As a gay man it made me feel good to hear stories of people who have experienced similar things in life and have similar thoughts on why the larger gay community doesn’t want to see or hear stories like mine and those of transgendered or gender queer people.
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- Alex
- 07-19-13
hmmm
What did you like best about Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?? What did you like least?
There are some real gems in this book. There are also some real misses and a lot of in between.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
There should have been several books. The narrator's attempt at accents and manners of speaking really detracted from the content.
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1 person found this helpful