That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation [Paperback]

Matt Bernstein Sycamore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2004

A THEORETICAL BLUEPRINT THAT BRINGS THE POST-IDENTITY POLITIC OF ANGRY QUEERS TO THE PUBLIC As the gay mainstream prioritizes the attainment of straight privilege over all else, it drains queer identity of any meaning, relevance, or cultural value, writes Matt Bernstein Sycamore, aka Mattilda. This timely collection of essays by writers such as Patrick Califia, Kate Bornstein, Carol Queen, Charlie Anders, Benjamin Shepard, and others shows what the new queer resistance looks like. Intended as a fistful of rocks to throw at the glass house of Gaylandia, the book challenges the commercialized, commoditized, and hyper objectified view of gay/queer identity projected by the mainstream (straight and gay) media by exploring queer struggles to transform gender, revolutionize sexuality, and build community and family outside of traditional models. Essays include "Dr. Laura, Sit on My Face," "Gay Art Guerrillas," "Legalized Sodomy Is Political Foreplay," and "Queer Parents: An Oxymoron or Just Plain Moronic?" THAT'S REVOLTING! Shows us what the new queer resistance looks like. It uses queer identity and struggle as a starting point from which to reframe, reclaim and re-shape the world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matt Bernstein Sycamore is also the author of Pulling Taffy and the editor of Tricks and Treats and Dangerous Families (all available from Turnaround). His other writing has been published widely in places as diverse as Best American Erotica, Women and Performance and Slingshot.

Product Details

• Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press (September 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932360565
• ISBN-13: 978-1932360561
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 7.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,705,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is most recently the editor of Why Are Faggots so Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform (AK Press 2012), and the author of So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (City Lights 2008). Mattilda is the editor of Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (Seal 2007) and an expanded second edition of That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (Soft Skull 2008). She's also the author of Pulling Taffy (Suspect Thoughts 2003), and the editor of Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving (Haworth 2004; now Routledge) and Tricks and Treats: Sex Workers Write About Their Clients (Haworth 2000; now Routledge).

Sycamore's first memoir, The End of San Francisco, will be published by City Lights in April 2013.

Mattilda's home page is mattildabernsteinsycamore.com, which includes a delicious blog.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Radical, Not Liberal November 12, 2009

By susan e. wiget

Format:Paperback

The word "radical" does not mean "extreme" but rather "going to the root." That is, being radical is about going to the root of the problem, the root of our patriarchal a.k.a. dominator society, finding solutions for overthrowing it, and living as much as possible outside of the dominant system. During the same-sex marriage debate, I kept reflecting on how marriage was invented for the purpose of enslaving women. I kept signing petitions in favor of gay marriage while feeling apprehensive and wondering why lesbians, especially, would want to participate in such a patriarchal establishment.

Reading the anthology That's Revolting was a great relief, because it proves that many people see things the same way I do, from a radical point of view rather than a liberal point of view. That's Revolting is for those who want a nonviolent revolution, not a white picket fence and a house in suburbia. It is for those who question the American dream rather than gobble up capitalism, respectability, or the nuclear family lifestyle. It is for those who wish to overthrown marriage and the military, not participate in them. This diverse anthology is social criticism, inspiration, words of reassurance that radical activism continues, and a call to action.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent January 28, 2005

By Austin

Format:Paperback

Nowhere have I seen such an amazing range of essays about the complexities of queer lives. The book is fiery, exciting, and full of wisdom. I especially liked "Gay Art Guerrillas," where Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard detail the rise and fall of downtown New York in the eighties with lively anecdotes and cutting wit. "Calling All Restroom Revolutionaries" offers a step-by-step plan for making public bathrooms gender neutral and accessible, and offers a stunning critique of identity politics in the process. And the opening essay, "Dr. Laura, Sit on My Face," I've read over and over again, even once to a friend over the telephone. I live outside of the major gay destination cities, so this book was a welcome breath of fresh air -- Queer Eye for the Straight GIRL isn't exactly speaking to me, if you know what I mean. I recommend this book to anyone with a brain.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is what has been missing. February 14, 2005

By G. A. Stanley

Format:Paperback

This is the book I had always dreamed they would use in my queer classes at school!!! Activism, cultural analysis and personal narratives help push what has been understood as "gay and lesbian studies" from the now "safe" grounds of identity to the terrain of revolution. From racism in queer organizing to hilarious direct action That's Revolting is a radical a re-thinking of all that we through we knew about social change, gender, class and race.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars shouldn't be a bible, but nice insights January 27, 2013

By N. Tung

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was long, and the energy in the writing waned a bit after the first essay, but it has many insights, and cross-generational perspectives. There are fewer cross-culture perspectives; most of the essays focus on western culture, and that of the United States. Still, it has the quintessential anthology strength of many different perspectives. (Side note: readers who enjoyed this might also like the anthology "Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation".)

Where this book really shines is calling out racism, misogyny, transphobia, xenophobia, and other prejudices (biphobia, etc.) in mainstream LGBT culture, as well as how mainstream culture is superficial, boodthirsty, and imperialist underneath its facade. Particularly in their anti-imperialist messages, the essays in this book have helped me realize how much I had internalized mainstream imperialism. For example, at least to some degree, I had bought into mainstream beliefs that the War in Iraq might "eventually help people". I'm now at a better understanding at how both wrong, and racist this perception is.

The interwebs suggest Gay Shame isn't running any more, but I'd certainly go this year if it were!

As a criticism, I don't think there was any effort in representing asexuality. There are aces who gender themselves as queer. (I'm somewhat of a genderqueer, and I'd call myself a "gray ace" / "pansexual-asexual spectrum".) While I appreciate others' outward sex-positivism (to combat mainstream sex shaming), I think the book could have included more diversity of opinions there.... Not being sexual, not being very sexual, or having mixed (postiive and negative) sexual experiences doesn't mean that one "isn't" queer [to be essentialist], or interested in non-conforming relationships.

As a less serious criticism, the book didn't do a great job of analyzing and laying out concepts. It'd often go something like "gays assimilating into the mainstream are X-phobic by doing Y", providing examples (Y) of X-phobia, rather than laying out the structure of racism, imperialism, X-phobia, etc. Consider imperialism. I'd find it helpful if the authors were to organize the concept into subtopics, e.g. "outright conquest and mainstream excuses for it", "spreading capitalism at the cost of social welfare", "white supremacy", "Judeo-Christian-Islamic conquest ideation", instead of repeating this relatively general word ("imperialism") in related-but-different contexts.

A last subjective thought here. I think making activism an effort for "more different types of people to be comfortable" is better than simply casting mainstream ideals (marriage, capitalist success, etc.) as bad or wrong. Julia Serano in Whipping Girl called this "subversivism"; while I have many points of strong disregard / criticism for her book (esp. criticizing genderqueers without providing any representation), her analysis of subversivism can apply here, in that casting mainstream ideals as bad/wrong creates an inverted-but-analagous structure of power and moral authority. I find the critiques of mainstream culture inspiring, insightful, and positive, but think individual-level criticism [even if the "individual" is somewhat abstract / anonymous] can be untactful and disagreeable. Casting the young gay couple that wants to get married as "brainwashed by the mainstream" erases important differences between marriages, condemns them to replicate other mainstream adversity, and posits other relationships would suit them better, or make them better people. In my opinion, criticizing marriage misogyny, and marriage privilege, are more productive goals. In short, trying to fit this book to your lived reality could make you very jaded, very fast :).

Anyway, sorry this was stream-of-consciousness. Read the book :). Read more ›

4.0 out of 5 stars A Mixed Bag February 20, 2013

By Xasswuwe

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a lesbian who very much appreciates queer culture for all that it is and doesn't fantasize about having a nuclear family with my partner and finds most Pride events to be vapid and so non-political, I was expecting to like this book very much. It definitely made me think, and the essay about PISSAR's efforts to make bathrooms safe for non-gender conforming people but also for other bathroom-marginalized groups is what bumped this one up for me from three stars to four. That was an awesome essay, and it will be one I force all of my friends to read.

The book was definitely eye-opening for me, and I will never be able to remember Gavin Newsom exists without foaming at the mouth a little bit. I was blown away at the hypocrisy of queers and "queer friendly" politicians not throwing 100% support to LGBTQ youth homeless shelters, and was shocked at the police brutality present in so many queer protests. The LGBTQ community often shuts out thoughtful dialogue in favor of mindlessly pursuing conformity, and that's an unfortunate thing. When the anti-queer right accuses us of choosing to be queer, I never understood why we're so prone to shout "we can't help it" and "why would we choose this?" when it really doesn't matter if we do or don't- the point is, we like being queer?

But some points of the book I fundamentally agreed with. A lot of the essay writers have a serious hate on conservative gay blogger Andrew Sullivan and the Log Cabin Republicans- and while everyone likes to make fun of them, it gets kind of annoying that some people can't accept some diversity in political affiliation. (And no, I'm not a Republican. I just heard this crazy rumor that it's possible to be a Republican and have a soul....) That and the Human Rights Campaign, which got a lot of heat from the community for supporting ENDA despite lack of protection for gender identity/expression, and rightfully so.

Your mileage will vary. If you feel that a vote for gay marriage is a vote for gay divorce, or that the legal protections of marriage are either overhyped or discriminatory to other marginalized groups, you'll love this book. If you feel that "real" queers should protest at HRC events and 100% shun gay pride events, you'll love this book.

If you roll your eyes when people talk about abolishing the legal institution of marriage, you won't cheer and shout as much. If you respond to HRC's half-assed protection of trans* and non-binary folk by writing a letter to them explaining why you don't donate, then you'll have a harder time relating to the book. If you feel that sometimes people protest marriage without offering viable alternatives, you won't like it as much. And if your political identity isn't firmly on the far left (and when someone demands universal healthcare, food, or housing, your brows furrow as you try to figure out the logistics), you'll have a harder time relating to the book.

If you're interested in queer politics, whether that interest is academic or personal, you should buy this book. I definitely don't regret my purchase, and will re-read this many times and loan it out to my friends. Read more ›