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The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life New Ed Edition

by Michael Warner (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars 16 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0674004412
ISBN-10: 0674004418
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 227 pages
  • Publisher: Harvard University Press; New Ed edition (November 1, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0674004418
  • ISBN-13: 978-0674004412
  • Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsReally needs to be a lot longer or to pick a narrower point of focus, but still shockingly relevant 15 years after it came out
By jafrank on July 25, 2014
Even though its almost 15 years old, and even though some of the specific issues he raises are mute (DOMA, don't ask don't tell, anti-sodomy laws, all thankfully consigned to the rubbish heap of history now), the underlying assumption he works with is still incredibly valid; mainstream culture is uncomfortable with queer people because mainstream culture as a whole is simply uncomfortable with sex being discussed or addressed or engaged with in anything approximating general openness.

I think that's essentially correct even if its a very hard generalization to make as a young adult in 2014 at a time when gay/queer culture is becoming much more prevalent in general, and not simply because of the sea change in attitudes on gay marriage, and while Warner makes a compelling case against not simply gay marriage, but against the institution of marriage as a whole (as a ludicrous ritual which allows the state to say that some types of relationships are "proper" and others are not).

I don't buy into his alarmist and, in retrospect, incorrect conclusion that full acceptance of gay marriage will be the death of organic, fully sexualized queer culture in America. You can get married to your gay/lesbian partner in a Presbyterian church these days, you can also spend your nights in a bathhouse or BDSM dungeon or a glory hole. As long as people are biologically wired for sex, all of those things will exist in an uneasy and at times almost incoherent sort of equilibrium. But where he is still frighteningly right is how larger economic forces can destroy queer (and really any other) culture that gets in the way of economic development, urban renewal, really of gentrification in general.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsI have Trouble With Normal
By HDBooks on April 16, 2009
I picked up this book because I was interested in what an argument for "anti-assimilationist" queer politics looked like. I found the book to be a useful framework for thinking about all people in non-normative relationships, and the problematic, Puritanical way sex is treated in American politics. His language is not overly academic, and his points are well-supported, with suggestions for further reading.

It is interesting how this book was clearly written during the Clinton administration, and I wonder if the us-vs-them politics we saw under George W. Bush would have shaped his argument differently. From what I understand, some of what Warner is arguing for in later chapters -- namely, a more condom-visible public health campaign in New York City -- has happened. But much of what he says about heteronormative, sex-panicked American society is true, and worth a read.
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4.0 out of 5 starsSame-sex marriage != queer liberation
By Ivan Boothe on March 12, 2008
A comprehensive and incisive excoriation of same-sex marriage as a movement for "gay liberation." Warner's investigations of the interactions between gay shame and a push for same-sex marriage (see also Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore and Benjamin Shepard) is a useful lens to explore the millions of dollars and volunteer hours going almost exclusively to same-sex marriage advocacy -- at the expense of issues that arguably have a larger impact on the day-to-day lives of most queer and trans folks, from health care to housing to gentrification.

This latter trend, which pits rich white gays and lesbians -- toward whom the advocacy organizations like the Human Rights Campaign are oriented -- against their less-wealthy queer and trans sisters and brothers, assumes all the more currency when reading "gay assimilationist" author-activists like Michael Signorile, Dan Savage and Larry Kramer who, regardless of their counter-cultural "shock" approaches are nonetheless reinforcing ideas of middle-class normalcy as the long-awaited future for queers. Warner differs, and offers a radical notion of sexual autonomy and sexual ethics in their stead. Though Warner seems somewhat unaware of the liberation theories advanced before him by radical feminists like Judith Butler and John Stoltenberg, trans theorists like Riki Wilchins and race theorists/historians like Robin D.G. Kelley, his critique of and within the queer community is well-deserved.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA different perspective
By TSmith on July 13, 2004
Verified Purchase
In this excellent book, Michael Warner explains how gay and lesbian activists are pursuing the wrong goal by advocating and working for the right to be legally married.
Warner points out that, instead, the focus ought to be on separating certain legal benefits and perks that are now only available to those in a legal marriage from one's marital status. Such marriage-linked benefits not only discriminate against gays and lesbians, but also heterosexuals in nontraditional relationships, and singles of all categories. I found quite a bit in this book that was relevant and useful to me as a nonmonogamous heterosexual. Highly recommended.
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5.0 out of 5 starsmakes a great wedding gift...
By D. Henkin on December 6, 2000
In this wonderful manifesto, Warner argues that the recent emphasis on marriage and normalcy within the gay and lesbian movement (or, as Harvard University Press typesetters put it at one point, "the hay and lesbian movement") undermines the hard-fought struggles and betrays the valuable lessons of an earlier generation of queer activism, and strips queerness of its central insights about human sexuality. This is not just a timely intervention within gay politics, however. It is also a smart analysis of the regulation and disposition of urban space, a sophisticated reflection on the meanings of privacy and publicity in our culture, a disturbingly persuasive indictment of the institution of civil marriage, and the most resonant non-fiction on the subject of sex I have read in a long time. Most of all, this is a deeply ethical book that will speak to a range of readers, whether or not they are "hay," or have any abiding interest in the politics of that identity.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

A must read for all

Published on July 12, 2014 by Lynn P. Hartshorn
5.0 out of 5 starsStill very relevant almost 15 years later

I read this book back in 2000 and have often recalled its argument as an important corrective to LGBT activism that focuses solely on marriage equality. Read more

Published on March 28, 2013 by J. Draper
3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting but . . .

The evidence Warner provided to back up his opinions was excellent and what kept me reading. Beyond that, however, some of his opinions are really "out there. Read more

Published on August 31, 2009 by K. Kriesel
2.0 out of 5 starsover rated

I've seen this book on a number of syllabi for queer theory and gay and lesbian studies, and I have been disappointed. Read more

Published on May 12, 2009 by J. Buddingh
2.0 out of 5 starsa book of rants against gay marriage

*The Trouble with Normal* is Warner's stance against gay marriage. Actually, it's more than that. Warner addresses normalcy and this is where he actually had interesting yet... Read more

Published on August 13, 2008 by LARRY
5.0 out of 5 starswow

This book is for any gay rights activist who finds themselves wondering "why I am so ambivalent about gay marriage? Read more

Published on July 15, 2007 by Beth
4.0 out of 5 starsa little over the top

i bought this for a queer theory class and read it and found it interesting. i don't think i would have picked it up just to read, though. Read more

Published on January 9, 2007 by S. Destfino
4.0 out of 5 starsrethink your politics

This is a book that could serve as a wake-up call. ... . Warner grounds his arguments in contemporary politics and offers an intervention worth reading. Read more

Published on December 18, 2002
1.0 out of 5 starsHypocritical and Polemical

Warner starts off well and almost had me convinced for a while, until he becomes an obvious hypocrite. Read more

Published on March 11, 2002

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