Choice Book List
Contents
-
- Vera Whisman: Queer by Choice: Lesbians,
Gay Men, and the Politics of Identity
- (contains interviews with QueerByChoice Mailing List member Frank Aqueno;
- see
also the book review by Julia Jones)
- Claudia Card: Lesbian Choices
- Jan Clausen: Beyond Gay
or Straight: Understanding Sexual Orientation, 1996
- Kristen G. Esterberg: Lesbian and
Bisexual Identities
- Marjorie Garber: Vice Versa:
Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life.
- "Garber devotes an entire chapter to a comprehensive
trashing of all attempts to
- find a genetic basis for human
sexualities. We don't, she points out, expect to find
- a gene
for being attracted to brown eyes, or high heels, or shaved
heads—why
- do we expect to find one for being attracted to a
particular sex?"
- —Jo Eadie, book review in Bi
Community News, No. 4, U.K., February 1996
- Gillian E. Hanscombe and Martin Humphries:
Heterosexuality
- Fritz Klein: The Bisexual
Option
- Diane Richardson (editor): Theorizing
Heterosexuality
- Carol Queen and Lawrence Schimel (editors):
PoMoSexuals:
Challenging Assumptions
- About
Gender And Sexuality
- Ashwini Sukthankar (editor): Facing the
Mirror: Lesbian Writing from India
- Naomi Tucker, Liz Highleyman, and Rebecca Kaplan
(editors): Bisexual
Politics:
- Theories,
Queries and Visions (See especially the essay "Identity
and Ideas" by
- QueerByChoice member Liz Highleyman)
- Marco Vassi: Metasex, Mirth and
Madness
The biological, sociological and/or historical evidence
against "gay gene" theories, analyzed from a pro-queer
point of view.
- John P. De Cecco and John P. Elia (editors):
If You Seduce a Straight Person, Can You
- Make Them Gay? Issues in Biological Essentialism Versus
Social Constructionism
- in Gay and Lesbian Identities
- John P. De Cecco and David Allen Parker
(editors): Sex, Cells, and Same-Sex
Desire:
- The Biology of Sexual Preference
- John P. De Cecco (editor): The Journal
of Homosexuality (Practically every issue of it is
- relevant to choosing to be queer, and editor John P. De Cecco
appeared on The
- Donahue Show on January 3, 1992
alongside Frank
Aqueno to argue for the "queer
- by choice" point of
view in a debate against
biologists Simon LeVay and James Weinrich
- and writer Dotson Rader
about the causes of sexual orientation)
- Ruth
Hubbard and Elijah Wald:
Exploding the Gene Myth: How Genetic Information
- Is Produced and Manipulated by Scientists, Physicians,
Employers, Insurance
- Companies, Educators, and Law
Enforcers
- Edward Stein: The Mismeasure of
Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual
- Orientation
- Jennifer
Terry: An American Obsession:
Science, Medicine, and the Place of
- Homosexuality in Modern Society
- Jennifer
Terry and Jacqueline Urla
(editors):
Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on
-
Difference in Science and Popular Culture
- Richard R. Troiden: Gay and Lesbian
Identity: A Sociological Analysis
- Vernon A. Rosario (editor): Science and
Homosexualities
These books trace the history of how the modern queer social
role was constructed from earlier social roles. Aspects of social
constructionism can be taken to heart even by people who believe
everyone's sexual orientation is "hardwired" at
birth; however, the study of cultures in which virtually all
people participate in same-sex sexual activity does tend to
undermine the "gay gene" viewpoint.
- Dennis Altman: Homosexuality: Which
Homosexuality? and The Homosexualization of
- America: The Americanization of the Homosexual
- David F. Greenberg: The Construction of
Homosexuality
- Jonathan Ned Katz:
The Invention of Heterosexuality
- Celia Kitzinger: The Social Construction
of Lesbianism
- Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey,
Jr. (editors): Hidden From
- History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past
- Julia Epstein and Kristina Straub (editors):
Body Guards: The Cultural Politics of
- Gender Ambiguity
- Lillian Faderman: Surpassing the Love of
Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between
- Women from the Renaissance to the Present
- David Halperin: One
Hundred Years of Homosexuality and Saint
Foucault
- Gary P. Leupp: Male Colors: The
Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan
- Chris Nottingham: The Pursuit of
Serenity: Havelock Ellis and the New Politics
- R. Jeffrey Ringer (editor): Queer Words,
Queer Images: Communication and the
- Construction of Homosexuality
- Randolph Trumbach: Sex and
the Gender Revolution, Volume One: Heterosexuality
- and the Third Gender in Enlightenment London
- Michael Warner (editor): Fear of a Queer
Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory
- Jeffrey Weeks: Against Nature: Essays on
History, Sexuality and Identity;
- Invented Moralities: Sexual Values in an Age of Uncertainty; Sex, Politics,
and
- Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800;
Sexuality and Its Discontents:
- Meanings, Myths and Modern
Sexualities; Making
Sexual History; Sexual
- Cultures: Communities, Values and
Intimacy; and Sexuality
Many people mistakenly believe that the term "queer
theory" is just a synonym for "gay & lesbian
studies." In reality, queer theory is a very specific subset
of gay & lesbian studies which is based on "the idea
that identities are not fixed and do not determine who we
are." For more information, visit the Queer Theory
websitefrom which the definition quoted was taken, or read
any of the books listed below.
- Richard Burt: Unspeakable Shaxxxspeares:
Queer Theory and American Kiddie Culture
- Sarah Cooper: Relating to Queer Theory:
Rereading Sexual Self-Definition With Irigaray,
- Kristeva, Wittig, and Cixous
- Teresa de Lauretis: Queer Theory:
Lesbian and Gay Sexualities
- Ellis Hanson (editor): Out Takes: Essays
on Queer Theory and Film
- Annamarie Jagose:
Queer Theory: An Introduction
- Shane Phelan: Playing with Fire: Queer
Politics, Queer Theories
- William F. Pinar (editor): Queer Theory
in Education
- Steven Seidman (editor): Queer
Theory/Sociology
- Tamsin Spargo: Foucault and Queer
Theory
- Calvin Thomas, Joseph O. Aimone and Catherine A. F.
Macgillivray (editors): Straight
- With a Twist: Queer Theory and the Subject of
Heterosexuality
- William G. Tierney: Academic Outlaws:
Queer Theory and Cultural Studies in the
- Academy
- William B. Turner: A Genealogy of Queer
Theory
- Elizabeth Weed and Naomi Schor (editors):
Feminism Meets Queer Theory
The movement known as "lesbian-feminism" which
emerged in the 1970s was much more than just a group of lesbians
who also happened to be feminists. In fact, the majority of
lesbians who consider themselves feminists today would
definitelynot consider themselves
"lesbian-feminists." The most basic tenet of the
lesbian-feminist movement was that lesbianism was "a choice
women make in response to society," as Rose Weitz put it in
her article from the 1984 lesbian-feminist anthology
Women-Identified Women. Lesbian-feminists promoted
lesbianism as a choice that all women can and should make in
order to resist patriarchy and prevent (as much as is possible)
their private love lives from being directly controlled by
patriarchal power.
- Jeffner Allen: Lesbian Philosophy:
Explorations
- Claudia Card (editor): Adventures in
Lesbian Philosophy
- Trudy Darty and Sandra Potter (editors):
Women-Identified Women
- Carol Anne Douglas: Love and Politics:
Radical Feminist and Lesbian Theories
- E. M. Ettore: Lesbians, Women, and Society
- Sarah F. Green: Urban Amazons: Lesbian
Feminism and Beyond in the Gender, Sexuality
- and Identity Battles of London
- Lynne Harne and Elaine Miller (editors):
All the Rage: Reasserting Radical Lesbian
- Lesbian Feminism
- Dana A. Heller: Cross-Purposes:
Lesbians, Feminists, and the Limits of Alliance
- Sarah Lucia Hoagland: Lesbian Ethics:
Toward New Value
- Annamarie Jagose: Lesbian
Utopics
- Sheila Jeffreys: The Lesbian Heresy: A
Feminist Perspective on the Lesbian Sexual
- Revolution
- Celia Kitzinger and Rachel Perkins:
Changing Our Minds: Lesbian Feminism and
- Psychology
- Noretta Koertge (editor): Philosophy and
Homosexuality
- Susan Krieger: The Family Silver: Essays
on Relationships Among Women
- Mandy Merck, Naomi Segal and Elizabeth Wright
(editors): Coming Out of Feminism?
- Lilian Mohin: An Intimacy of Equals:
Lesbian Feminist Ethics
- Sue O'Sullivan: I Used to Be Nice:
Reflections on Feminist and Lesbian Politics
- Shane Phelan: Identity Politics:
Lesbian-Feminism and the Limits of Community
- Paula Claire Rust: Bisexuality and the
Challenge to Lesbian Politics: Sex, Loyalty, and
- Revolution
- Vicinus, Martha (editor): Lesbian
Subjects: A Feminist Studies Reader
- Tamsin Wilton: Sexual
(Dis)Orientation: Sex, Gender and Desire; Unexpected
- Pleasures: Leaving
Heterosexuality for the Lesbian Life and Lesbian Studies:
- Setting
an Agenda
- Monique Wittig: The Straight Mind and
Other Essays
The first queer-rights organization in the world was the
Scientific Humanitarian Committee, founded in Germany in 1897 by
Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (who was heterosexual himself, or at least
claimed to be), and argued that queerness was biologically
determined and was a form of psychological hermaphroditism, a
sort of unfortunate birth defect which queer people should
nevertheless be forgiven for since they "couldn't help
it." Sound familiar? You've probably heard of Magnus
Hirschfeld before, because his organization is the one that the
mainstream modern queer-rights movement traces its roots back to
today. But what you're less likely to have heard about is the
queer by choice movement that immediately sprang up in
reaction—led by a man named Adolf Brand. Ever heard of Adolf
Brand? Didn't think so.
The first queer-rights journal in the world was Adolf
Brand's Der Eigene (translation: The
Self-Owner), founded in Germany in 1899, and it was
adamantly opposed to all "gay gene" theories and
advocated queerness as a good choice that all people should make.
Unlike Hirschfeld, Adolf Brand was an openly queer man and wrote
from an openly queer perspective. Hirschfeld immediately
responded by founding the second queer-rights journal in the
world: the Scientific Humanitarian Committee Newsletter,
founded in 1899. Adolf Brand responded to that by
founding the second queer-rightsorganization in the
world: The Community of Self-Owners, founded in 1903. Both
organizations and journals lasted into the 1930s.
This book contains translated excerpts from Adolf Brand's
journal Der Eigene and provides a detailed history of
the split between "we can't help it" and
"queer by choice" queer-rights activists at the turn of
the last century.
- Harry Oosterhuis and Hubert Kennedy:
Homosexuality and Male Bonding in
- Pre-Nazi Germany: The Youth Movement, the Gay Movement
and Male Bonding Before Hitler's Rise: Original Transcripts
from Der Eigene, the First Gay Journal
in the World
© 1999-2001 by Gayle Madwin. All rights reserved.