Elisa Glick: Materializing Queer Desire

Oscar Wilde to Andy Warhol. USA 2009, 220 pp., brochure, € 29.95
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How did the queer subject come to occupy such a central, and in many respects, contradictory place in the modern world of the early 20th century? What role has capitalism played in the development of modern gay and lesbian identities? This book focuses on the figure of the dandy to explore how and why gay and lesbian subjects became heroes of modern life. The author argues that the gay subject emerged out of the specifically modern, capitalist contradiction between the public world of production and the private world of consumption. Boldly bringing modernism into dialogue with Marxist and queer theory, the author offers an innovative, materialist account of modern queer consciousness that challenges tendencies to oppose »private« eroticism and the systems of value that govern »public« interests.

Heather Love: Feeling Backward

Loss and the Politics of Queer History. USA/UK 2009, 196 pp., brochure, € 20.95
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Harvard University Press
Now that, in the latest twist of tolerance, gays are required to flaunt their well-adjustedness, this book may feel backward indeed as it cotemplates the pain, anger, isolation, and sheer crankiness prominent in literary figures of our queer past. It weighs the costs of the contemporary move to the mainstream in lesbian and gay culture. While the widening tolerance for same-sex marriage and for gay-themed media brings clear benefits, gay assimilation entails other losses - losses that have been hard to identify or mourn, since many aspects of historical gay culture are so closely associated with the pain and shame of the closet. The author argues that instead of moving on, we need to look backward and consider how this history continues to affect us in the present.

Anna M. Sigmund: »Das Geschlechtsleben bestimmen wir«

Sexualität im Dritten Reich. D 2009, 362 S., Pb, € 10.23
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Heyne
Im Rahmen der NS-Wahnidee, einen »Homo germanicus« heranzuzüchten, war es nur verständlich, dass die Nazis das gesamte Geschlechtsleben der Deutschen unter ihre Kontrolle bringen wollten. Dazu wurde dem deutschen Volk eine neue »Sittlichkeit« verordnet, in deren Zentrum die erwünschte Vermehrung der »arischen Rasse« stand. Neben Frühehen wurden früher stark benachteiligte, uneheliche Kinder gefördert. Der Vertrieb von Kondomen wurde verboten. Schwule wurden als »Volksschädlinge« diskreditiert, durch die staatlichen Repressionsorgane verfolgt und fielen, da sie nicht mit den NS-Zielen in Einklang standen, einer gnadenlosen »Ausmerze« zum Opfer, wenn sie gefasst wurden. Der Utopie einer neuen Sexualität war trotz immenser Propaganda wenig Erfolg beschieden, was die Nazis schließlich vertuschten.

Elizabeth J. Meyer: Gender, Bullying, and Harassment

Strategies to End Sexism and Homophobia in Schools. USA/UK 2009, 102 pp., brochure, € 32.95
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While there have been countless studies of bullying and harassment in schools, none have examined the key gender issues related to these behaviors. In this book, the author offers readers tangible and flexible suggestions to help them positively transform the culture of their school and reduce the incidences of gendered harassment. The text integrates research, theory, and practical ideas connected to issues of sex, gender, sexual orientation, bullying, and harassment, it defines important terms, such as bullying, (hetero)sexual harassment, sexual-orientation harassment, and harassment because of gender nonconformity. It also provides an overview of the legal issues involved in addressing gender and harassment in schooling. And, it also offers an annotated list of educational resources on homophobia, sexual harassment, and bullying.

C. Todd White: Pre-Gay L.A.

A Social History of the Movement for Homosexual Rights. USA 2009, 260 pp., brochure, € 32.95
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This book explores the origins and history of the modern American movement of homosexual rights, which originated in Los Angeles in the late 1940s and continues today. Part ethnography and part social history, it is a detailed account of the history of the movement as manifested through the emergence of four related organizations: Mattachine, ONE Incorporated, the Homosexual Information Center (HIC), and the Institute for the Study of Human Resources (ISHR), which began doing business as ONE Incorporated when the two organizations merged in 1995. Relying on extended interviews with participants as well as a full review of the archives of the Homosexual Information Center the author unearths the institutional histories of the gay and lesbian rights movement and the myriad personalities involved.

Andrew Lear, Eva Cantarella : Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty

Boys Were Their Gods. UK/USA 2009, 262 pp., brochure, € 39.89
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Taylor and Francis
Greek pederasty, or »paiderastia« - the social custom of erotic relations between adult men and adolescent boys - was a central characteristic of Greek culture. Both Greeks and non-Greeks saw it, along with the gymnasium with its intimate connection to pederasty, as markers of Greek identity. It is an important theme in Greek literature, from poetry to comedy to philosophy, and in Greek art as well. In Athenian vase-painting - in particular the painted scenes that decorate clay drinking vessels produced in Athens between the 6th and the 4th centuries BC - pederasty is a major theme: indeed, pederastic courtship is one of the mortal activities most commonly depicted. Vase-painting portrayed or referred to pederasty, from scenes of courtship, foreplay, and sex, to scenes of Zeus with his boy-love Ganymede, to painted inscriptions praising the beauty of boys.

Ladelle McWhorter: Racism and Sexual Oppression in Anglo-America

A Genealogy. USA 2009, 430 pp., brochure, € 29.99
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Does the black struggle for civil rights make common cause with the movement to foster queer community, protest anti-queer violence or discrimination, and demand respect for the rights and sensibilities of queer people? Confronting this emotionally charged question, the author reveals how a carefully structured campaign against abnormality in the late 19th and early 20th centuries encouraged white Americans to purge society of so-called biological contaminants, people who were poor, disabled, black, and queer. Building on a legacy of savage hate crimes - such as the killings of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd - the author shows that racism, sexual oppression, and discrimination against the disabled, the feeble, and the poor are all aspects of the same societal distemper, and that when the civil rights of one group are challenged, so are the rights of all.

Lillian Faderman, Stuart Timmons: Gay L.A.

A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians. USA 2009, 431 pp., brochure, € 18.95
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This social, political and cultural history of lesbian and gay life in Los Angeles by two seasoned historians is easily the subject's definitive work. Presenting a wealth of fact and analysis, the authors breeze through the highlights of L.A. gay history. They begin with the suppression of Native Americans' sexual and gender expression by 16th-century Spanish missionaries, before exploring how gender-bending Hollywood stars such as Garbo and Katharine Hepburn shaped popular culture in the 1930s, the emergence of gay public places during the '40s and '50s, and the influence of gay religious groups in the 1970s. While much gay history has centered on white gay men, the authors add important material about the vital role of lesbians and people of color.