Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics (Paperback)

by Jennifer Baumgardner (Author) "If you're walking down the street in London, you'll find helpful words stenciled on the street at most crosswalks: look right, reminds one, where the..." (more)
Key Phrases: bisexual women and lesbians, gay expectations, love with women, New York, Alix Kates Shulman, Amy Ray (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Sometimes confused but ultimately insightful, this cultural study pries open that ambiguous can of worms called "sexual choice" and looks at it with eyes wide open. Baumgardner, coauthor of the "third wave feminist" Manifesta, discovered her own bisexuality shortly after graduating from college, when she unexpectedly fell in love with a "girlie girl" co-worker at Ms. magazine, which was, significantly, the first place she "truly saw women without men as being successes, not failures." Her story of how she explored her "urge toward bisexuality as a means to figuring out how to have a satisfying, truly equal and truly intimate relationship" weaves a personal thread through the book. In between, she evokes the heady days of second-wave feminism, lauds Ani DiFranco as the quintessential bisexual of her generation and analyzes the TV heroine Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a powerful, vulnerable, tragic, feminist superhero. Baumgardner controversially argues that bisexuality, especially in younger women, is more widespread than we think, and that recognizing this "could harness the multiplicity of attraction that Kinsey described" and "lead to better relationships, both political and sexual, between men and women." Her insistence that bisexuality has the potential to further the goals of feminism and gay rights challenges the limitations of "gay" and "straight." (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
"Images of bisexuality in ads, on TV, and in erotica reflect the lives of real women and girls--including me," Baumgardner says, noting that during the last decade she has encountered "hundreds of girls who have had significant experiences with other women and not simply in order to turn on their boyfriends." She theorizes that female bisexuality represents an evolution in women's feminist consciousness and sexual freedom. Today's high-school and college students, straight-identified and in favor of gay-straight alliances and clubs, will be the next generation of parents, and they will view these struggles over sexuality "as bigoted as segregation." Employing telling details from her own and others' experiences, Baumgardner consistently emphasizes the need for listening to women's stories rather than focusing on the gender of their sex partners. Part memoir, part pop-culture study, part analysis of a bisexual community (including Anne Heche, even), this significant contribution to sociosexual and gender studies helps build bridges from feminism to the gay rights movement. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374531080
• ISBN-13: 978-0374531089
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #41,647 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #11 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Special Groups > Lesbian Studies
  #31 in	Books > Nonfiction > Women's Studies > Feminist Theory
  #37 in	Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Fiction > Lesbian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Walking the Line and Loving It , February 28, 2007

By	Jessica Ferri "snobber" (new york, new york) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics (Hardcover)

Reading Jennifer Baumgardner's Look Both Ways is like discovering that you share a secret with a friend you've known all your life. Part-memoir, part-cultural critique, the book is essential for anyone who wants to understand bisexuality and how it fits into our culture. On a personal note, as a woman who's been repeatedly rejected and trampled on by men, Look Both Ways helped me to realize it's not so strange to find the emotional support I need in relationships with women. Using Ani DiFranco, Anne Heche, the L-Word, and Virginia Woolf as her gateways into pop culture, Baumgardner both deflates and embraces the bisexual stereotypes she discusses. As a single mom and an advocate for feminism and reproductive rights, Jennifer Baumgardner is a pillar of strength in a world of Paris Hiltons. Today, people might be willing to embrace "alternative" lifestyle choices if you'd label yourself so they can package you up and stack you on the shelf with the rest of the queers. In this book, Baumgardner makes the point of saying it isn't that easy--sexuality is a complicated creature, with every experience, every moment of one's life influencing who we choose to love. With interviews from women from all walks of life, Look Both Ways helped me to really consider and ultimately embrace the ambiguities of my sexuality--she helped me lift the stigma I'd associated with my relationships past. And I can't think of anything more important than a book that makes you stop and reevaluate your life for the better.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on bisexuality I've read in a long time, March 20, 2007

By	Jesse Liberty "Silverlight Geek" (MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics (Hardcover)

By far the most interesting, most readable and most satisfying exploration of bisexuality I've read, and certainly the most interesting book on the intersection of bisexuality and feminism ever written. Baumgardner is young, and of a different generation, but her thoughts and experiences are completely in line with my own, and so of course I embrace them as brilliantly insightful.

The connections to feminism are fascinating, though she gives short shrift to male bisexuality. That said, her insights are fascinating and her weaving of personal anecdote with a more global and maturing political awareness is well worth reading.

This book belongs on the bookshelf of every one interested in human sexuality, and especially those active in the Queer community.

A remarkable book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's a sexuality, not a political orientation, March 21, 2008

By	Hedonist - See all my reviews

Other reviewers have praised this book to high heaven. Therefore, I will not go over what the author does well--they have done it for me. I will simply critique what drove me INSANE about this book: The notion that, for men, bisexuality is a sexuality, but for women, it is an "evolved" political statement, a "feminist choice", or a way of experimenting in the college and post-college years. Maybe this is true for some women (and if it's true for many women, it would certainly explain why so many so-called "bi" women from my college years are now monogamously married to men and never even think about women sexually). Yet certain bi women have sexualities very much like bi men: They are sexually aroused by women as hot bodies and faces. They did not need to attend a women's studies class or work at Ms. magazine to find this to be true; they knew it from puberty. I would have preferred if the author had explored this type of bisexual woman a bit more. In addition, I felt that she took the 'sex' out of bisexuality, at least when it came to bi women having sex with other women. Again, there are some bi women who find sex with women to be just as (if not more) physical, libidinous, lustful, and frenzied than sex with men--not the sexual equivalent of a commercial for herbal tea or feminine hygeine products. Female bisexuality is not some kind of fad that grew out of riot grrrl, the 1990s brief moment of third wave feminism, or the shrill warblings of folk singers. For some at least, it is no different than male bisexuality: desiring sexual activities--as distinguished from sappy romantic friendships--with both genders and both genders equally. In the author's view, it seems no more than a brief girl-girl kiss after a stereotypical weepy bonding moment over how much 'boys stink'. Lastly, not all lesbians are or desire masculine women. One does not have to be bisexual to both look feminine and exclusively desire feminine women.