Authors: David Shneer (Editor), Caryn Aviv
ISBN-13: 9781594511721, ISBN-10: 1594511721
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Paradigm Publishers
Date Published: March 2006
Edition: 1st Edition
David Shneer is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver.
Caryn Aviv is a Marsico Lecturer and an affiliated faculty with the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver. Together they have coauthored Queer Jews (Routledge, 2002) and New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora (NYU, 2005).
Contrasting queer life today and in years past, this landmark book brings together autobiographies, poetry, film studies, maps, documents, laws, and other texts to explore the meaning and practice of the word "queer". By this Shneer and Aviv mean: queer as both a form of social violence and a call to political activism; queer as played by Robin Williams and Sharon Stone and as lived by Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena; queer in the courthouses of Washington D.C. and on the streets of hometown America. Contextualizing these contemporary stories with ones from the past, and understanding them through the analytic tools of feminist social criticism and history, the authors show what it means to be queer in America.
queer [adj]: 1. differing from what is usual or ordinary; odd; singular; strange 2. slightly ill 3. mentally unbalanced 4. counterfeit; not genuine 5. homosexual: in general usage, still chiefly a slang term of contempt or derision, but lately used by some as a descriptive term without negative connotations
--Webster's Dictionary
queer [adj]: used to describe a 1. body of theory 2. field of critical inquiry 3. way of proudly identifying a group of people 4. way of seeing the world 5. sense of difference from the norm
--David Shneer and Caryn Aviv, American Queer, Now and Then
1 | Bulldykes, faggots, and fairies, oh my! : calling and being called queer in America, now and then | 1 |
The transformation of silence into language and action | 5 | |
Classifications of homosexuality | 8 | |
Sexual behavior in the human male | 10 | |
Gay New York | 15 | |
2 | Are we free to be you and me? : queer sexuality in America, now and then | 29 |
Sex variants | 33 | |
Sexual deviations | 38 | |
Introduction to body alchemy : transsexual portraits | 41 | |
My gender workbook | 45 | |
3 | Out and about : queer spaces in America, now and then | 53 |
Homosexual complexion perverts in St. Louis : note on a feature of psychopathy | 57 | |
"I could hardly wait to get back to that bar" : lesbian bar culture in the 1930s and 1940s | 58 | |
Renegotiating the social/sexual identities of places : gay communities as safe havens or sites of resistance? | 66 | |
At the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival | 76 | |
One of the children : gay black men in Harlem | 81 | |
4 | The birds and the ... birds : queer love, sex, and romance in America, now and then | 91 |
Smoke, lilies, and jade | 95 | |
Opening Pandora's box | 102 | |
Mike goes to the baths | 105 | |
Paradigms old and new | 110 | |
It's a white man's world | 117 | |
5 | Where are our white picket fences? : queer relationships and families in America, now and then | 123 |
Younger brother dynamics | 127 | |
Take my domestic partner, please : gays and marriage in the era of the visible | 131 | |
Queer families quack back | 146 | |
Weddings/celebrations | 163 | |
Ruling in Goodridge v. Massachusetts Department of Health | 165 | |
6 | To see and be seen : queers in American media and entertainment, now and then | 167 |
Why did I write The well of loneliness? | 171 | |
Angels in America | 174 | |
Prologue to all the rage : the story of gay visibility in America | 176 | |
7 | Sticks and stones : bullying, battering, and beating American queers, now and then | 181 |
Stone butch blues | 185 | |
The Laramie Project | 193 | |
Social movement growth, domain expansion, and framing processes : the gay/lesbian movement and violence against gays and lesbians as a social problem | 198 | |
National School Climate Survey, key findings | 210 | |
Ruling in Lawrence v. Texas | 215 | |
8 | I am that name : American queer activism, now and then | 217 |
The Society for Human Rights | 223 | |
Preface to The stone wall | 225 | |
Statement of missions and purposes | 226 | |
The ladder | 228 | |
The woman identified woman | 232 | |
Introduction to home girls : a black feminist anthology | 236 | |
No more business as usual | 241 | |
Mission statement | 242 | |
Mission statement | 243 | |
Mission statement | 243 | |
Mission statement | 244 | |
Mission statement | 244 | |
9 | Conclusion : we're here, we're queer, now what? | 245 |
Must identity movements self-destruct? : a queer dilemma | 249 | |
Heeding Isaiah's call | 265 |